Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
MARTY CLEARThough firmly grounded in artistic principles, the Sean Curran Dance Company thrives on variety and a touch of the fanciful.
Sesame Street, Irish step dancing, Stomp!, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company don't have much in common.
But they all figure into the resume of New York City dancer-choreographer Sean Curran, who is bringing his dance company to the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center for a master class Friday and performance Saturday.
Curran, who began his training with traditional Irish dance, was a member of the groundbreaking Jones/Zane group before joining the original cast of Stomp! and then becoming a featured performer on Sesame Street. That eclectic background shows up in his work.
"Merce Cunningham says he started working on a dance in 19-whatever-the-year-was, and that he has been working on the same dance ever since," Curran said in a phone interview. "He's phenomenal, he's a legend, but I'm not interested in doing the same dance every time. I feel our performances are sort of a collage, with all sorts of varied pieces. I'm concerned with a sense of adventure, with coming to the work with a sense of play."
There's evidence of Curran's stylistic variety in the program for the Tarpon Springs show. The first half is a series of works set to an original percussive score by Tigger Benford. The second half is a single work called Sonata (We Are What We Were), with familiar music by Czech composer Leos Janacek.
"I'm a musical choreographer, which means that I am a choreographer because I love music so much," he said. "Other musical choreographers, like George Balanchine, who's one of my heroes, and Mark Morris, they read the score, they work with the score. I'm not a musician, I don't read music, but I have a passion for music that I express in my work. I would say I hope to make you listen to the music in a different way."
Saturday's performance marks the Sean Curran Dance Company's first in the Tampa Bay area, a coup for the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center.
"This is the first major national dance company we've had in several years, since the Florida Dance Festival left Tampa," said Kathleen Monahan, the center's director. "We hope to bring in at least one company of this caliber every year, and we're also looking for a company to do an extended residency."
One reason the center was so interested in Curran, she said, is that his work has a light and fanciful quality but is seriously grounded in dance fundamentals. So it should appeal both to dance aficionados and newcomers to the art.
There's also a bonus for local dance fans. One of the nine dancers in the company is Peter Kalivas, a former Tarpon Springs resident who still teaches regularly at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts.
PREVIEW: The Sean Curran Dance Company, 8 p.m. Saturday, Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center. $17; members or students $15. The company will also conduct a master class at 7 p.m. Friday for up to 30 dancers and observers; $10. Call (727) 942-5605.