![\"(t](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Malashock_4958_Photo-Credit-Raymond-Elstad_Courtney-Meadows-and-Andrew-Holmes-213x300.jpg\")
Independent choreographer Michael Mizerany is producing \u201cMalashock\/RAW4,\u201d bringing the company\u2019s unique, cutting-edge dance to the Lyceum Stage Nov. 14 \u2013 16. Mizerany will be debuting his piece \u201cUnspeakable,\u201d calling it \u201chigh energy work that is unabashedly bold and undeniably risky.\u201d<\/p>\n
In part, \u201cUnspeakable\u201d addresses a taboo subject: physical desire in a very dysfunctional family, but he said he has never really shied away from difficult subjects.<\/p>\n
“The whole thing behind RAW for me is confronting issues that people normally think dance won’t do,\u201d Mizerany said. “I think that dance can address things in a really good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a previous \u201cRAW,\u201d Mizerany brought bullying to the dance floor, which he said came from a very personal place in his past. While his experience dealt with bullying because of his sexuality, the bullying piece was a universal look at an epidemic that has plagued almost everyone.<\/p>\n
“We’re all human beings, and we all go through the same trials. [It is] more about things we share and less about things that make us different,\u201d he said, acknowledging that young people dealing with their sexuality today, while still difficult, have more support and resources available.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we focus on things that make us similar \u2026 we’re still part of the change. We’re still part of the cycle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In \u201cUnbelievable,\u201d Mizerany brings five Malashock dancers together to convey the touchy subject: Nicholas Strasburg, Justin Viernes, Blythe Barton, Stephanie Harvey and Laura Bender.<\/p>\n
Strasburg, a North Park resident who also danced in Mizerany\u2019s bullying piece, said he especially appreciates Mizerany\u2019s style.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis subject matter is usually dark, especially for RAW,\u201d Strasburg said. \u201cHe has a pretty good idea of a story line that he likes to do, and he has a definite technique and dance style that is unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Technically trained at Seattle\u2019s Cornish College of the Arts, Strasburg has a unique story himself, coming into dance. He was studying to be a roller coaster engineer at Portland State University\u2014taking several physics classes focused on movement and velocity\u2014when he realized he was literally moving in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
He said he was attracted to the unusual field because it was \u201csomething that makes so many people, so happy,\u201d and then realized dance would achieve the exact same thing. After graduating from Cornish, he moved to San Diego and looked into City Ballet before approaching Malashock Dance.<\/p>\n
The move, he said, was perfect, and exciting for him as well as his new audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never heard somebody come see a Malashock show who wasn\u2019t surprised or wasn\u2019t excited, or left bored,\u201d Strasburg said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very dynamic style of modern [dance]. \u2026 It\u2019s always exciting to watch because we do work that seems to defy how the body wants to move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strasburg said dancing Mizerany\u2019s choreography is not just physically challenging, but by adding emotional aspects to the movement gives another layer of challenge to the performance. Learning the moves, however, comes first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start learning a dance, our bodies do the movement so often that we create muscle memory, so our bodies remember how it wants to move with the momentum of how we\u2019ve been doing it,\u201d Strasburg said.<\/p>\n
Those emotions \u2013 sometimes cathartic, sometimes overpowering \u2013 come later, and Mizerany is quick to say he does ask a lot from his dancers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysically it’s just go, go, go,\u201d Mizerany said, calling the emotional side \u201csome of the hardest stuff\u201d to present to the audience. For him, the pay off is worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly challenges people to look at dance in a different way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In addition to Mizerany\u2019s \u201cUnspeakable,\u201d the show also features new choreography by Malashock Dance Artistic Director John Malashock and guest choreographer Andy Noble, whose NobleMotion Dance company is located in Houston. Malashock, a Mission Hills resident, will debut \u201cThe Garden Path of Lou & Laurie,\u201d a drama depicting an imaginary, yet doomed, relationship that uses songs by counter-culture musicians Laurie Anderson and the late Lou Reed.<\/p>\n
In \u201cBeast,\u201d Noble has choreographed an \u201caggressive, physically-daring and theatrical\u201d story, organizers said, that uses facial expression and movement to initiate the choreography. Movement in the dancers\u2019 faces are examined, then distorted: \u201cunlocking the inner beast,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalashock\/RAW4\u201d will be staged for three performances, Nov. 14 \u2013 16 at 8 p.m. at the Lyceum Stage, 79 Horton Plaza in Downtown. General admission tickets are $25, and there is a VIP reception after the final performance on Saturday; tickets (which include the show) are $75.<\/p>\n
For tickets visit lyceumevents.org or call 619-544-1000. For more information on Malashock Dance, visit malashockdance.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
High energy dance is unspeakably physical Anthony King | Downtown News There are plenty of ways to classify dance\u2014from grandiose ballet to street-smart krumping, and from modern jazz to the pop-culture speed of \u201cSo You Think You Can Dance\u201d\u2014but there really is only one purpose: to tell a story. It is up to the choreographers […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Malashock returns with RAW","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}