"Dance IS" community.

Across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco is a broad suburban expanse referred to as the East Bay and anchored by Berkeley and Oakland. In 2001, the folks at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts decided the widely dispersed East Bay dance community could use a forum to exchange ideas and develop a sense of communal identity. "We don't see enough of what other people are doing," says Jill Randall, director of education, Institute Program, at Julia Morgan. "In order to have a critical dialogue, we need to see more of one another's work."

The first Dance IS Festival, organized by Randall and festival co-chair Bridget Frederick, took place in 2002. A curatorial panel of East Bay dancers and teachers invited not only professionals, but dancers from local high schools, colleges, and independent studios to participate. The idea was to establish connections not only across styles but levels of experience. When the fourth annual Dance IS takes place March 3-4 with 16 performing groups, high school students will rub elbows with professionals backstage; young dancers will perform, some for the first time, in a professional theater; and studio teachers can overcome their isolation by talking with colleagues.

A key ingredient for success is a series of "dance shares" which take place on Saturday mornings several weeks before the Festival. In these sessions, participants show each other excerpts of the work they will perform. A poem by Langston Hughes set the tone for the opening warm-up circle of the first session last year, moderated by Julia Morgan executive director Sabrina Klein. Each dancer described him or herself with a dance gesture--perhaps a wiggle, kick, sweeping arm, or somersault. It was a lovely way to put everyone on a common starting line. The choreographers then showed a segment of work they planned to perform for the Festival, followed by a 10-minute feedback session. The tightly prescribed format required comments to be worded in terms of what was seen, heard, thought or felt. Klein urged the participants to be non-judgmental: "Don't say 'I liked' but 'I saw,' and give an example. We don't want to censor for content. All we ask for is a commitment to the art."

While there was no mistaking the less experienced from the more experienced performers, the feedback was remarkably astute, ranging from: "It looked fluid but controlled," to "Maybe the dance took place inside the person's mind," and "I saw a transformation of struggle." The comments were written down for the choreographers to take home. When the dancers returned for their performance date, their works proved to be quite stageworthy. For the professionals it was an opportunity to present work outside their own circle of followers, while the college-based dancers could recognize the progress they had made and the goals still ahead of them. But maybe most encouraging was the commitment, competence, and enthusiasm from the high school students. While some performed for the sheer fun of it, others clearly are on a pre-professional track.