Dance: The San Francisco Bay Area is exploding with great dance this week. Take your pick:
Fortunately the rainy skies have mostly cleared, because the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company opens their latest show, ?Danger Orange? at the Embarcadero?s Justin Herman Plaza today at noon. Alex Nichols has collaborated with Jenkins to create a ?distinctive alteration of the landscape for the Plaza, including a surprise treatment of the Vaillancourt Fountain.? If the way he transformed the cold concrete Herbst Pavilion is any indication, the results could be spectacular. Jenkins, of course, is one of the seminal women of Bay Area modern dance (I like to picture her in sorority with Isadora Duncan, Anna Halprin, and Brenda Way?what a quartet!). The free lunchtime shows run through Saturday. For details, click here.
On Friday, the Mark Morris Dance Group returns to UC Berkeley?s Cal Performances with a West Coast premiere, ?Violet Cavern,? set to a commissioned score performed live by jazz ensemble The Bad Plus, and ?Mosaic and United.? The second program, opening next Thursday, is a can?t-miss: the world premiere of ?Rock of Ages,? commissioned by Cal Performances; ?I Don?t Want to Love;? ?Marble Halls;? and the stirring ?V.? For details, click here.
Meanwhile, the sassy and soulful Yaelisa is back with her Caminos Flamencos at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Saturday and Sunday in ?Sol Viento Flamenco.? Always eliciting a shower of ?Oles!,? Yaelisa is training an ensemble of distinctive young women who can each hold the spotlight in her own right. Virtuoso guitarist and adventurous music director Jason ?El Rubio? McGuire promises to debut a ?new electronic flamenco fusion sound of chambao, as it is known in Spain.? Whatever the surprises, Caminos Flamencos shows are consistently beautifully lit and staged. For details, click here.
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