Lo-Tec Offering Blends New Dance, Music

Beth Mehocic may be a one-of-a-kind in the music and dance world.

“It’s possible that I’m the only composer that ever founded a dance company,” Mehocic said, “but I have always visualized images, shapes and dance designs when I composed music, even as a child.

“When I was in college, they declared me a dance/music specialist. Everything I hear, I see--and I’m able to verbalize what I see in the designs. Most composers don’t see anything.”

It was Mehocic’s knack for fusing kinetic and aural images that led to the creation of the Las Vegas Music and Dance Ensemble, an interdisciplinary troupe that blends new dance and original music into a single aesthetic experience. The troupe will make its San Diego debut in a Lo-Tec concert at Three’s Company’s Hillcrest studio this weekend.

“Unfortunately, we won’t be able to bring any musicians with us for our San Diego concert,” Mehocic said. “Live musicians are a luxury when funding is scarce. But I handle all the technical support for our concerts, and I make sure the sound quality is very good.”

Because Mehocic is artistic director of the Vegas-based ensemble as well as composer-in-residence and music director for the Department of Dance Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, her main contribution to the company is musical. The composer created two of the three original scores on this weekend’s program.

“I did the score for ‘Moving Through Blue’ (inspired by the blues movie ‘ ‘Round Midnight’) and ‘A Lost Maiden’ (a world premiere based on an American Indian legend),” Mehocic said. “Allen Strange, a California composer, did the other work.”

All of the dances on the Las Vegas Music and Dance Ensemble’s portion of the program were choreographed by Carole Rae, but because Mehocic is fluent in both music and dance language, the melding of the two art forms should be seamless. If past experience is a reliable guide, this crossover concert should tap audiences from two sides of the artistic fence.

“We usually have sold-out houses,” Mehocic said, “because we draw from the music community and the dance community. It’s exciting to get both audiences together.”

Attracting music aficionados to a Lo-Tec dance concert would be a new phenomenon in San Diego. But both halves of this weekend’s double bill offer sustenance to that portion of the arts community.

Lorna Dunn, a San Diego dancer who performed with Three’s Company in the early 1980s, shares the Vegas-based ensemble’s affinity for original music. And, with support from a San Diego Area Dance Alliance grant, the local dance maker will have new music for all four of her dances.

“I like working with original music, and I spend a lot of time going to new music concerts,” Dunn said. “I’m interested in collaborating--not just, I write the dance to your music, or you write the music to my dance. This is my first solo concert. . . . Concerts are more alive with original music.”

Dunn will have at least two string players (a violinist and a cellist) accompany both performances, “and, with luck, we’ll have one more,” she said.

The Three’s Company-trained modern dancer says it drives her “nuts to dance with a beat. I like to move through music.”

“That’s why I use new music. I can keep my wits together if I don’t have to dance exactly on the beat.”

Nevertheless, this solo appearance has Dunn on somewhat shaky footing.

“I’m very nervous,” she whispered, “even though working with musicians gives me confidence. I’m a beginning choreographer, and I’m just doing abstract dance, no deep themes. I did that on purpose because I don’t like beating the audience over the head” with messages.

Dunn’s program will include “Four of them,” with music by Christian Hertzog, “The Board of Examiners,” the closest thing to a dramatic work from the fledgling choreographer, “New Moon,” set to a commissioned score by Christopher Penny, and “Farandole,” a dance inspired by an ancient folk form.