Ensemble Sets Out to Prove That Dance Isn’t Only for the Young

Of all the arts, dance is most considered the province of the young. But the members of one performance company would like to dance that notion out of existence.

Choreographers Theater Ensemble is made up of dancer-choreographers who are over 50 and count their age as an advantage, not a hindrance to their art. The recently formed group will give its first full-length concert Saturday at Worklight Performing Space in Reseda.

“We can’t have the energy and vitality and spectacular stuff of a 20-year-old,” said Don Bondi, who will do the most strenuous dancing at the concert. “But we can bring another kind of vitality. It’s a vitality that reflects our life experience.”

Bondi, 58, is a founding member of the ensemble, along with Elizabeth Ince, 53, and Meri Bender, 52. The three have had careers as dance teachers. They attended UCLA at the same time in the 1950s, choreographing and performing in each other’s works. They went separate ways, then reunited for the first time in 1971 as members of Choreographers’ Dance Company.

“We stayed together until 1976 and did performances throughout Southern California,” said Ince, who described the company’s 35 new works as “the formless stuff that was in vogue then.”

But the present group has turned away from “the Twyla Tharp route of contentless dances,” she said.

“We said, ‘To hell with all that; let’s do something that’s important to us whether it’s au courant or not.’ We’re not abstract. . . . You don’t have to search for what it means.”

The group will present three works Saturday. “Grandma” is a piece choreographed by Ince.

“It’s an adult woman’s remembrance of her two grandmothers,” she said. “It’s very poignant, not See’s candy at all.”

The second piece, “Chocolate Ice Cream,” was choreographed by Bender.

“It’s about two people who are separated emotionally,” she said. “There are moments when they break through, but mostly they don’t touch. It could be about divorce, or loss, or denied feelings.”

Bondi choreographed the longest work, “Triptych,” which is made up of three solos about racism and persecution. The subjects are late 19th-Century American Indians and two groups from World War II: Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and Japanese-Americans in the United States.

“Writing it took two years of research, talking to people who had been involved directly or indirectly,” Bondi said. “I visited many places, including the Holocaust Museum in New York and the Manzanar relocation camp for Japanese in California.”

The piece previewed in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

Stella Matsuda, who was in the Manzanar camp as a child, dances the Japanese-American section. Bondi dances the other two.

Ince contends that age can be a valuable asset to a dancer, who will have lived through the times and experiences depicted in a piece.

“We’re not radical Gray Panthers, but we don’t see why we should stop doing something that makes us who we are. We have more to say than we used to. It’s possible for us to stand still and have a tremendous impact.”

Choreographers Theater Ensemble will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Worklight Performing Space, 17714 Saticoy St., Reseda. Tickets are $10, $9 students and seniors. For information, call (818) 996-8688.