Bunny Tale : ‘Velveteen Rabbit’ Delivers Message of Basic Values

A holiday show about the dignity of aging, the lack of commitment in today’s society and the shallowness of material gifts, is not exactly the stuff of traditional light Christmas fare, but then ODC/San Francisco is far from a traditional dance company.

When this nine-member, San Francisco-based modern dance troupe visits San Diego next week for seven performances of “Velveteen Rabbit” beginning Wednesday, choreographer KT Nelson’s staging of Margery Williams’ classic children’s tale, the show’s seasonal gifts will be subtle social messages wrapped in art.

In fact, the two have always been intertwined in the work of ODC, which began in 1971 as a staunchly politically minded dance collective at Oberlin College in Ohio.

When the company relocated to the Bay Area in late 1976 it began to temper its activism with a new concern about the durability of relationships, families and domestic ties. Nelson, now co-artistic director of the company, first joined the group in 1976 while still a student at Oberlin. Her own maturation in many ways paralleled that of ODC as she became a partner (her spouse is former company photographer Doug Winter) and parent (they have a 6-year-old dance-savvy son, Hailey).

“I really wasn’t thinking Christmas at all, I just knew I wanted to do this piece,” Nelson said in discussing the genesis of “The Velveteen Rabbit” during a break from rehearsals in Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium, where the company previewed the production earlier this month.

Nelson underlines what she sees as the “Velveteen Rabbit’s” message by unfolding it against the larger backdrop of the changing of the seasons. The metaphor of aging here is clear for adults, while for children the vision of dancers as lilting snowflakes seems simply an evocation of the fantasy of winter. Throughout the dance, Nelson tries to balance this dual audience by keeping the movement swift and sophisticated enough for adults, while the narrative remains direct and simple enough for kids. Not everything is spelled out in Geoff Hoyle’s narration however, as Nelson tries to push audiences to read meaning in movement as well--a particular challenge for the very young viewer.

A clear bid for a part of the holiday box office bonanza, the production has, nevertheless, a strong anti-consumerism message. “The Velveteen Rabbit” is a story about a boy whose love for an old toy brings it to life. This tale embodies the duality of the new ODC, which today is a model of sharp business acumen based, still, on sincere social sentiments.

“The thing that interests me most about the story of ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ is its lesson about sticking with things,” said Nelson, who first staged the play in December, 1986, as a low-budget studio performance in the company’s home, New Performance Gallery. “I really like the notion that commitment brings things in life and that the little boy who has the Velveteen Rabbit for his toy learns to find meaning in his life through relationships. I feel in this society kids don’t have a sense of commitment.”

In the company’s initial version of “The Velveteen Rabbit,” costumes were simple white muslin uniforms, props were limited to a mammoth picture book whose pages were turned to reveal scenes sketched in a crude crayon scrawl and the movement vocabulary was exuberantly post-modern. Four years of revisions have been incorporated into this week’s new production, many of them based on feedback from adults and especially children who saw the early performances. It now features dreamy and fanciful costumes and decor by British children’s book illustrator Brian Wildsmith; Bay Area comic actor Hoyle provides the work’s richly intelligent narration, which loops in and out of the selections of Benjamin Britten’s music and folk singer Bob Franke’s songs, like golden threads tying tale and choreography together.

In some sense the show’s essential lesson about finding a lot in a little is contained in the staging itself. Wild Smith’s decor, which is slated to be fully realized a year from now when the company brings the production to San Francisco’s Cowell Theatre, is a series of stark black-and-white cut outs. It’s the dancers who carry the color, figuratively and literally, in this production. The Velveteen Rabbit himself, wittily danced by Lizanne McAdams, sports a delightful floppy-eared full-head mask, and Nana, the only adult in the story, is a 10-foot-tall Nanny-from-hell (danced by Julie Kanter atop Anthony Corey’s shoulders), whose imperious gestures evoke sharp disapproval without a word being spoken.

There are even seven San Diego children in the show, serving as dancing presents in a tightly choreographed sequence that sets them moving in the trademark punchy, gestural phrases of ODC’s adult vocabulary. The physical pun here is delicious: adults dance the parts of kids and animals, letting kids dance like adults without any of the customary cloying cuteness of kids in holiday shows.

“All the things kids are taught to want at Christmas are the disposable things,” Brenda Way, the company’s co-founder, director and Nelson’s extra pair of eyes at rehearsal, agreed.

“I see the deeper lesson in this dance as being about the power of the individual’s imagination to give life to things. When you think about the story that way, it almost adds a moral dimension to the dance. We could really be talking about all of today’s art, and the idea that we get so caught up in the product we loose sight of the magic of transformation.”

It is in fact this emphasis on the magic of transformation and the transforming power of the imagination, that gives “The Velveteen Rabbit” its poignancy and punch.

“For a long time, I’ve seen how my son is riveted by storytelling and songs,” Nelson said. “You can see how these hit some fundamental chord for children. I wanted to show how potent a medium stories and song are for getting a message across to kids and also how dance works in the same way. But I also didn’t want to leave this piece just in a child’s realm. I wanted to have beautiful real dancing,” Nelson said.

Nelson, a dancer of ferocity and passion herself, added, “If you ask me if I have an agenda in making ‘The Velveteen Rabbit,’ I’d have to say yes! This is the kind of work I want my child to see. I think the story has real value, it’s not just glitter like other holiday performances often are.”

“It’s about immediate issues,” Way agreed. “It’s about aging, it’s about wisdom, it’s about life.”