SBDTCrosses Borders… and Boundaries 

José Limón – or at least the dance company founded by the famed dancer and choreographer from Mexico who developed a technique that employs visceral gestures to communicate emotions – runs deeply through the new season from Santa Barbara Dance Theater (SBDT), the professional dance company in residence at UCSB. Which is not surprising, given that Brandon Whited, in his third year as SBDT’s Artistic Director, was trained in the Limón technique and often expands upon it in his own choreography. 

SBDT’s October 18-22 concerts at Hatlen Theater feature a re-staging and expansion of Rosie Herrera’s Querida Heridam, which was originally commissioned by the Limón company in 2018, and the world premiere of Eric Parra’s La Luz/The Light, which Whited commissioned from the LDC senior dancer and teaching artist. 

But there’s more to the story. The impetus was also finding a nexus to Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900-1955, an exhibit co-created by UCSB professor Ninotchka Bennahum and former UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum director Bruce Robertson currently on display at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and heading to the AD&A museum in January. Limón is one of the central figures in the exhibit, which will be expanded into a symposium and performance series in January. SBDT will be involved. 

“I wanted to find a way to interface with our mission of creating new and experimental work that pushes and questions traditions and techniques,” Whited explained. “What if we take the same theme and impulse that drove Limón in his time as an up-and-coming choreographer. Commissioning Eric was a way to both pay it forward in lifting up a rising voice, but also to engage the themes of the bigger project.”

Whited said that Parra’s piece – set on the company’s five dancers plus two apprentices – has a narrative impulse stemming from his family’s experience in emigrating from Colombia when Eric was a child, underpinned with a unique and individual sense of movement invention. 

“There are themes of sacrifice, perseverance, aspiration, and community, which come across in his flow between quiet, intimate, small duets and huge, fast-paced, high-impact group sections full of momentum and drive. It’s a really exciting range.” 

Querida Heridam, which translates to ‘Beloved Wound’ and has been expanded from a trio to the full SBDC company by Cuban American dancer-choreographer-director Herrera, is a dark and absurdist romantic comedy set to a series of nostalgic Spanish ballads. The costumes feature zippers that reveal the body in different ways as they’re unzipped, and a full zip line that comes across stage, plus the sound of zippers as the score in one section, Whited said. 

“She really dug into the concept and the physical materiality of zippers, but there’s a conceptual layer of how we reveal ourselves to each other through relationships, and how we wound the ones that you love,” he said. “It’s really rich and very visually theatrical.”

Beyond Limón, there’s also another theme that links together the works in the program, dubbed “The Ties that Bind.” 

“My curatorial impulse is centered on Latinx contemporary voices in the dance field, but also to examine the ways people engage with notions of their own identity and representation through aesthetics and performative styles,” Whited said. 

Hence his own contribution to the October program, Miles to Go, a duet focusing on the trauma and overwhelming effect of news of recent, ongoing and increasing violence, discrimination, and legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community. 

“The piece speaks to our current moment in the politics of what’s been happening to the LGBTQ+ community in a similar way that the other artists on the program are engaging with their cultural heritage and sense of race and identity,” he said. “What are the things that build community and connection through our humanity, and what are also the things that kind of bind us and restrict us? The title has the double meaning.” 

On January 27, SBDT dancers will join the Limón Dance Company for a performance of Missa Brevis at the Granada Theatre as part of the Border Crossings project, and will return to the Hatlen the next afternoon with members of LDC, UCSB Dance Company and SBDT performing, with the company’s choreographers on hand. 

“I’m really proud of this season,” Whited said. “I’m so excited to share it.”