Where can San Diegans find a combination of some of the world’s best musical, dance and spoken-word performances, without the burden of unreasonable ticket-pricing and outrageous crowds? The answer is: everywhere! The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) announced the beginning of ArtPower’s new 2006-’07 season, which will run through February 2007. That’s right, several months’ worth of musical performances, outrageous dance and exploration by spoken word throughout San Diego.
This year, Artistic Director Marty Wollesen traveled around the world to Canada, Australia and Europe to attend international conferences as part of the process of securing featured performances for this year’s ArtPower! The season comprises global music, chamber, spoken word and presentation, and a series of dance ensembles.
The global music artists include a variety of original talents, such as Grammy-winning group Los Lobos; Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitar prodigy and composer, as well as a number of other inventive musicians who bring a taste of culture from different angles of the world.
In addition to worldly influence in ArtPower’s music segments, a series of award-winning chamber music ensembles will play throughout the season. The title “chamber,” for those interested in a little music lesson, “describes a type of classical ensemble,” said Amy Thomas, ArtPower’s promotion and marketing manager.
“Traditionally, it was performed in a small, intimate setting, and involved a four-person ensemble comprised of a cellist, a violist, and two violinists,” Thomas said.
ArtPower! opens its new season on Sept. 29 with the Pacifica String Quartet (see photo above). The concert will begin at 8 p.m. at Mandeville Auditorium.
Shall there be dance? Indeed there shall, and with nothing short of unique, original acts as those that ArtPower! has included this year. Five dance performances are scheduled between October and February, including tap maestro Savion Glover, London-based dance ensemble Random Dance, Urban Bush Women out of Brooklyn, Australian company Chunky Move and Amsterdam’s Emio Greco, a dancer/choreographer who has joined forces with visionary Dutch theater director Peter C. Scholten.
“Our objective here [with ArtPower!] is to create dialogue and opportunities to connect with the artists,” Thomas said. “This is not simply entertainment, but a way to get [the audiences] engaged on multiple levels.”
A good example of that is London-based Random Dance. Choreographer Wayne McGregor has created a dark and edgy piece that maintains an underground aesthetic, Thomas said. McGregor has a PhD. in neuroscience, and used that typically unfamiliar field to explore, through dance, the neurological condition known as ataxia, which also happens to be the name of the dance.
Ataxia describes the inability of the brain to control the body’s limbs. Intense research was conducted to prepare for and compose this rare performance, which undoubtedly will engage audiences with a dance that not only represents grand creativity, but “challenges the very fabric of collaboration.”
Like the entire assemblage of the season, “this is not just a pretty dance piece, but one that truly explores something new that forces people to ask questions,” Thomas said.
Thanks to ArtPower! and UCSD, San Diego will also provide a venue for the notorious master of satire, David Sedaris, as well as Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band, the Austin-based Salvage Vanguard Theatre and, finally, Frank Rich, author and columnist for the New York Times.
While the UCSD Performing Arts department has been around for nearly two decades, only three years have passed since it was reorganized and renamed ArtPower! The purpose of the department now is not only to demonstrate talent, but to involve community members, students, faculty and art appreciators alike.
“The series was rebranded to present the notion that art is meant to empower,” Thomas said. “Art is an investigative process, not to be put on a pedestal,” but to perhaps encourage and inspire thought in all its onlookers.
This year, creators of ArtPower! are not just thinking out of the box, but creating an entirely new one.
Tickets to Art Power are available at all Ticketmaster outlets and on-line at www.ticketmaster.com. Although ticket prices vary with each performance, adult tickets typically range from $30 to $36. For more information, call the UCSD Box Office, (858) 534-TIXS, or visit the box office window, located in the Price Center Plaza on the UCSD campus. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.