The West Wave Dance Festival has always been a curiously uneven affair, one minute brilliant, the next mundane. Even the best critics can become resentful that their time is spent on works-in-progress and choreographers not ready for primetime.
The main complaint has been the lack of curatorship and risk-taking. While there are plenty of innovative artists creating dangerous work in some of the city's more "underground" venues (CounterPULSE, the Experimental Performance Institute at New College), they're a hard sell to a largely white, upwardly mobile audience that doesn't need NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds). So what's a festival that needs to stay in the black do? Make safe choices.
But there are ways to improve quality, and West Wave has significantly shifted their format this year. Instead of a series of inconsistent showcases, the festival will be spotlighting four separate companies (most from New York) and creating four additional showcases built around distinct themes: ballet, contemporary, world dance and dance-theatre. While it remains to be seen how this will work as a successful marketing strategy, at least it's a big step in a new direction.
The first half of the festival focuses on the four individual companies, directed by Kate Weare (July 19), Christopher K. Morgan (July 20), Monica Bill Barnes (July 21) and Amy Seiwert (July 22). Only Seiwert is a local artist.
Kate Weare's company is based in New York, and is known for presenting "contemporary themes of power, sexuality and emotional authenticity." None of this is new territory for contemporary dance, so it'll be interesting to see what Weare does with these tried-and-true themes. Also visiting from New York is Christopher Morgan, who has been recognized by The Washington Post as "hypnotizing, technically and artistically strong." Morgan describes his work, "I'm really interested in people's stories. I try and find what is at the heart of one person's story, then peel the specifics away to find what could be a common thread."
New York is definitely the connecting theme for the first three nights of the festival. The Village Voice has described New York choreographer Monica Bill Barnes as "one of the wittiest young choreographers around." The first half of the festival wraps up with Seiwert, who will be the new resident choreographer for Smuin Ballet. Seiwert presents two pieces of ballet repertory she developed for Smuin and American Repertory Ballet, as well as a new piece set to Kevin Volans' "White Man Sleeps."
The second half of the festival is largely old-home week, as West Wave trots out choreographers from their stable of reliable contributors, as well as a few new faces. On July 26, it's ballet night, with new work from Martt Lawrence, Mark Foehringer, Viktor Kabaneaev, Christopher Burns and Alex Ketley. This program has the potential to be innovative, since West Wave doesn't usually focus on classical repertory.
World Forms is the focus of the July 27 program, with contemporary choreography based in traditional or classical dance forms. There will be world premieres by Christina Braun, Samantha Giron, Kerry Parker, Lisa Parra and a piece by Paco Gomes called On Our Way Somewhere Else, a meditation on "ephemeral paths, places and moments within the restless search for the comfort of belonging.
July 28 features a Dance Theater program, with new work by Catherine Galasso and Bryan Boyce, Kerry Mehling, Randee Paufve and Lisa Townsend, and Brittany Brown Ceres with choreographer/videographer Austin Forbord, who are collaborating on a new piece called Corps de Co., a play on corps de ballet, "in which a large group of dancers are cast into nominal dance roles, yet in unison, create a vital portion of the dance." The piece will be a metaphor for the larger culture. Think Metropolis meets Diaghilev.
The festival finishes with a modern program (July 29) which focuses on collaborations, and includes new work by Marina Fukushima with Daniel Berkman, Nancy Karp with Marja Mutru, Dance Paradigm with Jon Rajkovich, Printz Dance Project with Matthew Kratz and RAWdance.
West Wave Dance Festival at Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida St., SF. All shows are 8 p.m. Tickets ($18-$20): (415) 863-9834. www.westwavedancefestival.org.