Taking a Big Leap : San Diego-Born Dancer Bucks Odds in Bid to Forge New Troupe

Audiences have yet to turn their support to the home teams, despite the explosion of interest in imported dance. As a result, local dance troupes, including such veteran institutions as the California Ballet and Three’s Company, continue to exist on the edge of fiscal disaster.

It’s enough to discourage anyone new from joining their ranks--anyone, that is, except former Twyla Tharp principal John Malashock.

“Call it a calling, but starting a company in San Diego is my thing to do,” said Malashock during a brief respite from his company duties. “I’ve been working with this group for two years. We were funded through the city last year, and we’re ready to put on a performance. It’s time to call it a company.”

Following in a modern-dance tradition, Malashock named the troupe after himself. Thus Malashock Dance & Company will make its official debut next Thursday at Sushi Performance Gallery with a three-piece program and a compact cast of five, including Malashock-- the only male dancer on the roster. Nancy McCaleb, his collaborator on one of the featured dances, will make a guest appearance.

What makes Malashock think he can succeed where others have failed?

“You’re going right for the jugular here,” he said, breaking into a nervous laugh. “People think I’m crazy. They wonder why I’m here. But I grew up here, and I don’t really think it’s that different anywhere. Dance has a higher profile in some cities, but I believe good contemporary dance is going to have an

appeal here.”

Although Malashock is aware of the financial difficulties and the paucity of first-rate dancers with which local troupes must grapple, he has high hopes for Malashock Dance & Company.

“The question here is not about finding an audience. We’ve seen what’s happened here in the past five or six years, with all the visiting dance companies. The support for outside companies encourages me tremendously.

“The issue is whether the community is willing to invest in dance produced here. I’ve had a positive response to most of the work I’ve presented. And I really believe the public will support high-quality dance.”

Most local dance administrators are more skeptical.

“I wish it were that easy,” said Maxine Mahon, founding director of the California Ballet, “but it doesn’t work that way. You have to have advertising money, marketing expertise, etceteras. We had some quality dance events here, and they still failed.”

Cal Ballet’s associate director Chuck Bennett said: “Success doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with quality. You can upgrade the quality with more funding, but you have to have funding. One of the major problems is you have to have a nucleus of dancers under contract. And that’s a factor that’s limited by financial support.”

“We’ve been working at it for 15 years and we can’t do it,” said Three’s Company co-director Betzi Roe. “Rudy Perez is a good example. Perez was a god in New York for years, and since he came to California, he can’t cut it. There’s just not that much support.”

San Diego Performances’ Suzanne Townsend, a prime mover in the dance renaissance that fueled Malashock’s fire, is more optimistic about a home-grown dance company flourishing in San Diego.

“The possibility exists. It’s largely dependent on the quality of the work,” Townsend said. “He hasn’t created a large enough body of work for us to assess the quality, but it’s enhanced by his own ability as a dancer. When you’re starting on a small scale, it’s entirely possible, and he’s one of the artists who could make it happen.”

When Malashock returned to his native San Diego, starting his own dance troupe was the last thing on his mind.

“I thought four years ago, when I left Twyla’s company, that a 10-year career as a dancer was enough. I had traveled the world, did television and movies. I thought I’d go home to California, be with my family,” Malashock said.

But the 33-year-old dancer found he just couldn’t cut the umbilical cord.

“Those years with Twyla were very saturated years, but I feel like I still have some good years left. Choreography is really my primary interest at this point, but I feel a certain necessity to do some solo work,” he said. “I want to explore dance forms that I feel very partial to.

“There are no men dancers in this town, and it’s tough producing dance,” he said. “However, Sushi is producing this concert series, and I’m trying to raise money to pay the dancers. I’m still working with a low budget, but I hope to take the company up to San Francisco the beginning of next year.”

Despite years of exposure to Tharp’s vivacious oeuvre, Malashock believes he has found his own choreographic voice, and he wants to show it off on his home turf.

“My history with Twyla was very helpful. You have to learn a lot working with someone of her genius level. I’m a big believer in the experience you get from high-quality people, since the trade is passed on from experience. But my dances are not a clone of Twyla’s.

“I worked with Twyla during a very meaty period in her career, but my vocabulary evolved more from the Jose Limon-Jennifer Muller end of the spectrum. It’s very fluid, very dramatic. I feel most at home in full movement and an expressive form of dance. And I have no problem with people thinking my work is derivative.”

Malashock’s maiden concert next week will feature the world premiere of “Up in Flames,” an ensemble work with a raw physical and emotional edge; “A Walk on the World,” a suite of three duets danced to the music of Laurie Anderson and “Dragging the River,” the striking duo Malashock created with McCaleb. The company will perform at 8 p.m. next Thursday through Sept. 25 at Sushi’s downtown space.