Dancing from the heart

Fred Ortega

Alenoush Ellen Mirzaians began taking dance classes last fall at

Glendale Community College and immediately fell in love with the

program. So when the UCLA business school graduate realized that the

college’s dance department was being forced to cancel several

classes due to a lack of funding, she decided to spring into action.

The result of Mirzaians’ efforts is “Heartbeat,” a collaboration

of dance and live music. The production, which brings together

professional and student dancers, choreographers and musicians, will

be held Aug. 26, 27 and 28 at the Glendale Community College

Auditorium, with all proceeds going to the college’s dance program.

Mirzaians has almost single-handedly brought together the 60

dancers, musicians, choreographers, set designers, technicians and

others required to put on a full-scale production that is unlike

anything that has been performed at Glendale Community College.

Following a trend in the live entertainment scene, she has

recruited musicians to provide original works, without consultation,

to choreographers, who in turn have set the pieces to music, chosen

dancers and costumes, and melded it all together into an eclectic mix

that Mirzaians says places the raw energy of music and dance on an

equal footing.

“This is a collaborative event, and everyone involved has put in

their time and effort for free,” Mirzaians, a Glendale resident,

said. As producer and artistic director of the show, Mirzaians said

she was inspired both by multimedia spectacles such as Cirque du

Soleil and by traditional music concerts.

“I thought it would be a good idea to do both,” she said.

The musicians will perform their music on alternating stages

adjacent to the main dance stage. The acts will feature hip-hop

dancers as well as a ballet performer moving to a heavy electronic

beat. Jazz and modern dance will mix with rock, acoustic and

classical music styles.

“It is not going to be just dance, but theatrics as well --

illusion, different effects with huge pieces of fabric,” Mirzaians

said. “It is all an experiment, combining music and dance, hip-hop

and ballet, classical and modern.”

During rehearsals Sunday, ballet dancer Jazz Dillingham of

Northridge wore angel wings as she was pursued on stage by another

sword-wielding ballet dancer. A modern dancer wearing an

Oriental-inspired mask covered one of the dancers with a cape, then

pulled it away to reveal that another dancer had taken her place. The

action was accompanied not by classical music but by electronica.

“I would say it is ballet with a twist,” said Dillingham, who

attended Boston Ballet at age 13. “The core of our piece is ballet,

but there is so much more -- elements of martial arts and magic. It

is not your typical ‘Swan Lake.’”

Watching his music adapted to dance for the first time was

exhilarating for Sev of Mysparedub.

“I went into it with no expectations, and I thought it was

beautiful,” said Sev, who composes electronic music and goes by a

single name. “Anytime I can stimulate someone’s creativity through my

music, it is a big thing.”

The money raised through “Heartbeat” will be used to continue the

Glendale Community College Dance Department’s four free annual

productions and to augment the six scholarships handed out yearly to

students, department chairman Lynn McMurrey said.

Peformances of “Heartbeat” will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and

Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday at Glendale Community College, 1500 N.

Verdugo Road, Glendale. Tickets are $10 pre-sale, $12 at the door.

For tickets call (626) 577-2557.

For more information, visit o7www.hearmyheartbeat.comf7.