Jean Isaacs 35th Anniversary Retrospective Concert Looks Back While Inspiring Next Generation of Dancers -- Historic photos available.

In 1974, San Diego was a very different place than today. Pete Wilson was Mayor, the population was a mere 700,000, there was no Gaslamp District, no Trolley and the Padres and Chargers played in place called Jack Murphy Stadium.

It was in this climate that Jean Isaacs began producing professional dance for the region and she has continued non-stop for thirty five years. In honor of this artistic milestone, San Diego Dance Theater will present the Jean Isaacs 35th Anniversary Retrospective Concert at San Diego State, May 16 and 17, highlighting her extraordinary body of work.

“It’s not my nature to look back,” explained Isaacs, “so the experience of revisiting and reviewing nearly 100 dances that I have created has been unfamiliar. Through this process, I have actually created a full chronology for the first time.”

Always an innovator and forward thinker, Isaacs was extremely productive during this time period and will select pieces that have not been programmed within recent memory. “Working with a cast of fifteen dancers from this new generation, including nine of my company and six guest artists from around the state of California, I will pair the selected
choreographies with rehearsal assistants chosen from the original casts.”

In this way, the Retrospective Concert becomes intergenerational, offering a glimpse through the lens of its most visible pioneer, while at the same time engaging a new generation of dancers in the process and artistry of that period. The preliminary work of researching, casting, and rehearsing the selected dance has begun.

Current and former Company members Liv Isaacs-Nollet, Veronica Martin Lamm, Terri Wilson and Tonnie Sammartano will restage decades old works for the millennium.

The six guest dancers include noted New York choreographer Monica Bill Barnes, who will dance Isaacs’ iconic “Red Dress”, a solo she learned while a student in UCSD’s Department of Theater and Dance in 1994. Also featured will be Erica Nordin, Lauren Slater and Elizabeth Fong Lee, part of the Isaacs Diaspora in the Bay Area.

This concert celebrates the sixth season of partnering with the SDSU Department of Theater and its Graduate Design Program under the direction of Professor Craig Wolf. Graduate students majoring in Lighting, Costume, and Scenic Design enjoy the opportunity to create in collaboration with a professional dance company.

Company photographer Manuel Rotenberg will mount a photo exhibit in the theater lobby which high-lights contemporary shots of the dances alongside reclaimed shots of the original performances. The 35th Anniversary Retrospective looks back with love at the prodigious
creativity of Jean Isaacs, even as it inspires a future generation of dancers to create and excel.

Saturday: May 16th, 8pm
Sunday: May 17th, 6pm

Tickets: $35, VIP-includes post-performance

reception/party in the Theater $30, General Admission, $20, Seniors/Military $15, Students, $10, SDSU Students Don Powell Theater, San Diego State University For tickets go to www.sandiegodancetheater.org or 619.225.1803