‘Cultivate’ Creates Community in Malashock Dance Company’s Season Opener – San Diego Union-Tribune

It is not unusual for contemporary choreographers to declare that the meaning and meaning behind their movement language has captured the imagination of the audience.

That’s not the case with “Cultivate,” the Malashock Dance production performing next weekend at the Saville Theater downtown.

Three of artistic director Christopher K. Morgan’s choreographed dances were inspired by powerful themes with a clear point of view.

“You Are Here/Usted Está Aquí,” for example, is a modular work that combines contemporary dance with the oral history of San Diego residents.

“Over time we will collect many stories and many solos for each story,” Morgan explains. “We may perform many of the solos at the same time, but at other times we may also play small suites of them.”

“You Are Here/Usted Está Aquí” was introduced earlier this year at the ENVZN arts festival, drawing an enthusiastic audience who watched intently as the company’s soloists brought San Diegans’ recorded stories to life with expressive dance.

They heard from the single mother who survived and lived in a poverty-stricken neighborhood that was also “warm and welcoming.”

In another dance, a man spoke about the ways his life was enriched by San Diego’s art scene and architecture.

The last solo was performed by Morgan.

Dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and black pants, he entered the outdoor stage carrying a net of thick white rope and moved with a combination of muscular aggression and liquid grace.

The prop, Morgan said, was made with traditional Hawaiian rope tying techniques in a shape that could symbolize a cloak or a fishing net.

The story began with the statement: “In 1953, my father left his fishing village and enlisted in the Marines.”

As the story unfolded, Morgan’s movement language suggested both tenderness and anger as he slammed the net onto the ground, spun around until the net enveloped him, and when he turned it over his head, it looked as if he had wings.

“That part is my own personal story,” says Morgan, who is of Native Hawaiian descent.

“I thought about how sometimes our identity becomes a cloak that traps you and becomes a wrap around you. But it’s also this thing that can expand and take off.”

While collecting oral histories from several San Diego residents, Morgan recalled the challenges of his youth and found it interesting that he now lives three blocks from the hospital where his father received a physical before entering basic training.

“I am gay and have been with my husband for 19 years. In that time we have been married for 11 years,” he said.

“My father just passed away in April. The first few years I was queer, my father didn’t accept it or talk about it. He also didn’t meet my husband until 2017. But over time, they got along incredibly well. It took him a long time to accept me and my family, but I feel very fortunate that he did so before he passed away.

Another work on the program is “Companions,” a work commissioned by the San Diego Museum of Art for which Morgan and founder and director John Malashock had to create a dance interpretation of the painting “Child’s Companions” by Armenian-American Arshile Gorky.

The choreographers responded differently to the abstract work.

Malashock was inspired by Armenian music created while painting and Morgan utilized the talents of a filmmaker documenting the recent civil unrest in Armenia. Some of her images provide a backdrop for movement that shifts from light-hearted child’s play to ‘something more intense and ominous’.

In addition, the program includes the SEED Suite, a selection of dances commissioned by local choreographers, and the premiere of Morgan’s ‘The Dulling Effect’, a dance inspired by a 1930s Harvard study that suggested radio could dull the senses .

Morgan brought up the fact that just over thirty years ago there were about fifty American media companies and that most media in the United States is now controlled by six companies.

The result of fewer news sources, he said, can contribute to narrowing perspectives and limited vision.

“As we find ourselves increasingly in our own echo chambers of ideas and opinions, it concerns me that some kind of homogeneity could be emerging,” Morgan said.

“The news I get through my social media platforms feels like what I’m already connected to and I have to work to get out of my bubble. I think that parallels what I think is happening legislatively in our country. Fear around different identities creates laws that limit our freedoms.”

His dance illustrates these concepts.

During a rehearsal for “The Dulling Effect” earlier this month, he instructed three dancers to create a line connected to outstretched arms, while one dancer glided around and through the spaces between the bodies, testing the strength of the formation.

“The line continues to shape and reform to create a sense of conformity and homogeneity,” Morgan explains.

“Dancers in the following sections will try to find ways to escape the line and express their own unique individuality.”

The message Morgan wants to convey in ‘The Dulling Effect’ is that our differences are essential to survival.

“Without diversity within our own human race, I fear we will become weak and disjointed,” Morgan emphasized.

“If you look at nature, diversity is strength for me. Diverse systems support each other and have ways to regenerate life and sustainability.”

Malashock Dance presents ‘Cultivate’

When: 7:30 PM Saturday; 2:30 PM November 3

Where: Saville Theater, San Diego City College, 1313 Park Blvd., San Diego

Tickets: $40-$50, general; $30, students; $10, 12 and under

Online: malashockdance.org

The November 3 show is a ‘relaxed performance’ and provides a supportive environment for people with neurodiverse needs