Danza Floricanto Takes Chances, Wins

Twenty-five years ago, Gema Sandoval founded Danza Floricanto/USA for several reasons, not the least of which was to explore Mexican American identity in dance terms and to promote cultural pride. A former schoolteacher, Sandoval has been articulate and passionate about honoring the traditional and, in recent years, has taken chance after chance to try to expand the themes and dance vocabulary of ballet folklorico. Tirelessly, she has labored to make her troupe part of the Southern California scene and to keep it meaningful to Mexican Americans who daily negotiate their identities.

Traveling the often-rocky road of choreographic fusion hasn’t been easy--the small turnout for the company’s two-night 25th anniversary celebration over the weekend could indicate a lack of support from both the dance-going public and the Mexican American community. But sometimes, brave moves pay off. It was one of Sandoval’s collaborators, modern dance choreographer Loretta Livingston, who provided a few of the most riveting moments on the Friday night retrospective program and the Saturday gala, both at the Luckman Theatre on the campus of Cal State L.A.

On Friday, Floricanto dancers performed “The Guards,” Livingston’s minimalist tribute to the spirit of the “Brown Beret” Chicano movement of the late 1960s. The piece is a section from “Si Se Puede/Yes You Can, A Tribute to Cesar Chavez,” the 1998 collaboration between Sandoval and Livingston. But unlike another excerpt on the program, “The Promise,” a sweetly inconsequential quartet of “Old World meets New,” “The Guards” seemed freshly interesting. A series of varied footwork tattoos and simple drill-like patterns, it truly stretched the concept of folk steps, bending them away from their usual celebratory purpose to represent a new consciousness.

On Saturday night, Livingston again took the rhythms of Mexico into a new realm, this time as a dancer in her solo “The Same Moon/La Misma Luna,” to “La Morena,” sung evocatively by Gisela Farias Luna on tape. In a loose white dress, dancing in a pool of light, Livingston was like a figurine come to life. It looked as if energy shot through her in light breezes or strong waves, and she became an elegant stream of embodied consciousness.

*

On Friday, older suites--such as those inspired by pre-Columbian times, Jalisco and Huapangos--were marred by technical glitches in the dancing, the staging and the music (provided onstage by Mariachi Mexicapan). The next night, the company looked best in “Los Concheros,” a 1985 work bathed in warm, low light that caught the glitter of costumes and the drift of towering feather headdresses worn by the men.

The Floricanto premieres on Saturday included Sandoval’s “Las Tres Fridas,” an almost static elaboration of a Frida Kahlo painting; and her “Hombres de Bronze--Ode to My Father” (to Aaron Copland’s “El Salon Mexico”), which also had noble themes that never seemed to fire. “Themes and Variations in Folklorico,” arranged by Sandoval around her dancers’ own solos, was an animated celebration of company spirit.

In addition to Livingston, Floricanto’s guests on Saturday included Avaz International Dance Theatre, which looked impressive in co-artistic director Jamal’s ceremonial “Charkh,” featuring the sculptural liquidity of Joy Ann Martin and Karen Ochoa’s daredevil, dervish-like spinning. Also guesting was modern dancer Michael Mizerany, who collaborated with Sandoval to make “The Negotiation,” danced by Mizerany and Gema M. Sandoval (the founder’s daughter). What was being negotiated wasn’t really clear--it was an odd little “meet-cute” duet, during which Mizerany was like a modernist John Wayne, while Sandoval fille was a flirty folklorico gal.

Stranger bedfellows have found their way into cultural hybrid choreography. Sometimes, like Sandoval, you just have to dive in and hope for the best. For Danza Floricanto/USA, that would be a productive next 25 years.