Santa Barbara Dance Theater Announces 2020 Season

Santa Barbara Dance Theater's artistic director, Christopher Pilafian, brings an outpouring of daring movement and visual invention by masters of the medium. Hatlen Theater from January 16 to 19, 2020.

For its 44th anniversary season the company will premiere four works by international guest choreographers Jennifer Muller and Stephanie Miracle, UCSB Dance faculty member Nancy Colahan and Mr. Pilafian.

In addition, the program features original scores by renowned composers Ryan Beveridge and Omar Zubair, the company's outstanding professional dancers and apprentices selected from UC Santa Barbara's most talented dance majors, plus a guest appearance by members of the UCSB Dance Company under the direction of Delila Moseley. Michael Klaers' characteristically stunning lighting designs showcase the dancers, choreography, sets and costumes.

Guest choreographer Stephanie Miracle's recent, site-specific works lay the groundwork for the symmetrical, Rorschach-esque world of her new work, 1221 Primrose Ln (premiere). Her characters, hinting at stereotypical male and female roles from the 1960s, double and mirror each other, signaling the choreographer's fascination with the disruption of cookie-cutter sameness, asking, "When does symmetry create the satisfaction of an ordered existence?" The piece features an adventuresome original score by Omar Zubair and costumes designed by Brandon Whited.

A Trio of Glass Etudes (premiere) choreographed by Nancy Colahan, will be performed by the UCSB Dance Company with a score by Philip Glass in an elegiac mode. In this, her newest work, Ms. Colahan unleashes a flood of movement invention and constantly changing forms inspired by the propulsive rhythms of the music. Colahan masterfully guides the audience along a river of ever-new ideas and imagery. Members of the UCSB Dance Company - guest performers in SBDT's season - deliver a radiant performance of this powerful, beautiful paean to the ineffable.

Miserere Nobis (west coast premiere) choreographed by guest artist, Jennifer Muller, has been described as a cry for forgiveness, an appeal for peace. It is a forceful, passionate and elegant response to troubled times. A reviewer in Eye on Dance wrote of the piece, "Nine women carry great power as they move onto the stage... Constantly shifting levels to a dark and spiritual score, Muller channels loss and grief." The cast includes a guest appearance by UCSB alumna Michelle Lynch (2011), who danced in Ms. Muller's New York-based company, Jennifer Muller/The Works before returning to the west coast last year.

Glint (Working Title) (premiere) choreographed by Artistic Director Christopher Pilafian, is a multi-part work springing from sensory investigation into the transformative process between chaos and order. Integrating the company's professional dancers with talented apprentices, Pilafian channels the inner spark of motivation as well as qualities of resilience in body, mind and spirit that allow an impulse to move dynamically from inner seed to outward action. Featuring an original score by Sundance alumnus Ryan Beveridge, with internal sections named "Brownian Boil," "Flick #4," "Whirligigs" and "Xylophone," Glint (Working Title) shows Pilafian and company in a dynamic, playful mode.

Join Santa Barbara Dance Theater as they stretch artistic imagination in the company's 2020 Hatlen season! Tickets are available at the UCSB Theater and Dance box office, by phone at (805) 893-2064, and online at www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu.

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