Darkness Into Light

Pamela Trokanski, a Davis treasure, has been choreographing, performing and teaching in Davis for 34 years. She has given lectures and demonstrations and, since 1994, has funded almost 10,000 free-movement classes for adults 65 and older. She has provided free dance classes for people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers since 2010. At one time she wrote a dance column for The Enterprise.


When I started as a critic, she invited me to come and review one of her dance concerts. I explained that I knew absolutely nothing about dance and she said that made me perfect to review her shows because she meant them to be accessible to everyone.

Over the years, I don’t know how much I have learned about dance, but I certainly have appreciated how accessible they are to everyone.

“Darkness into Light” has one more weekend to play at the Trokanski studio. It is a most timely piece, opening the day of the Pittsburgh killings and a week after all the bomb deliveries. The message is about trying to find peace in this chaotic world in which we live, where we are bombarded by pressures and negative messages on all sides.

How do we find peace for ourselves when we are concerned about the health of the planet or the rapid changes in technology? How do we find balance in a world that feels increasingly chaotic and disorganized? We no longer worry about lions, tigers and bears (oh my) but politics, ethics and technology.

Trokanski’s printed programs are always frustrating because they are misleading. There are eight dancers, it says, but nine show up (the unlisted dancer is Trokanski herself). Music is listed in order of performance, but a piece by Pink (which I figured would help me figure out if I was keeping up) is No. 4 on the list and No. 7 in the performance. Company member stories are listed in order, but Allegra Silberstein (the only dancer I recognized) is No. 2 on the list and doesn’t speak until fourth or fifth.

Better to forget trying to keep it straight and just enjoy the dancing (unless you have to write a review of it).

Dancers, who range in age from young (maybe 10 or 11) to 87, are: Lila Boutin, Allegra Silberstein, Michele Tobias, Leela Ghassemi, Padyn den Dulk, Tracy Liu, Asher Habicht and Karen Block, along with Trokanski.

Dances are accompanied by Trokanski’s narrative or by individual dancers’ recorded “stories” of stressors in their lives, some of which set the stage for particular dance numbers.

In one number, the message is about the daily pressures of life: “Have I remembered to put everything in my purse?” “Where are my keys?” “Is there a traffic jam?” “Am I overwhelmed at work?” etc. She compares the stress to the Lucy/Ethel episode of working in the candy factory, with the ever-increasing speed of the conveyor belt. The dancers make the machine, with all the automatic actions while the recorded speakers dance the role of the overwhelmed person. It was an amazing bit of synchronized action that went on so long I don’t know how the dancers had energy to move to the next number.

After a couple of numbers which give suggestions for how to use meditation to slow down our rapid thought processes, there is a beautiful finale, with each dancer holding a lighted candle — and doing an amazing amount of rolling around just barely not touching the candles! They gather together to “Sleeping at Last” for their final bow.

This is a beautiful, meaningful recital, easily enjoyed whether you know dance or not. Just don’t try to follow the printed program.

Turning Corners

There are two more opportunities to see the Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre’s 2017 fall concert, “Turning Corners.”

Eight dancers, ages 9 to 87, ask the question: “Have you ever gone walking, turned a corner, and found a whole new view before you?” It explores how looking at familiar things from a different perspective can have a profound impact on your life.

Each of the dancers has recorded memories of life-altering experiences in his or her life with dances, both solo and ensemble. Unlike previous Trokanski concerts that use a wide range of musical styles (from Pink Floyd to Mozart to Weird Al Yankovic), music for this concert by Jeff Russo and Zoe Keating all seems to have the same title, “Sleeping at Last,” so it’s difficult to differentiate between numbers.

The enjoyment of this delightful show actually starts before the music, with the tongue-in-cheek warnings about cell phones and crying babies, which is definitely different from what you will hear elsewhere.

The performers include members of the Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre, the PTDT Apprentice Company and Third Stage, a multigenerational group.

To start things, 9-year-old Asher Habicht recalls his decision to become a vegan. Habicht, who has danced with Trokanski for a few years now, is a marvel. He has a couple of solos and is in every ensemble number. His dancing is as crisp, clean and synchronized as that of the adults around him.

Allegra Silberstein, 87, the first poet laureate of Davis, has been performing with Trokanski for many years. She recounted her first “turning corners” epiphany when discussing the dangers of communism with her college professor in the 1950s and her surprise when he contrasted communism to Catholicism.

Other dancers recall such issues as adapting to summer camp, the decision to move to New York, the decision of whether to switch majors and a very funny piece about driving (fear of turning left, so spending a lot of time plotting how to get somewhere using only right turns).

The dancers invite the audience to look at their lives upside-down and see what they discover — perhaps relating day-to-day activities with frustrating news out of Washington.

The athletic choreography is both lyrical and militaristic, flowing and funny — and one must notice how much boot sound one can get out of bare feet!


The piece, one act slightly under an hour in length, is a great bit of evening entertainment.

The Value of One

The Pamela Trokanski Dance Theater, now in its 29th season at its workshop on Del Rio Place, is presenting “The Value of One,” with two remaining performances this weekend.

The piece includes approximately 20 dancers with a mix of ages from 7 to 85. There are members of the Pamela Trokanski Dance Theater (Nicole Bell, Sara Delorena, Evelia Fernandez, Sharon Riddle, Irem Sogutlugil, Michele Tobias and Trokanski herself), the PTDT Apprentice Company (Annie Cui, Maddie English, Alison Luck, Kate Macauley and Lindsey Su) and The Third Stage, Northern California’s only multi-generational contemporary dance company (JoAnne Craig-Ferraz, Mia Mangney, Ece Midillioglu, Denise Odenwalder, Cindy Robinson, Marla Shauer, Allegra Silberstein and Adrienna Turner).

The work explores the ripples people leave behind their lives, often without their knowledge. It shows how individuals are affected by interactions with others.

It asks how people are defined at different stages in life, whether they are 7 or 83 or somewhere in between.
The show begins with a recorded message introducing the theme, and explaining that all actions have repercussions. The African proverb, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito” was used to remind people that one person using their cell phone could affect the entire audience. (It was one of the best “turn off your cell phone” messages I’ve ever heard.) “The needs of the one do not outweigh the needs of the others,” the audience was reminded.

The entire group assembled for the opening number, “Stand” by R.E.M., segueing into a number about individual uniqueness, with Michele Tobias talking about her grandfather’s comments that any day that he woke up “on the right side of the dirt was a good day.”

The whole piece was shaped by individual dancers who had recorded feelings about their lives. Ece Midillioglu, 7; Adrianna Turner, 10; and Mia Mangney, 12; described interactions with school friends, the problem of moving to a new school and the influence of a special teacher.

Ece and Adrianna danced to a song by Jewel (“All About Me”) which energetically showed the joy of being a young girl. As they danced in mirror image to their story, six dancers performed along the back wall of the stage, bringing smiles to the audience.

“The World,” by Matthew Ryan, danced by Nicole Bell, explored the “Butterfly Effect” postulated by Edward Lorenz, which says that a change as small as the beating of a butterfly’s wing in one part of the world can affect something else in another part of the world.

A group dance to music by Ane Brun showed sheer joy, “Love, Love, Love … Jump for Joy!”

Allegra Silberstein, the oldest dancer at 83, told of growing up on a farm and the life steps that brought her to becoming the poet laureate of Davis. Silberstein’s moving work sets a wonderful example for anyone who thinks that active life ends at any certain age.

“Hands,” with music by Jewel, asks the audience to find meaning in and connection to the world around us. “If the whole 13.8 billion-year history of the universe was laid out and scaled to the length of a football field … our part of that field, the entire history of human beings, takes up the span of one adult human hand.”

So, knowing this, one might question why would people ever even get out of bed? Although I think that the better question might be: What do we do with that hand?”

In a section that Bob Fosse would love, the dancers explore their hands, connection to each other and to the world and, indeed, “what we do with that hand.”

Tobias was back again, exploring her relationship with her twin sister and how that shaped her life. Evelia Fernandez danced about her father and hiding emotions; Sara Delorena danced about leaving her mother and alcoholic stepfather; Denise Odenwalder talked about a ring challenge; and a “Sand” solo, with music by Nathan Lanier, was danced by Irem Sogutlugil.

By the end of the show, the dancers had drawn the audience into their very personal worlds and let them see how their experiences have shaped — and are shaping — their lives.

The show runs a little over an hour and is a good way to spend an afternoon.

It's About Time

I just love Pamela Trokanski's dance concerts. Where else can one hear Pink Floyd, Mozart and the soundtrack from 'Pajama Game' in the same evening?

The Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre's 2008 fall concert, called 'It's About Time,' examines the effects that time - and clocks - have on our lives, delves into the history of modern time, and explores the elasticity of time, depending on the circumstances under which we find ourselves.

The six dancers - Caitlin Barale, Nicole Bell, Katy Lundgren, Bekah Shepard, Nicole Smith and Trokanski - perform the Herculean task of dancing nonstop for nearly 75 minutes.

The evening starts with a section titled 'The Memoirs of Jesse James,' a reference to a work by Richard Brautigan, who 'remembers all those thousands of hours that I spent in grade school watching the clock ... my teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James for all the time they stole from me.'

To a recording of 'Racing with the Clock' from 'The Pajama Game,' the dancers mimic the mechanism of a clock, from the hands to the inner workings. At one point, they twirl long sticks that mimic a clock's face.

Trokanski's stage design adds to the sensation of passing time, with several kinds of clocks displayed on panels, and a fractal-like projection on the back wall that runs throughout the performance. (Patrick Fitzgibbons gets credit for 'technology.')

'Jesse James' moves smoothly into 'NPR and Radiolab' ... which, I have to say, may have worked against the ultimate goal of a dance performance. The narration follows the history of 'time' and the degree to which U.S. railroads influenced the standardization of time. It also discusses the philosophy of time itself.

To wit: Why does time pass so slowly for children, yet so quickly for adults?

In truth, though, this history lesson was so fascinating that I wanted to return home to study up on the origins of time, rather than concentrating on the hard-working dancers in front of me.

This is not to denigrate the dancers, merely to explain that what should have been background material became so interesting that it briefly overshadowed the dancing.

The performance became more of a background to the lecture, rather than the other way around.

'Flight of the Bumblebee' provided an interesting example of the juxtaposition of time: a delightful bit of choreography accompanied by a podcast of the 'Ode to Joy' portion of Beethoven's ninth symphony, digitally stretched to last 24 hours. (Thankfully, only a brief portion of the 24-hour symphony was played.)

Two dancers - not singled out for identification in the program - performed in 'Nancy Grows Up,' against recordings made by Tony Schwartz of his daughter's vocalizations from birth to age 12.

Trokanski's goal in each of her concerts is to be both humorous and thought-provoking. 'It's About Time' succeeds perhaps better than most; it's an absolutely delightful pastiche.

Best of all, if you check your watches when the performance concludes, you'll have spent only 75 minutes in the theater, give or take a couple, and that time will have been spent very well indeed.

Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre Spring Concert

In the fall of 2005, the Pamela Trokanski Dance Theater presented its “Ephemera” as a work in progress, part of a larger evening of selections. For its spring concert. The PTDT is presenting “Ephemera” as a complete work, approximately 75 minutes without an intermission.


“Ephemera” focuses on the swift passage of time, that our lives seem too short, and that the most important things are often the intangibles. (After 23 years of dance in Davis, one wonders if Trokanski is feeling the swift passage of time herself, and the intangibles which make up the high points of her life.)


The work is based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince,” one section flowing seamlessly into another with no dividing line, save for some voice-over with quotes from Saint-Exupéry which focus on the discussion between the Little Prince and the Fox about friendships, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."


The eclectic selection of music is by artists including Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, and others, and is danced by company members Caitlin Barale, Nicole Bell, Bekah Shepard, Nicole Smith, and Pamela Trokanski, with additional guest dancers Maj Hapworth, Allegra Silberstein, Alex Sprague, and Catherine Schwedler.


The opening number, to a tune by Laurie Anderson showed that “dance” is more than body movement, as the hand movements, done with the dancers' backs to the audience, were mechanically precise and a beautiful visual.


A particularly strong section was set to “The Grave” by Don McClean [sic] (“The grave that they dug him had flowers / Gathered from hillsides in bright summer colors”), danced by Bell, Shepard and Smith, depicting the agony of the death of a young soldier (“I know I'm not brave...the earth is my grave...”)


Trokanski has a solo to a Lyle Lovett song which is a testament to the strength of the dancer, undiminished by time.


My favorite part of the 2005 work in progress remains my favorite part of the finished product, though the choreography has changed in the intervening years. It is “Old Friends,” by Simon and Garfunkel, in this production danced by Hapworth and Silberstein as the old friends, with Sprague and Schwedler as the young friends they once were. It is a beautiful salute to lasting friendship and how years melt away when old friends recalls their younger days.


“Death Cab for Cutie,” in which we are told that “love is watching someone die” segues into a song about Trains by Hank Lawson, with the dancers, in Pilobolus-like fashion, becoming a vehicle and move off stage, while Hapworth, Silberstein, Sprague and Schwedler move back and forth across the back of the stage, as trains, dropping off another car each time.


The entire troup reassembles for the finale section, to music by Lyle Lovett, closing off a delightful and often moving performance.


Ephemera: anything short-lived or transitory, lasting but a day. This production lasts but three days, so dance enthusiasts should get to the Pamela Trokanski Performing Arts Center before it disappears completely.

Spring Concert 2007

Pamela Trokanski, who has been entertaining Davis Audiences for over twenty years, is examining life, love, sex, relationships -- and voice mail.

The Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre’s Spring Concert 2007 continues March 30, 31, and April 6 at 8 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, 2720 Del Rio Place in Davis. The concert is performed by members of the theater (Caitlin Barale, Nicole Bell, Robin Carlson, Katy Lundgren, Bekah Shepard, Cindy Robinson and Trokanski herself) and members from “Third Stage,” Northern California’s only multi generational contemporary dance company. Maj Hapworth, Allegra Silberstein and Claire Finn join in on the second of three pieces.

The evening opens with a delightful (if overly long) look at voice mail hell and everyone in the audience will be able to relate to the relentless telephone sound (Hank Lawson is credited with “music,” though this isn’t exactly “music”) and with the recorded announcements from the disembodied operator, who wants to assure the dancers that their call is very important to her.

The piece is clever and funny and the robotic movements of the dancers match the mood perfectly, though it runs something like 16 minutes and the humor begins to wear thin at about 10 minutes.

The second piece is entitled “Singing Over Bones.” The original cast of dancers is joined by Claire Finn, with Hapworth and Silberstein playing the roles of old village women who gather wolf bones and sing over them, the legend being that as the songs build in intensity, the bones reconstitute, fill in with muscles skin and fur and the wolves run off in the direction of the forest. Those who make it to the trees are reborn into women, women who know where they come from and women who can laugh.

Lighting designer Myvanwy Morgan creates a mystical place for women to gather. The older women are circled by women in purple who dance in slow, sensuous movements, much like harem dancers. As the chorus and rhythm (music also by Hank Lawson) builds they are joined by the rest of the group, dressed in red, the lights become warmer and you feel as if you are watching a very special ritual, which is primitive, uniquely female, and reminiscent of drum circles.

After a brief intermission the original group is back with the premiere of “Come Naked, Bring Beer,” which examines the who, what, when, where and how of courtship, defined as “the process of selecting and attracting another for an intimate relationship such as love, sex, commitment, living together, marriage, and having children, or any combination of these. Courtship may last days, months, or even years, but some lovers skip courting altogether as in cases of (mutual) love at first sight, casual sex or arranged marriage.”

The sense of a “hunt” is depicted by the animal print added as sleeves to the original costume, sleeves which later extend to floor length and move as wings in describing courtship rituals and comparing them to bower birds.

The various little things that a woman is looking for a mate are described in intimate detail through music by Lawson, Crash Test Dummies, and They Might be Giants. Guest Dancer Bill Tuck joins the women as “Superman,” and the piece concludes with the realization that a man’s wants and desires are much less complex and much more basic.

Probability Theories and Match.com

Where can you go and hear, in the same night recorded music by Beethoven, folk singer Cheryl Wheeler, and Weird Al Yankovic? Where else but at Pamela Trokanski’s Fall Concert, “Probability Theories and Match.com.”

Choreographed by Trokanski, the recital examines the world of dating, not dating, breaking up, living alone, and finding love through an on-line dating service. The dancers are: Caitlin Barale, Nicole Bell, Robin Carlson, Ai Hayasi, Trokanski herself, and Katie Lundgren (whose name was left out of the program).

Section I sets up the premise, comparing “love” to “probability theory,” the mathematical study of phenomena characterized by randomness or uncertainty. Was there ever a human emotion which more aptly fit a mathematical theorem!

The dancers are dressed in scarlet red outfits and first appear seated on stools while a voiceover explains probability theory and the pain of love betrayed. A perfect introduction to the first movement of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, which is danced with military precision as the dancers portray the anger of a jilted lover and the pain of trying to recover, including attendance at a lively support group.

Cheryl Wheeler’s “Addicted” follows.

She says she feels like she's addicted to a real bad thing,
Always sitting, waiting, wondering if the phone will ring,
She knows she bounces like a yo-yo when he pulls her string,
It hurts to feel like such a fool.

A piece for three dancers followed, a strident number by experimental performing artist Laurie Anderson, which can only be described as exploring the “prickly” feelings of a love gone wrong.

Following numbers by Lyle Lovett and James Blunt (which features a solo performance by Trokanski), the section closes with a delightful “Love Stinks,” by the J. Geils Band, where the dancers prove that anything, even toilet plungers, can work as props.

Section II examines the premise of living without love and asks if a woman can find fulfillment living with cats, without having to shave her legs. The opening “Moonlight Sonata” presents the dancers perhaps emulating the cat, with long, slow, stretched out movement.

A later piece, the charming “4 legs good, 2 legs bad”(Christine Kane) which asks whether it’s better to have animals or a boyfriend, gives the dancers the opportunity for some real fun mimicking pets (my favorite was the shaking leg response to a scratched tummy).

“Coin Operated Boy” by Dresden Dolls explores the possibility of finding satisfaction, if not exactly love, with an animated doll. It is fun watching how the dancers move so effortlessly from the fluidity of motion of household pets to the metallic precision of a robotic human.

This section ends with Weird Al Yankovic’s “One More Minute,” which embodies the rage of a woman whose lover done her wrong.

I'd rather have my blood sucked out by leeches
Shove an icepick under a toenail or two
I'd rather clean all the bathrooms in Grand Central Station with my tongue
Than spend one more minute with you

Section III, the final in the recital, explores the world of on-line dating and comes with a confession by the choreographer of having done “extensive research” at Match.com.

The section opens with the beautiful Adagio from Beethoven’s Sonata No. 8 (the “Pathétique”) and reprises some of the choreography from earlier sections.

Cheryl Wheeler makes a return with her “Arrow,” wishing for another chance at love

Oh, I wish I could fall in love
Though it only leads to trouble, oh I know it does.
Still I'd fool myself and gladly just to feel I was
In love

It is a wistful number, beautifully danced.

The evening ends on a more strident note with music by Kate Bush, which finds the dancers balancing precariously on top of the stools they have carried onto the stage, hoping to open their arms to love, while at the same time conquering their fear of commitment.

This is a short (1 hour) recital with great variety in both music and dance and everyone should find something to enjoy in it. There are two more performances, tonight and Saturday night, both at 8 p.m. at the Pamela Trokanski Dance Workshop and Performing Arts Center.

Ascending / Descending

“Ascending / Descending In Spite of, Despite, and Anyway” is the title of the Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre’s Spring Concert, in the Dance Workshop Theater on Del Rio Pl. The show lasts for an hour and a half, without intermission and features dancers Nicole Bell, Caitlin Barale, Lisa Lin, Katy Lundgren, Rosie Shelton-Mottsmith and Trokanski herself.

The recorded music for this concert is by English composer Peter Gabriel, noted for his world music, described as “pictorial and imaginative.”

The concert is divided into six sections, each inspired by a piece of poetry. The first was “Treasure Hunt” by Robert Penn Warren (Hunt, Hunt again. If you do not find it, you will die.) Prior to the start of the concert, I had been reading a story in which the hero was searching through a grove of trees for the lost treasured memories of his youth, and so as this number started, with three pairs of dancers, one standing, one lying curled around the standing dancer, the visual image evoked a grove of trees through which one might be searching for lost treasured memories of youth, especially as the standing dancer began to “unfold,” much as a tree coming into bloom.

The music becomes more strident, with a Middle Eastern sound to it, the dancers moving with such precision that at times it is like one body with 12 arms and 12 legs.

For a section inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s “On Death,” the dancers were joined by Ashlyn Savidge and Phoebe Anderson, who represented youth and age, respectively. “For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one,” writes Gibran. “And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” The dancers, in their black leotards and red vests presented a vision of dancing to life.

Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” speaks of the roar of the waves and “ignorant armies” clashing at night. As the piece opened, the strident, rhythms of the music and the mechanical look to the choreography was reminiscent of the feel of a robot factory and segued into the dancers pairing off, one pounding another into submission, and then raising the “fallen” dancer back again.

“35/10" based on a poem by Sharon Olds was a lovely piece where in the passage of time and the shift from generation to generation, the underlying theme of “replacement,” was shown in the simple act of brushing another’s hair. It was also a beautiful reminder that dancers bodies come in all shapes and sizes and ages.

There was a return to Gibran with a piece based on “On Joy and Sorrow,” showing that “your joy is your sorrow unmasked.” As the piece begins, the dancers present mirror images of each other, showing the yin and yang that are sorrow and joy, that one is merely a manifestation of the other, that without sorrow there is no joy, and vice versa.

Bringing the work full circle was the closing segment based on e.e. cummings’ “Oh Sweet Spontaneous” a joyous celebration of Spring, in which the dancers, joined again by Anderson and Savidge, return to the visual imagery of the tree in the first segment.

The lighting design of Myvanwy Morgan added greatly to the ambience of each of the pieces.

The Spring Concert runs for two more performances, March 31 and April 1 at 8 p.m.