A Study in Motion

A dancer entangled with a potted tree is not usually an image associated with modern dance. But then, neither is a Spike Jones tune.

Put the two together, though, as Doug Varone and Dancers did last Sunday at the Carrillo Recreation Center in Santa Barbara, and it makes perfect sense.

Jones’ “Cocktails for Two” was one of 16 songs from the 1930s and 1940s that Varone’s company performed to during “Let’s Dance, The Cabaret.”

Rosemary Clooney’s “Mambo Italiano” Billie Holiday’s “I Loves You, Porgy,” Benny Goodman’s “Life Goes to a Party” and Doris Day’s “Sentimental Journey” helped create a well-rounded show that could be appreciated even by those who are normally frightened of modern dance.

“Let’s Dance, The Cabaret” was the first public concert of the Summerdance Santa Barbara festival, an artist-in-residence program funded by private donations and contributions from UCSB, which organizers hope to make an annual event.

Patterned after the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Mass., the Summerdance program, running through Aug. 1, will include public performances, dance classes, open rehearsals and lecture-demonstrations at UCSB and various off-campus venues.

All of the events star former Lar Lubovitch Dance Company member Doug Varone and some or all of his New York-based, eight-member modern dance ensemble.

Varone and company, who came to Santa Barbara after participating in the Glenwood Springs Dance Festival in Colorado, are veterans of the summer dance festival scene.

As with the other festivals they attend, Summerdance Santa Barbara is intended to provide dance students and dancers the opportunity to practice and study their art form with no distractions. Summerdance organizers also are placing particular importance on using the festival to educate the general public about dance.

“There is so much about this art form that we know and love as dance that is tremendously misunderstood,” said Varone, who performed with his company at UCSB in 1991.

“It behooves us as artists to re-educate the people,” he said. “I’m always very intrigued as an artist about finding ways to open up people’s eyes to what we do and how we do it.”

Varone and his dancers opened a few eyes by dancing from coffeehouse to coffeehouse up and down State Street last Thursday during the festival’s opening ceremony.

“That kind of got everyone energized that we’re here and have a presence in the town,” he said. “It was quite exciting to feel everyone’s enthusiasm. It was like an MGM musical, walking down the street with everyone just following us.”

Varone, a couple of his dancers and dancer-choreographer Jerry Pearson, artistic director of the festival and director of the UCSB dance department, will be available to the public again this evening when they present a forum on “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Modern Dance and Were Afraid to Ask” at the Earthling bookstore.

The festival will continue Friday at the State Street Ballet headquarters where Varone will discuss the process of choreography, while his company performs excerpts from their repertoire. And on Tuesday the group will hold an open rehearsal at the New Performing Arts Center in the Humanities and Social Science Building on the university campus.

Doug Varone and Dancers will present a two-hour dance performance July 24 at the Lobero Theatre, followed by a presentation of a new work choreographed during the residency program July 25 at the New Performing Arts Center. Some tickets to the Lobero performance have been made available free to local youth groups.

“Dance is everything that we do in life, every gesture, walking to the bus, how we move from place to place. People can begin to understand that and trust their imagination while watching the work,” Varone said.

“But also a lot of the outreach and community-based work that we do has been finely honed and we’re quite good at getting out into the community and bringing the community in.”

That ability, said festival founder Dianne Vapnek, is largely why Varone and company were selected for the debut Summerdance program.

Vapnek, a longtime dancer who attended many Jacob’s Pillow festivals, wants her first festival to hit on all cylinders--starting to build a reputation among dancers and the general public. And she would like to build a program that promotes a greater overall appreciation of dance in Santa Barbara.

“I live in Santa Barbara and thought what we have going on here is pretty wonderful,” she said. “Unfortunately, efforts to combine arts between campus and community don’t always work successfully.”

As with any major event, launching Summerdance was no easy task, Vapnek said, especially at a time of decline in National Endowment for the Arts funding.

“I would like to see this become an annual event--that is my intention and hope,” Vapnek said.

To do so, she said, she will have to continue to get community support. Once the tallying is complete, Vapnek expects that the initial program will cost between $75,000 and $100,000. The university contributed $5,000 in start-up funds and provided use of facilities and assistance with publicity and event planning. Private funding and a small portion of corporate funding was funneled through the UCSB Foundation and earmarked for the Summerdance program.

But the university is not likely to fund the program if it continues in the years to come, said Vapnek, who is also a member of the UCSB Foundation board of trustees.

“The school just doesn’t have the money to do that,” she said.

For the program to evolve, more private funding will be needed. “For following years we’re going to go after much broader support. This year the idea was to see what we could do, show the community the possibilities,” Vapnek said.

Artistic director Pearson, a longtime member of the Santa Barbara dance community, wasn’t surprised with the large crowd at Sunday’s show and would not be surprised if the festival really takes off.

“People are very, very receptive to dance here,” he said. “It just needs to have a certain momentum.”

*

BE THERE

Summerdance Santa Barbara events:

* “Everything You Wanted to Know About Modern Dance and Were Afraid to Ask,” a lecture-video presentation at 7 p.m. tonight at the Earthling Bookshop, 1137 State St.; free.

* Lecture-demonstration on the process of choreography at 8 p.m. Friday at the State Street Ballet, 322 State St.; free.

* Open rehearsal, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the New Performing Arts Theater, in the Humanities and Social Science Building, UC Santa Barbara; free.

* Doug Varone and Dancers in concert at 8 p.m. July 24 at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.; $15 and $25 general. Tickets: 963-0761.

* Performance of new work choreographed during the Summerdance program at 8 p.m. at the New Performing Arts Theatre, USCB; invitation only.

Information on Summerdance events:

Doug Varone and Dancers will teach community dance classes at several Santa Barbara locations July 21-30: For more information on classes and times call (805) 893-8985.