Dance Promoter Defies Hurdles to Form Her Own Modern Troupe

“Oh my God, I must be crazy,” said Patricia Sandback, when confronted with the question of why she formed her own modern dance company.

She said she has always produced concerts with other people, such as Carl Yamomoto of San Diego Dance Theater or Big Ladies, a three-woman collective. “But it’s important for me to put myself in a position to stretch. I just felt it was a challenge that would give more identity to my work.”

As assistant professor of dance at San Diego State University and an independent dance promoter in town for almost 30 years, Sandback knew all too well the problems inherent in maintaining a modern dance troupe--particularly the paucity of support for dance and lack of trained male dancers in San Diego.

But running her own company was never far from Sandback’s mind. And, when friends finally encouraged her to follow her dream, she decided to form Patricia Sandback and Dancers, a five-member ensemble that will give its premiere performance at Sushi’s downtown space at 8 p.m. Friday, with more performances at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The new group will showcase six new works by Sandback and one collaborative effort created with her longtime soul mate, percussionist Jon Szanto. Los Angeles composer Lisbeth Woodies teamed up for four new scores and will be on hand to perform two of those compositions at this weekend’s concerts.

Don’t look for any men in the ensemble. Sandback has resigned herself to an all-female cast for her maiden concert.

“It would be wonderful to have men,” she said. “But there aren’t that many male dancers here. The tragedy of AIDS has hit us very hard. Some of the New York companies have lost half of their men, and we must have lost about five here in San Diego already.”

Even before the AIDS epidemic ran rampant through the dance community, male dancers were in short supply in San Diego.

“I think it’s a cultural thing, something about dancing not being masculine,” she said. “We need to begin (changing that) in the schools--starting when the kids are small.”

Despite the shortage, Sandback is optimistic about adding men to the ranks, and she looks to SDSU’s new dance degree program for the upcoming crop.

“We’re starting a dance major at State in the fall, and that should help us attract good men. But, until then, I feel good about the dancers I have.”

The five women that make up the company now--Kate Lounsbury, Loni Palladino, Terri Shipman, Debi Toth and Maj Xander--are all former students of Sandback’s. Most are familiar names on the local scene, with credits from Three’s Company, John Malashock’s new dance troupe and San Diego Dance Theatre.

Though trained female dancers are not as hard to snare as their male counterparts, sharing is still the order of the day for San Diego troupes.

As Sandback noted, “If you have good dancers, they work a lot.”

Sandback adapts her dance designs to the pool of dancers on hand.

“I use the dancers according to their ability. Not all (the dances) are more appropriate for women. Some are unisex,” which means some of these pieces might show up again with mixed casts.

What is Sandback trying to accomplish in her first concert as Patricia Sandback and Dancers?

“I want to communicate with my audience, not intellectually, but in a visceral way. I want to get a gut reaction. I believe in the ‘wow theory.’ I’m more interested in that than in craft.”

Sandback has earned kudos for her craft over the years and is the recipient of several choreographic awards, including a recent National Endowment for the Arts grant, distributed through the city of San Diego and COMBO, to support this concert.

“I want to be producing good quality dance,” she noted. “I hope my work is changing, although people might think it looks similar. It’s become more difficult to do, but not just technically. It makes tremendous dramatic demands.”

The jam-packed program features a revised “Falling Angels,” a solo for Toth set to Balinese chanting, a nostalgia piece propelled by the haunting strains of Woodies’ music, and an ensemble work using voice and music as counterpoint to the movement. It also marks the debut of “Hallways,” danced to a recurring theme by Woodies, and an exuberant threesome that plays with sudden shifts of direction.

The focus on original scores is nothing new to Sandback, as local dance buffs know.

“I’m not one of those people who puts on music and creates,” she said. “I ask a musician to work with me. What’s important is live musicians and original music.”

Six of the pieces are premieres, and the seventh is a thorough reworking of an older dance. But Sandback, buoyed by a burst of creative energy, produced the entire program in a matter of months.

“It came fast,” she acknowledged. “Not easy, but fast. I’ve never been so productive.”

Sandback still makes occasional appearances as a dancer, but not so this time.

“I haven’t even been able to take class for months,” she said. “There’s just too much to do. But performing has never been as important to me as choreographing. I might do a solo for myself in an upcoming concert though.”

Sandback has made no long-term plans for her new dance troupe, and she has no illusions about an easy road to success.

“I’m going to take the summer to see how to approach this job at SDSU and choreographing and managing a company,” she said. “They support one another, but the problem of getting money for a company is not easy to solve.

“Somehow, I’ve always managed to produce dance, and I will continue to do it. I think there’s always room for good dance in San Diego, even though it’s very prolific now.”