Wengerd Struts to Assist AIDS, Dance Workshop

Last summer, ex-Martha Graham superstar Tim Wengerd premiered a heart-wrenching, 30-minute solo on AIDS to cap his summer master classes for the Dancer’s Workshop of San Diego. The response to his work was overwhelming.

This year, when Wengerd reprises his powerful solo at the Westminster Presbyterian Church on Point Loma on Sept. 7-11, two AIDS organizations will reap part of the benefits. The AIDS Assistance Fund and the San Diego AIDS Project are sponsoring all the San Diego performances.

Wengerd is due in town next week to begin another round of classes for the Dancer’s Workshop.

“Tim will be coming back for our third annual summer dance workshop,” said coordinator Wendy Ellen Cochran, “and, of course, while he’s here he’ll be doing another concert. Besides the AIDS piece, Tim is working on a new solo for us. We’ll begin on Aug. 15 with a four-week workshop that runs through Sept. 9.

“We expect people from all walks of dance--teachers and students as well as highly trained out-of-town dancers,” Cochran said. “I’m amazed by the response this year. We already have 20 in each class, and they’re coming from as far away as Atlanta and Birmingham, Ala. We expect a record turnout for Tim.”

As usual, workshop participants of varying levels of ability will be featured in the concert. But the big drawing card is Wengerd. And with two solos spotlighting the former Graham principal, San Diego aficionados should have a field day.

Cochran also coordinated community workshop sessions with dancers from companies sponsored by San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts last season. And she’s ready to muster her forces for more of the same when the visiting dance troupes trek through town again. This time, even the rival San Diego Performances may get into the act.

“I’m all geared up to do master classes on very little notice,” she said. “We haven’t worked out the details yet, but I’ve been talking to both major presenters, and if they want me to run the workshops, I’m ready. I know a lot of people from these visiting companies, and I have a very strong network of people here in San Diego that will keep coming to the classes.”

When school bells begin to ring again in San Diego, Cochran will go back to the classroom with percussionist Omar Moore. Cochran and Moore made such beautiful music together at Encanto Elementary School last fall that the California Arts Council has decided to renew their grant for two more years. The pair will teach multicultural dance and music, again. But this time, the educational experience will extend beyond the classroom.

“We’ll be teaching 20 classes,” said Cochran, “but we’ll also be forming a small performing troupe consisting of some of our students. They’ll get a chance to perform in local community facilities. It’s a big step forward, and we’re both very excited about the potential.”

The Old Globe’s announcement to add two decidedly dance-oriented shows to its roster this season represents a step forward for the Balboa Park theater company and another sign that the art of dance has gained a strong foothold in San Diego.

Coming this way, compliments of the Globe, is “Garden of Earthly Delights,” a nonverbal theater piece by Martha Clarke, one of the most innovative voices in contemporary performance. Clarke’s “Garden,” which has chalked up a stunning track record on the touring circuit over the past few years, is due for a monthlong run in May.

Also on tap for a monthlong residency in San Diego is a production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding,” choreographed by two-time Tony Award nominee Graciela Daniele. “Blood Wedding” will be imported from the Great Lakes Theater Festival.

As Jack O’Brien, artistic director of the Globe, noted: “We have definitely been broadening our sensibilities. There’s a lot of exciting crossovers in the arts today. I don’t think these productions are specifically dance, because they’re a fusion of effects. But I’m sure dance-oriented people will see it that way.

“The reason you don’t see ‘Blood Wedding’ done very much,” he said, “is because it needs dance and music as well as acting. Little by little, we’re opening up wider and wider--like flowers--to different kinds of tastes. What I’m really attracted to is standards, and when I saw ‘Garden of Earthly Delights,’ I thought it was one of the most miraculous pieces I had ever seen.”

Three’s Company will continue its collaboration with KPBS-TV’s executive producer Paul Marshall this season. “Take 3,” the first dance-video the joint effort produced, went on to receive several industry awards for technology and innovative artistry. Now another dance-video is in the works and it should be ready for release in time for the troupe’s 15th anniversary commemorative concert in January.

UC San Diego’s University Events program, the granddaddy of dance presenters on the local scene, will feature a broad spectrum of arts events this season. Among the potpourri of dance performances slated for Mandeville Auditorium, under the umbrella of “Varieties 1988-89,” are the Flying Karamazov Brothers (Sept. 24), Momix (Oct. 13), Ballet Hispanico (Feb. 11), Jubilation Dance Co. (March 4), David Gordon Pick-Up Co. (May 5-6, a joint venture with the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts), and the Dancers and Musicians of Bali (May 10).