Visit Santa Barbara DANCEworks

Visit Doug Varone and Dancers

Visit VOICE Magazine

++ READ MY REVIEW FOR SANTA BARBARA’S ARTS WEEKLY VOICE MAGAZINE OF THE WORLD PREMIERE OF DOUG VARONE’S “SOMEWHERE” AND THE FINAL CURTAIN AFTER 22 SEASONS OF SANTA BARBARA’S DANCEWORKS ON SEPTEMBER 6 & 7 2019:

DANCEworks: 22 Years Presenting Class Acts Comes Full Circle

Once in a Blue Moon the history arc of a performing arts organization begins and ends in triumph. Last weekend in Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre, brilliant performances by New York City-based Doug Varone and Dancers featuring the world premiere of his new masterpiece Somewhere, also celebrated the last curtain call for founder and executive director Dianne Vapnek’s visionary SUMMERDANCE/DANCEworks series; 22 years hosting annual residencies in Santa Barbara by a Who’s-Who of world famous dance companies including Doug Varone’s ensemble, which launched Vapnek’s dream in 1997.

A choreographer’s heaven, DANCEworks residencies in Santa Barbara have been unique as a result of an active partnership with the Lobero Theatre Foundation since 2006. Providing the Lobero’s stage as a rehearsal/creation platform during each annual month-long DANCEworks residency has been no small gift. The list of major new works created in this supportive creative environment over the past 22 years is significant, the choreographers who have embraced DANCEworks residencies remarkable: Doug Elkins, Larry Keigwin, Aszure Barton, Mark Dendy, Kate Weare, Shannon Gillen, Adam Barruch, Brian Brooks and others.

Saturday night’s full house was chock-o-block with local dance-savvy pros and happy enthusiasts, together with a gaggle or two of out-of-town dance aficionados. Santa Barbara’s dance community is large and vibrant, everyone knew this farewell event would be epic; the energy in the room was cheerful and electric. As house lights dimmed, chatter subsided – quiet anticipation reigned for a moment or two until Dianne Vapnek emerged from between the stage curtains. Looking for all the world like a petite Swiss mädchen, Vapnek absorbed the instantaneous tsunami of adulation from a now standing, shouting and foot stomping audience with a certain mischievous sanguinity. Delivering a brief history of the whys and wherefores she exited, to another heartfelt outburst of hurrahs; a wonderful beginning to an evening of stunning virtuosity.

Settling in, the audience audited an evening-long journey of virtuosic movement innovation and visual subtext that is the world of choreographer Doug Varone. Marking his fifth and most important residency for Vapnek and DANCEworks, Doug Varone and Dancers presented a program that engaged audience attention in ways that will take years to unravel. Clearly, Varone speaks to the brain; it’s capacity to absorb enormous amounts of information at multiple levels of consciousness in nanoseconds. His choreography is diverse but specific and detailed, sometimes whirling by in great flurries of gesture and glyph, at other moments finding nuance through a kind of anti-movement; suggestion and implication driving visions in the mind, if not the body.

The precious fruit of this last DANCEworks residency, Doug Varone’s fresh and profound new choreographic take on Leonard Bernstein’s iconic masterpiece West Side Story opened the program with the entire company – Courtney Barth, Hollis Bartlett, Bradley Beakes, Jake Bone, Whitney Dufrene, Dequan Lewis, Aya Wilson, Ryan Yamauchi - and represented a case study in the choreographer’s nothing-is-as-it-seems visual messaging. Altering and manipulating Bernstein’s score in subtle but fascinating manner; creating movement in stark contrast to now legendary, even stereotypical perceptions of scenes like the high school prom, rumble and dream sequences Varone’s new piece Somewhere was created during the company’s residency here these past several weeks and forced the audience to experience anew and in far more complex visual manner, Bernstein’s abiding subtext about the human spirit and its discordant antithesis, conformity. The house roared its approval.

The Lobero stage was a simple black box throughout the evening, its stark simplicity and bald lighting instantly transported the audience to back alleys and freeway underpasses for Somewhere but also allowed for total concentration on Varone’s detailed and fast-paced movement design. Two Piano Pieces: Nocturne (2017) and Short Story (2001) to music of Chopin and Rachmaninoff followed intermission. Both are chamber dance masterpieces, but of the two the most intensely moving was Doug Varone’s incredibly intimate solo meditation on aging and memory to a nocturne of Chopin – an honor to witness this genius revealing his vulnerability with such honesty. Company principals Bradley Beakes and Aya Wilson performed Varone’s shockingly tense, terrifyingly contained choreography for Short Story to one of Rachmaninoff’s most plaintive preludes with subtle body articulation and carefully nuanced emotional intensity. Conflict, compromise, conciliation, commitment – not necessarily in that order – the cardinal signs of partnering are examined through an abstract, subliminal prism; magnificent performances by both artists.

Lux (2006) to Philip Glass’ first large orchestral score The Light, capped the evening with cascades of thrilling and virtuoso movement from the entire company. Displaying ensemble cohesion as well as duo, trio, solo moxie, the company thrilled with Lux as it had at the beginning of this beautiful program with Varone’s new piece, Somewhere. One last treat: as the wild ovations and hollering subsided, Doug Varone and Dancers receiving multiple call backs with a last farewell from Vapnek, the audience began to call it a night when down came a massive screen and we were gifted a summation video of excerpts from DANCEworks’ many brilliant residencies and performances over the years. The message; one person can change the world. Thanks, Dianne Vapnek, for your vision, your energy, your commitment to dance and the gift you have given the Santa Barbara community for 22 amazing seasons. Brava!

Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review