Isaacs, McCaleb to Bring Talents to Mandell Weiss Theater

SAN DIEGO — “No, you don’t get to name my dances,” Jean Isaacs informed Nancy McCaleb, after the chaotic laughter and cross-talk died down. Like an old joke between two friends, the issue of dance titles had erupted, with McCaleb squirming as Isaacs pondered the exact wording for one of her new works.

“She always wants to name my pieces. . . . I might call it ‘Human-ity Remains,’ ” Isaacs said. “It starts out with a Scottish jig and has a long, lyrical section, affirming the human spirit. The work gets simpler and simpler through all the adversities implied in the music.”

This work, a premiere for Isaacs, along with one by McCaleb, will be presented in concert Thursday through Sunday at UCSD’s Mandell Weiss Theater. The program will also include recent dances by each choreographer.

The two women direct the Isaacs, McCaleb & Dancers, a contemporary dance ensemble formerly called 3’s Company, which has been producing new dances for 18 years. During the hectic peak of the holiday season, they met at their 5th Avenue studio to talk about plans for their annual concert at Mandell Weiss and to share their views on the state of dance in the community.

Isaacs and McCaleb are a study in contrast and compatibility:

An abundant generosity emanates from Isaacs’ compact grace--a demeanor gratifyingly void of ego-inflation. She is serious, articulate, speaks with an even intensity, and laughs a lot.

McCaleb gives her plenty of reasons to laugh, even hoot, with a powerful storytelling bent and an impulse to punch her one-liners with outswept arms or illustrative gestures. Her presence, mercurial and propulsive, is full of spark one moment and grandly poised the next.

Their complementary qualities seem to have engendered a mutual professional respect. They seem to genuinely like one another, too.

But they do not create dances together. They work separately. Each is generally unaware of the other’s ideas or themes, at least until their works are being rehearsed in the studio by the company dancers.

“This time Jean is doing a new piece with jigs, and mine is Russian, or a contemporary rendition of Russian, “ McCaleb said, “so we have this folk aspect, but neither of us knew what the other was doing.”

“The timing on yours is great,” Isaacs said to McCaleb, “considering what’s going on now, all those people marching on the Kremlin.”

“I don’t know,” McCaleb quickly responded, agonizing somewhat. “I’ve made this light-hearted celebration, when there is such rage over there. But there is one menacing section, called ’73 Years of History.’ ”

McCaleb’s premiere is a large work--seven sections-- and is titled ‘Vivat St. Petersburg.’ This was Peter the Great’s favorite expression when he founded the city, McCaleb said. Leningrad has reclaimed its former name of St. Petersburg, and on last November’s Revolution Day, instead of the traditional military parade, a citywide gala honored the name change and the hope of returning the city to its former glory. McCaleb explained that her piece was created in response to that celebration.

“I think of it as an affirmation of major events in the rise and fall of the Soviet empire. They are still fighting, but still, there’s reason to celebrate.”

One section, “Vladimir, Joseph, and Karl,” is set to a new version of an old drinking song, she added. It’s a take-off on news images of statues of Stalin, Lenin, and Marx, with heads covered in black cloth, being torn down or knocked over.

“Poor Bill is being lifted, toppled, and moved about,” said McCaleb, referring to Bill Cratty, guest dancer with the company, who will join Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project of contemporary dance after dancing “blindfolded” as a statue in the Isaacs-McCaleb concert.

He will also dance Isaacs’ “Petal in the Flesh,” which refers to Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs, particularly the collection shown in Cincinnati that fueled an already divisive censorship controversy.

“Ninety-five of those photographs were lyrical--of flowers, beautiful human forms, and there were 10 that were called pornographic, 5 of which were hilarious,” Isaacs pointed out. “But the way the media talked about the collection . . . (it was as if) the whole thing was scabrous and homosexually explicit. When I finally saw the photographs, I thought what was in the papers was a misrepresentation of his art.”

The dance is divided into two sections; the first, lyrical, relates to the flower images. “Petals of the flesh--a lot of human flesh in those photos look like petals,” she said, adding that Cratty will finish the piece against a wall, “quite tormented,” in reference to the “more difficult photographs.”

Isaacs’ works on the program will also include “Elegy,” a duet danced to Vivaldi’s “Descordato,” and her premiere, the one she hadn’t quite titled. “I went for solutions that were the most obvious and simple--and I don’t think that’s bad, because I tend to intellectualize. I can see a lot of movement clearly in my head, but I usually keep going, faster and faster . . . into variations.

“(The dance) is simple, but it’s not lacking in movement. It starts high energy and goes slower, more adagio, as it goes along--an odd way to make a dance, because, usually, to build excitement you build in energy or rhythm or time (tempo).”

Isaacs has taught dance in Switzerland for the past five summers, and the company has performed in Europe. They are strengthening their ties there. Both said they believe contemporary dance and music are better supported and understood in Europe. Nevertheless, Isaacs said she is pleased with what has evolved on a local level. “In recent years, we’ve had good houses, more individual donors, and there seems to be a swelling of support, with more memberships. I’m encouraged.

“It’s been a very good year in San Diego for contemporary dance,” she continued. “I can remember in past years audiences would say, ‘I don’t get it.’ But in the past 2 or 3 years, they are better prepared when they come into the theater, and are much more vocal and enthusiastic.”

McCaleb agreed. “What’s happened is that the city, over the past few years, has grown in its methods of supporting mid-level arts organizations. That has helped improve standards. There’s been higher visibility for presenting organizations (Sushi, San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts, UCSD’s University Events), and private foundation support has been good.

Isaacs added: “San Diego has a reputation of being Podunk. That’s infuriating. I say come and live in this community. It’s a nourishing place to create. There’s an image problem here. If you’re from here, you can’t be innovative. I think that’s dead wrong. Modern dance is the artists’ visions of dance. The more the merrier. We need 10 more strong choreographers here. More artists creating helps the community and choreography overall.

“It’s not enough to make art and put it out there in this community; the community has to be primed. . .I feel like there are more savvy people out there now who like the art. The level of professionalism is greater. We keep putting the art ahead of everything and the artists are paid,” Isaacs said.

The company has seven dancers on its payroll, including a “new contingent of male dancers” both choreographers are excited about, since they recently lost one key dancer to Bill T. Jones’ New York company. Also new for the company are the pending renovations to the Fifth Avenue studio, thanks to funding from Las Patronas and the Community Foundation.

“We’ll have heat. What a concept!” McCaleb joked. “We can stop wearing layers and layers of warm-up clothes for cold rehearsals and stop pretending it’s New York.”

* Isaacs, McCaleb & Dancers season premiere will be performed at the Mandell Weiss Theater on the UCSD campus at 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The program also includes “Osirian Fields” by McCaleb.