X-Change Gets New Choreographers Out Front

The original idea behind Three’s Company’s lo-tec concerts was to offer emerging dance makers a much-needed showcase.

As word of the series spread, however, established choreographers got into the act, competing with novices for the limited space in this unique series. Consequently, many promising newcomers found themselves out out in the cold each summer.

“There’s no funding for the lo-tecs,” said director Jean Isaacs, “so we have to underwrite them ourselves. That means we have to accept established choreographers if we ever hope to at least break even.”

Fortunately, the resourceful Three’s Company curator found a way to give fledgling dance makers a share of the limelight. The innovative project--known as the San Diego Dance X-Change--groups four or five dance makers together on a single lo-tec program and invites dance critics to observe and comment.

Since it began in 1986, the Dance X-Change has served as a proving ground for dozens of budding choreographers.

“It’s very important to give emerging choreographers a chance to show their work and to get the feedback,” Isaacs said. “These people never get reviewed, so just getting the critics to pay attention to them is fantastic.”

Three’s Company intern Melissa Cottle acknowledged, “I’m a little nervous about the critics, but I’m looking forward to the guidance I can get from people who have seen a lot of dance and who can articulate their feelings about it.”

Cottle, a student at UC San Diego, creates primarily from instinct. Her first attempt, “Two Poems,” earned her a $200 award from the university.

Peter Czerner, another company intern, will throw his hat into the choreographer’s ring at the Dance X-Change this weekend, but Czerner is nonchalant about getting the once-over from the critics.

“It doesn’t bother me because I made (the dance) for the audience’s benefit and mostly to please myself,” he said.

Czerner created a group work for this concert and put himself right in the middle of it.

“It’s hard to get dancers, but I got a few, and I finally found another male (a week before the performance), after looking all over the place,” he said.

Czerner is not only one of the few male dancers on the program, he is the sole male dance maker in this weekend’s concert.

“I don’t know why more men don’t dance and choreograph here,” he said. “It’s easier for a male to make a living in San Diego than a woman--if they’re good--because we’re so short of men.”

Nevertheless, the talented dancer is toying with the idea of trying his luck in New York, as all too many of San Diego’s promising male dancers do.

Unlike the other choreographers on the Dance X-Change, Wendy Ellen Cochran has a track record in town. But, as she noted in a recent interview, the veteran dancer almost qualifies as a first-time choreographer.

“It’s been years since I’ve shown my work. When Foster-King Dance Collective fizzled, I went underground, because I couldn’t get hold of any good dancers. What it finally came to is that I’m dancing this piece myself.” She calls the solo a choreo-poem.

Some, like Karin Jensen of Orange County, are based outside San Diego. One even comes from Texas. But they covet the brief spot in the limelight and the open dialogue the Dance X-Change provides.

Jensen said the Dance X-Change offers the opportunity to experiment with new works. “And it’s nice to get immediate feedback. Even if you get reviewed in the paper, you have to wait for it to come out, and then you don’t get a chance to talk to the critics. That really helps,” she said.

Most of the nine choreographers on this year’s Dance X-Change learned to make dances through on-the-job training rather than formal classes in choreography, which, unfortunately, are few and far between. But Isaacs, curator of the Dance X-Change, was impressed with the potential she observed in all the participants.

“I didn’t accept anybody that I didn’t believe was talented,” she said.

This year’s Dance X-Change will be at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday..

Tonight’s program will feature “Statue Sara,” by Texas-based Ann Mary Carney, “Kukulkan” by Jensen, Czerner’s “Cycles,” L.A.-based Alice Berger’s “Untitled,” and “Two Poems” by Cottle.

The Sunday roster includes Doreen Amelia’s “Open the Sky”; San Francisco-based Terry Berliner’s “Honey, I Won’t Be Home for Dinner, Love, Sally”; Cochran’s “Photo Album,” and Pam Turner’s “Dead Race.”