Berkeley Ballet Theater to Premiere 4 Dance Films

Tomorrow evening Berkeley Ballet Theater (BBT) will present Available Light, a livestream program of four new short films involving the collaboration of original dance, music, and film. The term “available light” refers to any naturally occurring light source, such as the sun. Each of the four offerings will provide its own unique take on the spirit of finding the light which is constantly available to all of us. The performers will be the dancers of BBT's Youth Division, Studio Company, and Adult Open Division, along with guest artists from Post:ballet. Program specifics are as follows:

1. “The Speed of Distance,” choreographed by Ky Frances for the Youth Division is set to music by Nicole Lizée with videography by Eric Koziol and editing by Loren Robertson.
2. Choreographer Maurya Kerr created “the beloveds who pound the earth” for the Studio Company. The music will be the aria “Ombre de mon amant” (the shadow of my beloved), an anonymous text set to music by the seventeenth-century composer Michel Lambert. This selection will be performed by Bay Area countertenor Matheus Coura accompanied by Jon Mendle on lute. The video work will be created by Alexander and Valentina Reneff-Olson.
3. The Reneff-Olsons also created the video for “Aleykom Salam,” choreographed by Keon Saghari. (Some readers may recall that Saghari provided choreography, which she executed on roller skates, for the “Nimrod” variation from Edward Elgar’s Opus 36 “Variations on an Original Theme” when One Found Sound performed the music for their annual fundraising gala.) The music will be by Sahba Aminikia, and the video will be edited by Pia Vinson.
4. The final selection will be choreographed by BBT Artistic Director Robert Dekkers. “This Kind of Love” will be set to music by Bay Area singer and songwriter Majerl Connery. The dancers will be Studio Company Apprentices. Studio Company member Elizabeth Inami will edit the video created by the Reneff-Olsons.

The livestream will begin at 7 p.m tomorrow, Saturday, December 19. The duration of the program will be about 90 minutes. Those planning to watch the livestream are invited to register through the Facebook Event Page for this performance. The video itself will be streamed through a YouTube Web page.