2 SF Bay Area choreographers finally getting national recognition

I’ll admit to feeling the occasional pang of annoyance over the East Coast cultural establishment’s habitual myopia when it comes to recognizing the creative work produced by choreographers and dancers out here on the Pacific Rim, particularly in the Bay Area.

So it was particularly satisfying to get the news that Alonzo King, the intrepid choreographer who founded his company LINES Ballet in San Francisco in 1982, was receiving an honorary doctorate from Juilliard. Awarded during the school’s 114th commencement ceremony on May 24, the honor adds to his mantle, which already holds honorary doctorates from Dominican University of California and California Institute of the Arts.

As a dancemaker who has distinguished himself not only with his choreography but via onstage collaborations with a succession of extraordinary musicians such as Zakir Hussain, Pharoah Sanders, Lisa Fischer, and Kronos Quartet, the recognition from Juilliard is particularly apt, as was that for his honoris causa compatriots, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and indomitable Berkeley resident Rita Moreno (who knows a little something about dancing).

In another well-deserved nod for an invaluable and often bracing Bay Area choreographer, San Francisco’s Jo Kreiter recently received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Since founding her company Flyaway Productions in 1996, she’s created a series of soaring site-specific works that use gravity-defying aerial dance techniques for deep dives into social issues, often tied to a dance’s location. The Guggenheim Foundation hailed Kreiter’s “masterful use of place, an intersectional feminist lens and a body-based push against the constraints of gravity.”

Kreiter’s work “uses the artistry of spinning, flying, and exquisite suspension to engage political issues and to articulate the experiences of unseen women,” the Foundation added. “The company creates a sense of spectacle to make a lasting impression with an audience, striving for the right balance of awe, provocation and daring.”

There’s no better way to celebrate a master than to take part in one of her productions. At 98, Anna Halprin has spent her life radically expanding the possibilities and meaning of dance as a visionary choreographer and teacher. For the past four decades, she’s overseen “Planetary Dance,” an open call dance-cum-ritual at Mount Tamalpais State Park in Marin County that brings together several hundred people.

The 39th annual “Planetary Dance” returns to the fields near Mount Tam on June 2. It’s an event  designed for public participation, and a few years ago, I joined the throng with my wife and 5-year-old daughter, forming expansive circles within circles while reveling in the open-hearted spectacle.

It wasn’t just the opportunity to join a Halprin production, it was also a chance to connect with the legacy of the woman who pioneered site-specific dance happenings and introduced everyday movement into choreography (innovations often associated with artists who studied with her, such as Judson Dance Theater founders Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer). Everything you need to know about participating can be found at  planetarydance.org.

Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.