2017 gets busy this week as Lineage Dance considers parenthood in Pasadena, Trajal Harrell blends Judson Church post modern and NYC voguing in Westwood, circus meets bicycling in Malibu, dancers celebrate composer John Adams in Northridge, two dance festivals, and Jacob Jonas The Company shines in Beverly Hills.
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5. Together again
The partnership continues as Lineage Dance Company and the classical Street Symphony reunite for another installment surveying that most joyful and painful experience in Stories of Parenthood. Lineage Performing Arts Center, 89 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena; Sun., Jan. 15, 7 p.m.; $20,$15 students & seniors. http://lineagepac.org.
4. For the fifth time
Returning for its fifth edition, the Awakenings & Beginnings Dance Festival offers performances at two venues, master classes and other events showcasing established and emerging dance ensembles. Opening night includes Akomi Dance (Marie Hoffman & Anthony Aceves), Debra Brockus’ Brockus RED, FUSE Dance Company. Hazel Clarke’s Kairos Dance Company, sisters Heather and Beth Megill’s Megill & Company, Mindy Krasner, Cynthia and Patrick David Bradley’s San Pedro City Ballet, plus host Rubans Rouges Dance Company. Next week’s closing event offers choreography from D’amby Project, Leighann Kowalsky, Rowan Willigan, Kelly Alvarez and Artists (KAA), Don McLeod and Rhapsody in Taps’ Linda Sohl-Ellison and Monti Ellison. Complete line up of festival performers and other events at http://rubansrougesdance.com. Diavolo Performance Space, Sat., Jan. 14, 8 p.m.; 616 Moulton Ave., Lincoln Heights; $25, $20 students & seniors. Barnsdall Gallery Theater, 7200 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Sat., Jan. 21, 8 p.m.; $30-$45, $25 students & seniors. http://www.brownpapertickets.com. .
3. Winding down
The Hammer Museum’s ambitious, four month long free performance series In Real Life winds up its dance offerings with Trajal Harrell who looked to Greenwich Village’s Judson Church where post modern dance began in 1962. Harrell’s M2M is a version of his Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church series with three dancers juxtaposing the formalism and minimalism of postmodern dance with the flamboyance of 1980’s voguing. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Sat.-Sun., Jan. 14-15, 3 p.m.-4 p.m., free. 310-443-7000 https://hammer.ucla.edu.
2. New kid on the block
L.A.’s newest dance festival takes up residence at a venue known as a respected theater, and now emerging as a welcoming dance venue. While most local festivals offer brief pieces from many companies, Dance at the Odyssey presents four companies each given one or more evenings with the debut weekend devoted to the German dance collective MAMAZA whose founders Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah employ reflected surfaces and their long-time compatibility in Eifo Efi. The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, the local German cultural association is co-sponsoring MAMAZA providing German government funding that American performing arts troupes can only envy. Next weekend, Friday offers physical theater as Galiana & Nikolchev’s Useless Room explore a graying existence in The Last One. Sunday belongs to flamenco with Olé Flamenco led by dancer Yolanda Arroyo and her husband guitarist Paco Arroyo plus dancers Mikaela Kai, Jani Quintero, “La Pimentilla” and “La Miki”. The final weekend brings L.A. Contemporary Dance Company with Force Majeure, a quartet of works with choreography from company director Genevieve Carson, Gregory Dolbashian, Michaela Taylor and Christian Denice. Force Majeure enjoyed an extended sold out several week run in late 2016 in Atwater Village. Here’s a chance for Westsiders (and others) to catch up. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A.; MAMAZA: Eifo Efi—Fri.-Sat., Jan. 14, 8 p.m., Sun., Jan. 15, 2 p.m.; Galiana & Nikolchev’s Useless Room—Fri., Jan. 20, 8 p.m.; Olé Flamenco—Sun., Jan. 22, 2 p.m.; L.A. Contemporary Dance Company—Fri.-Sat., Jan. 27-28, 8 p.m.; $35 (MAMZA only), $25, $15. 310 477-2055 ext. 2, http://OdysseyTheatre.com.
1. How many dance styles can he blend?
While many choreographers aspire to merge traditional and contemporary dance styles while mixing in traditional and contemporary theater, music, video and social media, Jacob Jonas actually does it, and does it very, very well. Jonas and his Santa Monica–based Jacob Jonas The Company display their masterful blending of street moves with ballet and modern dance elements in three works inspired by how society views competition and considering questions of when to endure and when to let go. The evening also includes the premiere of the short film Grey, supported by a grant from The J. Paul Getty Trust. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills; Fri., Jan. 13, 8 p.m., $29-$79. 310-246-3800, http://thewallis.org.
Other dance of note:
In American Berserk six actor/dancers join the Lyris Quartet for John’s Book of Alleged Dances in this tribute to composer John Adams that includes several music groups including the presenter Jacaranda Music. Valley Performing Arts Center, Cal State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge; Sat., Jan. 14, 8 p.m., $38-80. 818-677-3000, http://valleyperformingarts.org.
Circus arts and cycling as the escape from a technology-obsessed society are the inspiration for Cirque Mechanics‘ Pedal Punk. Smothers Theater, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu; Fri., Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m.; $20-$40, $20 17 years and under. 310 506-4522, http://arts.pepperdine.edu.
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