Journey through dreamlike visions, rich imagery, and strange worlds in a wild philosophical production by Coronado School of Arts’ (CoSA) Classical and Contemporary Dance conservatory and the Visual Art conservatory as they present Distant Realities. Inspired by the Surrealist movement in the early twentieth century, faculty and student choreographers offer original dance works intended to unleash the mind and free the human experience from the bounds of rationalism.
Performances take place on Friday, December 10 at 7 pm and Saturday, December 11 at 7 pm at the Coronado Performing Arts Center Main Stage located at 650 D Avenue. Tickets are available at the box office 45 minutes prior to performance or online at cosafoundation.org/tickets and range from $5-$20.
The creative process began by selecting a piece of Surrealist visual art and researching the artist’s background and oeuvre. Choreographers then developed movement and contexts for performance as they dove into their selected work’s images and themes. Highlights from the program include “Caught” by Conservatory Director Gina Bolles Sorensen, which features all fourteen CoSA Dancers in a luscious and quirky dance inspired by digital photography Surrealist Maggie Taylor, and “Nuestro Destino,” a quintet by ballet faculty, Trystan Merrick, based on a film collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. Enjoy as Surrealist artworks are woven into the evening’s program through projection between dances.
In addition to original dances, the concert features a slideshow and lobby gallery of new works by students in the CoSA Conservatory of Visual Art who have also been researching and creating works inspired by the Surrealist and Lowbrow movements (this show contains visual art depicting nudity).The evening will culminate in a short Q&A discussion with student choreographers and student visual artists.
Coronado School of the Arts is a premier public school arts conservatory, home to 170 scholar artists grades 9 through 12, who attend the nationally ranked Coronado High School. CoSA provides an intense, pre-professional arts education to students from all over San Diego in six conservatories including dance, digital arts, music, musical theatre and drama, technical theatre and visual arts. For other upcoming CoSA events, visit www.cosasandiego.com.
