February 5, 2010
By VICKI SMITH PALUCH
Choreographer Lula Washington sounds invigorated.
Her long-standing modern dance company is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an ambitious performance schedule, and the national media is buzzing about her choreography for James Cameron’s Oscar-nominated box-office juggernaut “Avatar.”
“The Na’vi (the blue aliens in `Avatar’) celebrate themselves through dance,” said Washington, who founded Lula Washington Dance Theatre in 1980. “They are an elegant people who love their land, very much like our aboriginal cultures.”
The company is kicking off the local portion of its 30th anniversary tour Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. The tour started in mid-January with a series of dance concerts in Philadelphia and New Jersey.
Like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Washington’s company and choreography embody the black experience and celebrate it in joyful and often thought-provoking works. And like Ailey’s, her dancers can do it all: modern, jazz, street dance, West African and ballet.
Washington explained that to create the ritual dances of the Na’vi, she looked at African, Australian Aboriginal and Native American tribal movement.
“My choreography has elements of those aboriginal movements, but with a difference,” she said. “I also drew from the movement vocabulary of (black dance pioneer) Katherine Dunham. It’s a holistic approach. I took the undulations and grounding of the Dunham technique
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to bring the spirituality to the movement.”
When the company was not performing on stage in 2007 and 2008, Washington’s dancers wore computerized bodysuits that captured every graceful, feral movement they performed for use in “Avatar.” Her daughter, Tamica Washington-Miller, was a stunt double for CCH Pounder, who in “Avatar” portrays Mo’at, the high priestess and mother of the central character, Neytiri.
“It was a blessing to work with Mr. Cameron. It gave my mother a real boost,” said Washington-Miller, who has followed in her mother’s footsteps as a dancer and choreographer, and who directs the company’s youth ensemble.
But that was then and this is now, and Washington is never content to sit on her laurels. Thus, the 30th anniversary tour is under way.
“For every concert we do locally this year, Lula is creating a new work,” said Erwin Washington, Lula’s husband and the company’s executive director.
The company has several engagements scheduled in Southern California after the performance at Cerritos. They include National Dance Week concerts April 24 through 26 at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre studio in Los Angeles; Santa Clarita Valley Performing Arts Center, April 30; Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State Los Angeles, May 15; the Hollywood Bowl with Terrence Blanchard, July 7; andas part of the Grand Performances series in downtown Los Angeles, July 24.
At Cerritos, the company will perform Washington’s newest work, “www.connections.2010,” which is set to the music of the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Pachelbel. The work explores how relationships have been affected by the Internet, e-mail and cell phones.
The company also will perform the world premiere of “Love Is …,” choreographed by Christopher Huggins, former principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Also on the program are “Beautiful Venus and Serena” (2008), Washington-Miller’s exploration of sibling rivalry between the history-making African-American tennis stars from Compton; and Washington’s “We Wore the Mask” (2006) and “Ode to the ’60s” (2007).
“I came up with `Connections’ because of where I am in my career. I have to deal with e-mail and the Internet. It’s a good thing. It’s a way of connecting with people and a new method of communicating,” Washington said recently, after teaching class at her school and studio in South Los Angeles. “With Facebook, I have reconnected with dancers who worked with me 27 years ago. It’s like going into a goody store.”
Washington said she selected the music of the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Pachelbel to allow her to connect with different audiences. She said she also decided to let the dances speak the movement language of her audience.
“I’m looking for ways to connect with people,” she said. “I want them to see movement that they know. The dances they do at family reunions, the dances everyone knows,” she said.
Those dances include the Chicken Dance, the Hustle and the Electric Slide.
She also incorporates Michael Jackson’s moonwalk into one section, when a dancer executes the signature move while using a cell phone to show the power of social networking.
“I hope to see them dancing in the lobby,” said Washington.
With 12 dancers, Lula Washington Dance Theatre has become one of the best known African-American dance companies in the West. Her performers are recognized for their powerful, high-energy dancing, and Washington is acclaimed for the breadth and depth of her choreography.
“We Wore the Mask” is a perfect example of how Washington tackles the serious subject of black identity in America. The work uses traditional music and the reading of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s titular poem to celebrate black self-realization by removing the mask of the imposed behavior standard set by slave owners and white society.
“The masks were worn for survival. Blacks had to act a certain way, just as women had to. It transcends race,” said Washington, who received the state’s first Minerva Award in 2004 for her work in the black community, particularly her “Dance, Not Drugs” education program and her annual Kwanzaa celebration.
She tackles the era of cultural revolution in “Ode to the ’60s,” which is set to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, James Brown and Peter, Paul and Mary.
“There are so many parallels to today: health care, and soldiers struggle still,” said Washington, 59. “It’s for the younger generation. They don’t know about the era. At the end, we leave them dancing in the aisles and asking their parents and grandparents about what it was like.”
Lula Washington Dance Theatre
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts,
12700 Center Court Drive.
Tickets: $24 to $48.
Information: 800-300-4345 or www.cerritoscenter.com.
Vicki Smith Paluch is an Altadena freelance writer.
Design is based on a theme by GPP
All content © 2012 Lula Washington Dance Theatre
