Michael Mizerany and Christine Marshall in Everybody Knows. Photo by Manny Rotenberg
The premiere of SHADOW OF MERCY went wonderfully well. The audience was enthusiastic and the reviews were glowing. (Read Pat Launer’s review at SDNN and CJ McKee’s review at Examiner.com !) Now, you would think MALASHOCK DANCE would have some time off, right? Noooooooooooooooooooooo!
Nicholas Strasburg and Bradley Lundberg in The Future. Photo by Yvonne Portra
The very next week we began rehearsing for an encore presentation of THE LEGEND OF THE PERSIAN CARPET at the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) for The Young Artist Reception. This production would be a little different because we had to replace Jeff Bulkley (who had prior commitments) with Bradley R. Lundberg, and we would be performing in the grand foyer of the museum. The grand foyer is considerably smaller than a stage, but very workable. Or, so I thought.
When I went to look at the space, I realized that, yes, it was in the grand foyer, but we would be performing on two staircases separated by two landings. It is the type of staircase that Joan Crawford would slowly slink down in many of her old MGM movies or that Linda Evans would tumble down every season on “Dynasty”.
I was especially worried about the Dance of the Thieves. It has many high-flying and gasp-inducing lifts and, to be frank, I didn’t want to alter them. Thanks to the tenacity and bravery of Nick and Brad, most of the lifts remained intact. Katie, Matt and Christine also proved to be quite adept at navigating narrow spaces, protruding banisters and plate glass windows.
All in all, the performance looked great. The dancers pulled out all the stops to make this an enjoyable and memorable evening for all the families and museum VIPS who attended. A special thank you goes out to SDMA’s Amy Briere who managed to get us a little more danceable space.
John and I are now in preparations for our NEW WORKS WORKSHOP which runs for two weekends (May 23rd & 24th and May 30th & May 31). These new works will premiere at THE MALASHOCK DANCE SCHOOL SPRING SHOWCASE on June 6th & 7th at Sushi: A Center for the Urban Arts .
Also, if you missed SHADOW OF MERCY the first time or want to experience it again, there will be an encore performance at the Lyceum Theater on May 31st at 7 pm. For tickets, go to sdrep.org or call 619-544-1000.
Michael Mizerany
Associate Artistic Director, MALASHOCK DANCE
