Dance Troupe Jazzing It Up for 10th Anniversary Gala

Making it to 10 years is reason enough for any dance company to celebrate.

Dancing in concert to live music--to jazz saxophone, percussion, bass, and keyboards--is also a compelling reason to celebrate.

Jazz Unlimited Dance Company, headed by Patricia Rincon, will celebrate on both counts in their 10th Anniversary Gala performances today through Sunday at the Lyceum Theater Main Stage.

“For me, I think that is the pinnacle of our 10 years--dancing with live jazz music, with a composer who does our music, at the level that he does it. This is exactly where we want to be,” Patricia Rincon said last week, taking a break from preparing for the concert.

Jazz keyboardist and composer Rob Mullins and his band will accompany Jazz Unlimited’s six dances on the program and perform four instrumental works as a bonus.

Mullins, who has eight recordings, a Grammy nomination and Ace Award to his credit, is respected for cutting across the musical lines that define straight-ahead and electric fusion jazz style. Based in Huntington Beach, Mullins and his band play at venues throughout Southern California, regularly appearing at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach.

Before Mullins and Rincon began collaborating six years ago, Rincon heard his music on the radio, bought his albums, and started setting parts of dances to tracks she liked, such as “Samba” and the boogie woogie “Company Break,” keeping Mullins’ titles. (Both dances are on the Lyceum program.)

“One day, Melissa Nunn called me up and said, ‘Did you know that that’s my brother? You’re using his music.’ ”

Nunn, who is also a choreographer and is now an associate of Rincon’s at the company, was looking after her brother’s interests, Rincon said, to make sure he got all his royalties.

“So I called him up, and we all sat down and talked, and I finally said, ‘Listen, I love your music, I have a jazz company, why don’t we all work together.’ Through his music we all found a common ground.”

Nunn has two works on the program, “White Shoulders” and “Field of Fire,” both danced to Mullins’ music. Her choreography is based more in modern dance, whereas Rincon’s is a mix of styles, she said.

“We like to show the variations of jazz dance. It takes on many forms, not only traditional, historical, but it also has Latin roots, modern roots, African roots, musical theater roots and a new look as well. We try to use all of those, all the facets of jazz, and mix them as best as possible.”

A professor of dance at UCSD and artistic director of Jazz Unlimited Dance Company, Rincon teaches at the same time she’s choreographing and directing productions for the two or three major performances the company presents each year. For this concert, which features 11 dancers, she is premiering “Exit,” a 10-minute ensemble work about censorship in the arts, AIDS and science over art in education, she said. “It’s all about the veneer people have to wear now, which is much thicker than before.”

The piece isn’t negative in tone, according to Rincon, but expresses how people have to be more careful, which also means losing “the touch, the emotion and openness.” Life becomes more rigid, distant, and cold.

“It’s also about things moving very fast,” Rincon added. One individual, involved in the fast pace, exits from it by choosing another way, by having individual thought, a more spiritual experience, in an ever-changing society.

“We don’t have to run all the time. We can sit down, find our own perspective, and find our own quiet place.”

For “Exit,” Mullins composed an avant-garde, synthesized industrial score. “It’s amazing the variety of sound this man can create,” Rincon said. “You’re going to hear classical piano to boogie woogie, Latin samba, to this very synthesized industrial sound with percussion.”

In the early years of their collaboration, Rincon and Mullins followed the typical choreographer-composer arrangement in which dance is created to existing music. For the past four years, however, Rincon has instead sent Mullins a video of the dances she’s already completed, to which he composes to match her movements and tempos.

Mullins likes creating music for dance, he said, because he can write and improvise longer pieces that are more “out there.”

“But if you improvise too much, the dancers can’t follow.

“I’ve watched (Jazz Unlimited) get more and more ambitious and adventurous with their projects,” Mullins said. “This show is like no other of theirs people have seen. It’s breaking new ground. We are, both of us. We’re trying new stuff. The music combines jazz, rock, and African elements with classical influences, and so does the dance.”

* Jazz Unlimited’s 10-year Gala Concert at the Lyceum Theatre Main Stage, tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets available at the door or by calling 278-TIXS; $15 general, $12 members, $10 students. Call 632-5340 for more information.