DANCING QUEEN CHOREOGRAPHER BRINGS HER DIVERSE CAST OF PRINCESSES TO L.A.Byline: Vicki Smith Paluch Correspondent Choreographer Naomi Goldberg was taught as a child that only certain people with certain bodies could dance, but she knew in her heart that dance should be for everyone. As the artistic director of Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet, Goldberg has been chipping away at dance stereotypes for more than a decade. She has created a theatrical dance form that brings together professional dancers, children, senior citizens and those who dance in wheelchairs. In her latest work, ``Twelve Dancing Princesses,'' Goldberg uses an intergenerational, culturally diverse cast to tell the story of the princesses who mysteriously disappear each night to dance until their shoes have holes in them. Performance artist John Fleck will join Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet as the storyteller when ``Twelve Dancing Princesses'' has its premiere Saturday at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. The ballet is inspired by the fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm. As Goldberg and her collaborators Corey Madden, the associate artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a small thrust stage with 745 seats at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Beckett and Associates. It has presented innovative plays since 1967. The world premiere of Angels In America was produced here. , and playwright Donna DiNovelli have reworked the story, the work blurs the lines between dance and theater. The cast includes women and girls ranging in age from 10 to 84. The dancers do not conform to a single body type, thereby challenging the audience's preconception pre·con·cep·tion n. An opinion or conception formed in advance of adequate knowledge or experience, especially a prejudice or bias. Noun 1. of what a dancer should look like, Goldberg explained. Men from the audience will be asked to become ``princes'' who follow the royal sisters to discover why their dancing shoes are worn through with holes each night. ``I knew the fairy tale of the 12 dancing princesses, but not why they disappeared each night to dance, or what happened after they married,'' said Goldberg. ``I wanted to tell the story about what happens when girls band together and have an adventure, and how boys discover the mystery of women. ``The princesses have the key to the life force, and a sense of adventure as they go out every night and dance,'' Goldberg continued. ``They have their life passion.'' Dance is Goldberg's passion. Goldberg, 39, got her dance education in that rarefied atmosphere of the School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet is located in New York City, in Lincoln Center. It is considered one of the most prestigious and notable ballet schools in the United States and teaches some of the most talented young dancers in the country. in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , where as an 8-year-old child she auditioned to win admission and had to fight to stay in the school. ``I was taught only certain people could dance, but I knew that was wrong,'' said Goldberg, who moved to New York City nearly four years ago and continues to work in Los Angeles for half of the year with the dance troupe. Goldberg recalled her epiphany. She was an 18-year-old member of the corps de ballet corps de bal·let n. The dancers in a ballet troupe who perform as a group. [French : corps, corps + de, of + ballet, ballet. for the Pacific Northwest Ballet The Pacific Northwest Ballet is a ballet company and based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. Founded in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera and named the Pacific Northwest Dance Association, it broke away from the Opera in 1977 and took its current name in 1978. . It was her first professional ``Swan Lake.'' Prima ballerina Gelsey Kirkland was dancing Odette/Odile. ``I watched Gelsey stand on pointe. A glow came from her as she stood there. I knew I would never feel that powerful on pointe,'' Goldberg recounted. ``I thought, 'I've got to take off these shoes and look for another way to dance.' '' And she did. She danced with the Flying Karamazov Brothers. She danced as a street performer in Venice. She worked with performance artists Tim Miller and Fleck. ``I was in heaven,'' she said. ``I incorporated the discipline and training of ballet with the freedom of movement of contemporary dance. I approached movement from the point of view that anybody in any environment can dance.'' Her touring company KlezDanz (formerly KlezMania) has been performing across the country since 1995. KlezDanz is a collaboration between Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet, the Klezmatics and playwright Tony Kushner, for whom she choreographed his adaptation of ``A Dybbuk'' for New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Public Theatre. As a choreographer, she has worked in theater, opera and puppetry puppetry Art of creating and manipulating puppets in a theatrical show. Puppets are figures that are moved by human rather than mechanical aid. They may be controlled by one or several puppeteers, who are screened from the spectators. , including work for the New York Shakespeare Festival New York Shakespeare Festival is the traditional name of a sequence of shows organized by the Public Theater in New York City, most often being held at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. For years under the guidance of Joseph Papp and George C. , the Czech American Marionette marionette: see puppet. marionette Puppet figure manipulated from above by strings attached to a wooden cross or control. The figure, also called a string puppet, is usually manipulated by nine strings, attached to each leg, hand, shoulder, and ear Theatre, American Jewish Theatre Company in San Francisco, the Mark Taper Forum and Long Beach Opera. She also choreographed Disney's animation feature, ``The Hunchback hunchback, abnormal outward curvature of the spine in the thoracic region. It is also known as kyphosis and humpback, and in its severe form a noticeable hump is evident on the back. of Notre Dame.'' Since 1994, Goldberg has served as choreography and movement consultant for Other Voices; Performing Artists with Disabilities, at the Mark Taper Forum. Goldberg has taught locally at Cal State Long Beach, Loyola Marymount University, UC Irvine, Cal Poly Pomona and Glendale Community College Glendale Community College can refer to one of two colleges in the United States.
(at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school through the Los Angeles Performing Arts Center A performing arts center, often abbreviated PAC, is a multi-use performance space that can be adapted for use by various types of the performing arts, including dance, music and theatre. Education Division. ``When we go to the schools, there are no barriers. The kids look at a dance, and think about it and then we find a way to make the dance accessible for them,'' she said. ``I'm always exploring how we engage in dance and tell a story.'' The facts --What: Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet's ``Twelve Dancing Princesses.'' --Where: John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. --When: 8 tonight. --Tickets: $18 to $25 adults, $7 children. Call (323) 461-3673. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The cast of Naomi Goldberg's ``Twelve Princesses'' includes professional dancers, children, senior citizens and performers who dance in wheelchairs. |
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