Dance / Chris Pasles : Making the Abstract Concrete

To talk for even a short time to Beth Burns, founding director of the Santa Ana-based St. Joseph Ballet, is to realize that for her, no dance is really abstract.

Describing the works on the inner-city company’s annual spring concert, for instance, Burns shuttles back and forth between talking about the works and talking about their connections to the kids’ lives. The program, titled “Your Neighbor as Yourself,� will be presented through Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Take her “Moving, Remembering, Arriving,� set to Copland’s “Three Latin American Sketches,� one of two new works to be danced on the program.

“I didn’t want to put anything on the music that wasn’t already there,� Burns said in a recent interview.

“In the first section of the music, there is an impatience, a kind of feeling of needing, of having to go from where you are. I think about how humans need to move, to leave certain places, whether it’s geographic or emotional or spiritual,� she said.

In fact, she had a specific leave-taking in mind.

“Two of my dancers--Flor de Liz Alzate and Odette Molero--are going to the North Carolina School of the Arts,� Burns said. “The second section of the music is very tender, and I spent time thinking that when you leave a place, you need to reflect on where you’ve been and where you’ve come from.

“So this piece is for those two dancers. It’s abstract, but while it can have these abstract references to looking back--they walk backward and all kinds of things like that--for them, it’s really looking back on their time with St. Joseph Ballet.�

Their arrival in North Carolina is celebrated in the third and final section, which is “exuberant . . . what it feels like to arrive in a new place.�

But it’s not pure enthusiasm.

“This section ends on a quiet, reverent note, with all 130 children in the dance kneeling,� Burns said. The music is Bobby McFerrin’s “Mother Me,� which the composer dedicated to his mother.

The other new work on the program is “HomeFree,� which will be danced to live accompaniment by Samite of Uganda.

“Samite is a person and a group,� explained Burns, “an individual from Uganda and two other members of his group performing with him, all under the name of Samite of Uganda. We were looking for wonderful musicians, exploring for a while, and found him.�

The group consists of a flute, guitar and percussion.

The work is made up of four sections and draws on a cast of three groups of dancers. The opening, “Nakku,� uses 31 dancers.

To explain the connections she made with her kids, Burns read from the album liner notes: “My mother, Nakku, came to me one night in a dream,� she read, “and taught me a song about a young girl who saved herself from the famine by telling stories in exchange for food. ‘Come, Nakku, tell us your stories and you shall eat with us.’ The African flute tells the story.�

Said Burns: “I think of all the friendships that happen between all the children and the Orange County community, by these children dancing from their hearts--people from different neighborhoods from Orange County who normally don’t have the chance to befriend Santa Ana youth find that bridges are built through the children dancing from their hearts. They tell their stories, and then friendships can happen.�

The second section is “Kasambajiro.� Said Burns: “When I listened to the drum in it, I got all kinds of images about how fatigued women can be not only in our society but also in the Third World by the burdens they carry in taking care of people. There are movement references to women carrying burdens.�

The third section is called “Wagongolo.�

“A wagongolo is actually a millipede,� said Burns, “but the boys don’t really dance about millipedes. The piece is about the boys’ energy, and it has a few witty little things between boys and girls.�

The finale, “Ntunze,� reflects “the inherent dignity of the dancers,� she said. “It’s just really a celebration of this very poignant quality.�

Founded by Burns in 1983, the St. Joseph Ballet is one of the grass-roots success stories in the county. Enrollment at the school now is about 300 students a year.

“We don’t want to increase it because we want to continue to devote ourselves to nurturing each child individually,� Burns said. “There are a lot more children that would like our services, but the board of directors wants to maintain the quality.�

The school operates on a budget of about $270,000.

“But 96% of our children are on complete scholarship,� she said. “Individuals in the county underwrite one dancer’s scholarship each year. About 150 of our dancers are sponsored by such individuals, through our ‘Adopt-a-Dancer’ program.�

To help the two dancers who are heading to North Carolina, the board of directors has established an advanced-training scholarship fund, which will pay one-third of their tuition at the arts school.

“The heart of the mission is really focusing on the needs of the children,� Burns said. “It’s pretty tough growing up in tough neighborhoods. It’s easy to get tough in that environment. We have to mentor them and change that . . .

“When I think about the needs of inner-city children and the basic human experience, we need as much as anything security and freedom, and if you only have one, it doesn’t work. Whether you’re thinking personally, interpersonally or even politically, to fulfill those dreams together is not only basic to us living a fulfilled life, but also represents some of our highest aspirations. I think the inner-city children of Santa Ana deserve these as much as anyone in the world.�

The St. Joseph Ballet will dance “Your Neighbor as Yourself,� today and Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. $8. (714) 854-4646.