Dancers Put Excitement in Sitting

One hated sitting on the dock of the bay. The other hated sitting in the back of the bus.

So it was an unexpected moment Friday when Otis Redding met Rosa Parks before a crowd of surprised schoolchildren in Torrance.

The biggest shock for the 1,200 youngsters gathered at El Camino College was that the legendary 1960s rhythm and blues singer and the pace-setting 1950s civil rights pioneer were the subjects of ballets.

The Philadelphia Dance Company celebrated Redding’s melancholy music and Parks’ determination in a contemporary dance performance that momentarily stunned students from Anaheim, Compton, Inglewood, Harbor City, Hawthorne and Torrance.

The youngsters knew of Parks, of course. She is the black woman who in 1955 refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus. Her arrest sparked a 381-day bus boycott that led to desegregation of the public transit system.

Even though he has been immortalized by music critics and has graced a U.S. Postal Service stamp in recent years, Redding, who died in a plane crash in 1967, was more of a mystery.

“Otis Redding? Do you mean ODB? No, that’s . . . the rapper,” said a puzzled Tracy Hernandez, 14, a ninth-grader from Narbonne High School, as she waited for the ballet to start.

Classmates Cindy Delgado, 14, and Anna Patton, 15, shook their heads. “I know who Rosa Parks is. But I haven’t heard of Otis Redding,” Patton said.

The youngsters sat in total silence as the ballet “Rosa” began. Two straight-back chairs on the stark Marsee Auditorium stage symbolized bus seats. One was occupied by a white woman reading a magazine.

Five female dancers slowly came on the stage, none daring to sit in the empty seat. The intensity grew as the dancers moved to the gospel-like song and the Parks character edged closer and closer to the seat.

The children exploded into applause, cheers and whistles as the dancer portraying Parks--now an 85-year-old Detroit resident--sat triumphantly in the seat at the last note of the song.

“You saw the sorrow of the whole thing, the prejudice. I was surprised she sat down,” said Mark Lum, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Whaley Middle School in Compton.

The ballet “Suite Otis” prompted a quicker reaction from youngsters. First performed three years after Redding’s death, it featured interpretations of six of his songs.

Youngsters roared their approval as male dancers strutted across the stage to the tune of Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose.” Mixing classical ballet moves with exaggerated rock ‘n’ roll steps, the troupe ended with Redding’s soulful “Try a Little Tenderness.”

Chazz Tyron, 12, of Compton praised the dancers for breathing life into old music. “My dad has those albums,” Chazz said.

“They put feeling into the music,” said Tina Barnes, 13, also of Compton. “My mother has those records.”

The founder and artistic director of the dance company, also known as Philadanco, said she picked the Redding and Parks ballets to entertain the youngsters. That the dances were educational as well was an extra benefit.

A public performance t at 8 tonight at the El Camino College auditorium will feature ballet to the music of Earth, Wind & Fire, Natalie Cole and Quincy Jones, said director Joan Myers Brown.

“I really try to show the different styles of dancing. I try to find things kids will respond to,” Brown said.

It worked. “I was worried I wouldn’t like ballet,” said 12-year-old Sose Lilomaiava of Compton. “This changed my mind.”