Unique Julia Adam Dance outdoor recital returns returns
Even before the pandemic made it de rigueur to dine or watch dance outdoors, Julia Adam Dance was combining the culinary and choreographic arts en plein air.
It started nine years ago, when Adam and her company began presenting an annual outdoor event featuring a sumptuous meal and dancing under the stars.
And now the event is back with RESILI3NCE; the dancers and chefs will be working their magic July 8-10 and 15-17 at Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma.
Two decades ago, when Adam retired as a principal dancer from the San Francisco Ballet, she was already looking to move in new directions. She married Aaron Lucich, who would later become her collaborative partner in Julia Adam Dance, started a family, and became an award-winning choreographer for ballet companies across the country, including her former company.
But she still wanted an even bigger shift in the way audiences looked at dance. For artists and observers alike, it was time to leave the confining walls of the studio and the theater. Adam and Lucich envisioned a more holistic way of experiencing art and the elements that nurture us physically and emotionally. Resili3nce is their latest endeavor in the series of creations that meld community, art, food, and the natural world.
Emerging from the deep shadow of the pandemic, the recent work of many artists in various fields expresses what it means to survive during these unprecedented times. But the recent political chaos, war and autocratic leanings are starting to spawn broader responses to what could be the world of the future and not just a passing phase amid a return to a pre-COVID life.
Each year Lucich comes up with the theme for the presentation and Adam runs with it. But resilience is a common theme.
“I think about how we create rules and then we break them,” says Adam. “The essence of resilience is we keep breaking and putting back together — knock down, stand up, knock down, stand up — this whole idea of going backwards and then trying to go forward. That takes resilience.”
Using music as diverse as Max Richter’s reimagining of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” Grammy-winner Jon Batiste’s rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, plus an a cappella version of “America,” Adam said in a recent interview she had choreographed the first movement of the ballet based “on the telling
the Ten Commandments, and I have used almost eight.”
Adam has always based her work on narrative even when it isn’t obvious to the audience. This is the first time she has wanted to exercise a political voice.
“My piece is in direct response to the events that are happening today,” she said. “This has been going on since the beginning of people. It goes back to ancient times, to religion and dogma and propaganda. It takes courage to take a stand. And not in a way that you aren’t flexible. You don’t want to fight where you’re saying, ‘You’re wrong. I’m right.’ When you look up the definition of resilience in
the dictionary there are many different ways of looking at it.”
Asked about costumes, Adam says, “I’ve never done this before, but we’re going to the thrift store to buy clothing because those clothes have resilience. I want the costumes to look old, not new and shiny. The clothing they’ll be wearing has weight. Usually I use a costume designer, but this time I don’t know what I want, that’s why we’re going as a group to the thrift store. I want the dancers to look like people, not something ethereal.”
This unique event immerses you in an experience for all the senses. With breathtaking views of the surrounding hills, you dine family style on food that’s locally-sourced and regeneratively grown in Sonoma and Marin counties. Even the dancers are an organic unit, hand-picked from ballet companies for which Adam has already created many pieces and with whom she has danced in previous seasons.
After dinner, with cups of hot chocolate or bone broth, attendees will sit on risers by the open-air stage for the world premiere of “RESILI3NCE,” which celebrates
our ability to persevere through current challenges and explores our capacity to grow through adversity.
‘RESILI3NCE’
Presented by Julia Adam Dance
When: 5:30-10 p.m. July 8-10 and 15-17
Where: Tara Firma Farms, 3796 St., Petaluma (see website for directions)
Tickets: $200 Fridays & Sundays, $250 Saturdays (includes dinner and performance); July 10 event is sold out; JuliaAdamDance.com.