Dancer Makes a Professional Leap by Taking the Stage Solo

Kate Lounsbury has played second fiddle to some of the leading modern dancers in town during her 12-year career in San Diego. Now, at age 34, the trim, pixie-faced dancer is ready to go it alone.

“It’s a real leap for me professionally,” Lounsbury acknowledged in a recent interview. “I’ve danced a lot--with Three’s Company, Pat Sandback, Terry Sprague and John Malashock. But I didn’t have the same kind of exposure I’ll be getting in my own concert.

“I’ve tapped my resources and changed my image for this, and I feel I’m dancing with more strength than ever before,” she said.

The “new” Kate Lounsbury will move into the limelight this weekend for a solo concert at Sushi, one of many venues where she has danced over the years. The performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Unlike most dancers who opt for the solo format, Lounsbury had no desire to create the choreography for her maiden concert. Instead, she chose six San Diego-based artists to design dances for her.

“I wanted a varied program. That’s why I put it together this way. If you see just one (dancer), it can get tedious. I wanted to represent a variety of modern dance styles on the program. Each of the pieces uses its own vocabulary and makes its own statement. My challenge as a dancer is to give each piece its own validity.”

Although Lounsbury commissioned choreographers to design the dance works, she is adamant in her defense of the dancer’s role as contributing artist. And she totally rejects the theory that a performer is merely the instrument for expressing a choreographer’s vision.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “I’m finding parts of my own personality, and for me this is finding my voice. The art of a dancer is entirely different from the art of a choreographer. When you really look at it, good choreography is nothing without a good dancer. Of course, a good dancer is nothing without good choreography either. It doesn’t work that way.

“I’m not really skilled in the craft of choreography, and there are other people who are,” Lounsbury said. “They can come up with the steps and the movement and make their statements. I’ll fill the dance out.”

By selecting choreographers with diverse approaches to modern movement, Lounsbury has achieved the balance she believes is crucial to success in the solo idiom. In addition, since five of the seven solos were designed expressly for her, and the other two were tailored to her needs, Lounsbury is exploring more facets of her “real” self in this concert.

“I’m definitely tapping more of my own personality,” she said with delight. “The dances range from the torturous study of loss in Nancy McCaleb’s piece to the off-the-wallness of George Willis’ work.”

For Lounsbury, so long a team player in the dance game, asserting herself in the solo mode will be a strict departure. This highly professional dancer has always deferred to the greater demands of the dance work.

“When you work in a group, it’s really defeating to the art to be blasting your own presence,” she said. “Now I will get a chance to blast away without undermining anything.

“Part of my strength as a dancer is dramatic--never just pure movement,” she said. “But I’m going to show a different side here. My humorous side hasn’t really been used much, and George’s piece is potentially very funny. I can’t tell you any more, because I’ll give it away. Like all of his work, this one has some surprises.”

Carl Yamamoto, a dance maker with a strong track record in San Diego, came out of semi-retirement to offer his contribution to Lounsbury’s concert.

“It was really an honor to me that he wanted to do this, after not choreographing for two years,” she said. Yamamoto’s “Myss of Thithiphuth” “is the lighter side of a dark issue--growing old. . .and what makes you old and incapable. But it has many laughs.”

Debi Toth, who dances with Lounsbury in Malashock Dance and Company, came up with the romantically inclined “Moth in My Ear,” Cate Bell used traditional black South African music to create “Homeland” (which Lounsbury describes as a “dance of celebration”), and Patricia Sandback reset two of her most popular pieces--”Toward Stillness” and “Red Dress.”

Lounsbury dubbed the concert, “Leaning on the Moment,” and to her the name represents more than just a catchy title.

“The image of leaning on the moment means you’re out there in time and space, and either you take risks or you don’t take risks. For me, this is a big risk--personally and professionally.”

As Lounsbury explained, the pair of performances this weekend marks the beginning of a search for new horizons.

“I’ve always wanted to take time away--to experience a different culture, a different language. I’ve really wanted to go to Paris for nine months and see what I can do,” she said.

Despite strong personal and professional ties to San Diego, Lounsbury is looking forward to leaning on the moments awaiting her on the other side of the Atlantic.