Dime-A-Dance to Use Locals in SDSU Show

Don’t be surprised to see some familiar faces from the local dance scene among the ranks of New York-based Dime-A-Dance Company when the internationally known troupe performs at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at San Diego State’s Studio Theater.

“I guess I’m getting crazy in my old age,” said John Goodwin, guiding force behind the offbeat dance troupe, “but I’m going to do a piece in combination with the students from San Diego State University’s dance program.”

As Goodwin pointed out, “We normally choreograph a piece on the students or faculty (at college concerts), but we don’t put them into our own (dances). I’m getting a little braver now. In three sections out of six (of Goodwin’s ‘Variations on a Social Tradition’), we’ll all be dancing together.

“I’m putting George (Willis, head of the dance program at SDSU) in the opening solo--and I know I don’t have to worry about him. But I’m going to use all the dancers that show up for the audition, and that’s risky.

“Then I’ll pick out three or four of the better dancers for the featured parts, once I’ve seen them in action. There’s some pretty difficult dancing in this--a very tricky duet with George, and a trio in which (the students) are on stage by themselves.”

The witty and whimsical “Variations on a Social Tradition,” a company signature piece that skewers some of society’s sacred cows, will demand more of the pickup dancers than just clever movement.

“There’s a part (that spoofs) ballroom dancing, where people have to read the instructions aloud, and we’ll be doing that live--in front of a microphone,” Goodwin said, “not taped as we sometimes do.”

The goofball humor in this segment of “Variations” evolves from the blindly literal interpretation the dancers give to the obtuse textbook instructions. But inevitably, it’s the sound of the spoken words that makes or breaks the mood.

“It needs a deadpan type of delivery, but it has to be funny,” Goodwin said. “We’ll need performers who can carry that off, so I’m hoping to get some kids from the drama department to do the reading. As long as they’re good movers, they’ll be able to handle the dancing.”

Integrating students into prominent roles with an acclaimed professional dance company represents an important first for SDSU.

The rest of the five-piece program will focus entirely on Goodwin’s Dime-A-Dance Company, which has expanded to nine members since his last performance at SDSU three years ago.

“That’s a lot of bodies,” said Goodwin, “but all of us, as a group, are actually only dancing one piece. Mostly we’ll be doing duets and trios, and there’s a wonderful solo for Sigmund Hightower in ‘Three Duets for Sigmund.’ ”

“Three Duets for Sigmund,” designed by longtime Dime-A-Dance dancer/choreographer Diane De Franco, is one of two new pieces scheduled for a world premiere during the group’s San Diego stay. The other, Goodwin’s “Watermelon Man,” is a plotless, free-form narrative with its direction never made very clear.

“Watermelon Man” captures the flavor of the 1950s with pretty prom dresses and other visual cues, but don’t expect anything traditional from this delightfully off-the-wall dance maker.

“It’s really very wild,” Goodwin said.