Jazz, contemporary, acrobatic and ballet comprise the program’s fifth year.
In their aerial duet “Guiding Rings,” which they’ll perform Saturday night at the annual Celebrate Dance showcase at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, husband-wife team Nehara Kalev and C. Derrick Jones perch 15 feet above the stage in interlocking aluminum spheres while executing intricate choreography.
“If there’s one quick shift, then the whole structure gets rocking back and forth . . . and we could fall out quite easily,” Jones says. This vulnerability, however, is an integral part of the show. “When you’re an aerialist, it’s all about making it look effortless and easy and safe. And so people don’t realize the actual training and strength and trust that goes into it.”
The same might be said of putting together Celebrate Dance, the brainchild of producer Jamie Nichols, now in its fifth year. In organizing a crowd-pleasing, cream-of-the-crop roster of concert dance that runs the gamut from ballet on pointe to jazz, acrobatic, and contemporary, Nichols pulls a demanding balancing act of her own…