Surviving in these tough economic times requires not only thick-skinned fortitude but a mega-dose of ingenuity. But the performing arts, especially dance, teeter on the edge as a matter of course. Consider grass-roots dance companies with limited resources. How else can they gain broader audiences if not by taking their shows on the road?
That, at any rate, is the strategy being pursued by Cid Pearlman, creator of the California Touring Project. Now in its second year, the project was conceived as a way to build community relations and create touring opportunities for smaller troupes at a time of diminishing resources for dance. Last year under its auspices, a handful of California-based dancers and choreographers performed in San Francisco, San Diego and Santa Cruz. This weekend, Los Angeles is playing host to four dance makers appearing under the project's umbrella at the Diavolo Dance Space.
Pearlman, a Cape Cod native and longtime San Francisco resident, moved in 1999 to L.A., where her troupe Nesting Dolls proved a vibrant force. But since 2006, her home has been in Santa Cruz, where she teaches at Cabrillo College and continues making work.
"I started thinking about the Touring Project after I moved here," Pearlman, who earned a UCLA master of fine arts in dance in 2006, said recently by telephone. "I knew I had wonderful resources in L.A. and the Bay Area and that one of the only ways I could be happy here was to use Santa Cruz as a base to network from.
"As [UCLA faculty member] David Gere said to me, 'One of your jobs is to make California smaller.' That was a goal," she said. "So the first year, I contacted Nina Haft from Oakland and Liam Clancy of San Diego to perform with me."
Pearlman, 45, said she initially dubbed the project California Triple Feature. But she eventually changed the name to better represent what it is -- California artists touring, well, California.
"The strength of the project," she added, "lies in the fact that there's someone on the ground doing legwork in the city we're performing in."
For this second year, Pearlman took over supervising the Bay Area portion from Haft and Clancy and got the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to present them. After Clancy dropped off the performing roster to spend time with his newborn daughter, Pearlman persuaded Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith, who first appeared with the project last spring, to produce the L.A. gigs.
