If you use public transportation, particularly on the weekends, then you will be in for a treat Sept. 24-25 and Oct. 1-2. If you are more of a car, bicycle or foot-based traveler then you should make an exception on any one of those days and seek out the MTS Green Line because the 13th annual Trolley Dances are coming to town.
Essentially, during the course of the next two weekends as many as 60 performers will spread out across a predetermined line of the slinky red trolley system and perform site-specific dances for bemused commuters and avid fans that have purchased ticket packages in advance. In the past the Trolley Dances have happened on lines going to the border or through the central tourist corridor of Old Town and the Gaslamp. This year the event begins at Grantville Trolley Station and takes everyone on a ride to Santee. Businesses in Santee and en route also participate, offering various promotions.
The idea for the Trolley Dances was conceived by Jean Isaacs of the San Diego Dance Theater back in the 1990s when she was in Bern, Switzerland. A regular sightseeing tour that she innocently began morphed into an adventure where passengers encountered avant-garde art in unexpected locations throughout the city.
Back home in San Diego, Isaacs married this experience with her need for an affordable stage, site specific choreography and an ongoing interest in community. She wanted to find a way to bring different dancers and choreographers together and bring the art of dance out into the city and suburbs. And so the Trolley Dances were born.
The process for each year’s Trolley Dances begins a full year in advance and one of the first steps is choosing choreographers and arranging public auditions for dancers. A San Diego Dance Company dancer and choreographer who has participated in all but one of the local Trolley Dances is John Diaz. I asked Diaz how he approaches choosing his trolley route venue and choreographing a dance around it.
“As a choreographer I am interested in sites that have vast vistas and that offer plenty of space to work with. In 2007 I choreographed Concourse Dance at the downtown San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art with 13 dancers. This year I am choreographing Present Juncture on site at the Grantville Trolley Station in Mission Valley with eight dancers. In both instances I was interested in dancers who surprised me during the audition process. Not only was I looking for great technique, but more importantly a strong sense of self. It is very important that I see the human being behind the artist.
During rehearsals I create many fragments in response to the site. This can only be done on site. After a critical amassing of these movement fragments, I work to connect them in different parts of the site editing speed according to the time allotted.
Finally, I apply an overlay of music and costume. In working this way, an idea of ‘what’ this work is becomes evident over time. It is my intention to let the dance be what it needs to be without interference from expectations or preconceived ideas I may have had in the beginning when I first came to the site.”
Diaz is just one of several choreographers and his team of dancers just one of many performing all along the trolley route. If you are looking for something different to do, this is probably it.
Go to sandiegodancetheater.org to find out more about this year’s Trolley Dance route and to purchase a ticket.
See you on the Green Line!
