New York choreographer Sidra Bell’s love of Renaissance art inspired her upcoming premiere of “Areas of Relief” in San Francisco, a piece commissioned by ODC/Dance.
“When you see a Renaissance painting large-scale you see … the highest sort of expression that’s ethereal, and then you see some of the abject elements of the human spirit in their faces, all in one painting. And that’s how I construct my work, so you get kind of a mirror of emotions, which is the ‘areas of relief’ idea. When you see a large-scale painting, you have all these areas of the human experience portrayed at once,” says Bell, whose piece is in ODC’s “Dance Downtown” program April 10-13 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Bell and ODC/Dance Artistic Director and founder Brenda Way have known each other since 2012, when Bell worked with Way in a mentorship program sponsored by San Francisco-based LEVYdance that allowed her to “really get immersed in the Bay Area community.”
“Brenda Way is a pillar of Bay Area dance, and she’s really an innovator, not only in her choreographic practice, but also in building a real community around ODC,” says Bell, founder of Sidra Bell Dance New York.
“Areas of Relief” is ODC/Dance’s first commission from Bell, who has created dozens of dances for New York City Ballet (she was the first female Black choreographer commissioned by NYCB), River North Dance Chicago, St. Louis Ballet Theatre, Sacramento Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and many others. It is set to a jazz score that will be performed live by the Eclecta Quartet featuring guitarist Liberty Ellman.
Bell says ODC troupe members, “some of the highest quality dancers in the country,” are a great match for the piece, which requires a high level of technical facility and an emotional investment from the dancers.
“I spent four weeks with the dancers, so that’s a really juicy amount of time, and then in the past month we’ve really solidified the piece as a collaboration with Mary Halvorson, who’s a wonderful jazz composer,” she says.
Bell, who trained at Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Ailey School, grew up in a family of musicians. Her father was a jazz pianist and her mother, a classical pianist, also teaches piano. Her affinity for jazz stems from being around her father as he played in nightclubs and worked in the studio; she also collaborated with him on almost 30 original compositions.
She likens jazz to dance, she says, “because it’s a collaborative art form where the musicians are working with the modalities of their riffing,” adding, “… in the dance process it’s the same idea of themes and variations on a theme. … It gets really fun when you think about it in that way,” Bell says.
“… That’s what I do as a choreographer is having these root structures that I can elaborate upon with improvisation,” she continues.
Bell, who cites the Juilliard School master teacher Alexandra Wells, Ailey School teacher Kevin Wynn and Ailey School chief Denise Jefferson as important influences on her career, says Way is the kind of person you meet at a certain juncture and keep circling back to.
And since she met Way, Bell has returned to the region almost yearly to work on projects with several companies and choreographers.
“All of these things and really good friendships keep bringing me back to the Bay,” Bell says. “The dance community is small, but it’s really about building relationships together, helping each other, and seeing things through; how we develop and can collaborate in deeper ways, not just doing something once and moving on, but repeating.”
ODC/Dance’s “Dance Downtown” is 7:30 p.m. April 10 and April 12 (LGBTQIA+ Night), 8 p.m. April 11 and 5 p.m. April 13 at the Blue Shield of California Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St., San Francisco. Tickets are $30-$190 at odc.dance.
“Dance Downtown” on April 10 and April 12-13 includes “Areas of Relief”; Way’s 2008 “Unintended Consequences (A Meditation)” and associate choreographer Kimi Okada’s 2024 “Inkwell.” The all-Way gala performance April 11 includes “Unintended Consequences (A Meditation),” 2006’s “Part of a Longer Story” and “After the Deluge,” an excerpt from a work in development.
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