As Doug Elkins and his dancers dig into their first week creating a new work for their four-week DANCEWORKS residency at the Lobero Theatre, things look very interesting indeed. The piece is titled “Kintsugi,” which translates as golden joinery, a Japanese art form that grew out of the repairing of broken ceramics with gold seams. The results came to be considered more aesthetically pleasing than than the original unbroken pottery. Kintsugi is an outgrowth of Wabi-sabi, a philosophy of acceptance of transience and imperfection and an apt jumping off point for the wide-ranging creative mind of Doug Elkins, who is the first choreographer to successfully combine street dance, ballet and modern, broken shards if you will, into something new and more exciting than the original ingredients. As you can already see in this snapshot of their creative process, a lot of influences are already being brought together and the results are pretty darn compelling! Much as happened during his 2012 DANCEWORKS residency blending “Othello” with the music of Motown, Doug’s “Kintsugi” will be a whole new thing, and it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Premiere performances plus appearances by DANCEWORKS alumni Sept. 7 & 8. Tickets: lobero.org or 805•963•0761
