The Rosin Box Project, a cutting-edge contemporary ballet company known for dancing in bare feet, high heels, pointe shoes and sneakers, will perform its “Debuts” concert next weekend at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
The “Debuts” program includes four premieres, two created by guest artists along with a new dance by resident choreographer Katie Spagnoletti, who created the 2022 solo “Full Moon in the City,” and Topazio’s “Grayish,” a media-fusing number that introduces new technology. The sensors are discs that are attached to black wristbands, and they capture various aspects of the dancers’ motions, such as tilt angles and accelerations.
Ten dancers will be divided into two “teams,” separated by a boundary line represented by an LED tape light that stretches diagonally across the entire stage. Topazio said that the trajectory of the piece “evolves from stark juxtaposition to contention, ultimately culminating in a sense of unity and resolution.”Earlier this month, the TRBP dancers, including Sona Jaeger, a former California Ballet ballerina and a new addition to the company, gathered at its Point Loma studio to practice.
At the start of the rehearsal, Topazio cued the music and asked, “When we scatter, can everyone hit the deck?”A layout, she later explained, is a movement in which the back is arched and the working leg extends upward, comparable to a développé with a cambré in classical ballet terms. “Debuts” guest choreographers include the German-American duo FLOCK, cofounded by Alice Klock and Florian Lochner, who met while serving as Choreographic Fellows at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.