Sassy NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre is converting its modern-dance repertory into jukebox fare.
Serious dances will get a pop-song treatment at For the Love of Water, a Valentine's-themed concert and fundraiser on Friday night, Feb. 10.
Erika Farkvam's dance about Emily Dickinson's letter-writing habit, solemnly performed to cello music in the Dickinson concert last November, this time will be set to The Marvelettes' "Please, Mr. Postman."
"We turn it on its head," explains NEW ARTiculations artistic co-director Kimi Eisele. "It was lovely. Now it's funny."
But if patrons want to hear the tune—and see the dance—they've got to feed what Eisele calls a "conceptual jukebox." Only instead of coming up with the quarter they might have had to pay back in 1961, they'll pony up $25.
"It is a fundraiser, after all," Eisele says. Still, concertgoers can pool their money, partnering with other patrons to finance their favorites.
"We're hoping to do eight or 10 dances," she adds. "When a dance is paid for, it will happen."
Also on the jukebox is Eisele's "Santa Cruz River Suite," newly reset to Otis Redding's 1965 cover of "You Don't Miss Your Water."
The evening is the kickoff for FLOW, a series of NEW ART water events all spring. Water-loving Tucsonans can tour the watershed with naturalist Eric Dhruv at Santa Cruz River Park, on Riverside Road between Speedway Boulevard and St. Mary's Road, at 1 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 26, or at a wash at Fort Lowell Road and Mountain Avenue at 1 p.m., Sunday, March 11. In April, the troupe plans to dance a full-scale FLOW concert in the Santa Cruz River Park and the adjoining dry riverbed; the exact dates are awaiting approval by Pima County.
Friday's fun includes a silent auction, a raffle and a homemade chili dinner.
