David Popalisky, an Associate Professor in Dance at Santa Clara University, assembled the 3rd Act Dancers after the successful performance of Old Man Adagio in the SoloDuo Festival in New York in February 2023. Audience enthusiasm for witnessing Popalisky and former San Francisco Ballet dancer Michael Hazinski move with grace later in life inspired Popalisky to further explore this choreographic vein. The company includes Kim Gardner who shares Hazinski’s notable ballet background and Deborah Marcus, who like Popalisky draws upon a contemporary dance career. Without directly acknowledging the performers’ six decades of life experience, each dance challenges the assumptions that dancing is a young person’s game, with vigorous movement not afraid to poke fun at the vagaries of one’s life experience. The evening’s repertoire opens with Old Man Adagio followed by solos by Hazinski and Popalisky and concludes with Been There, Done … Not Yet, a sprightly quartet to a dynamic score by John Adams.
Preceding The 3rd Act Dancers suite of dances will be select performances by the Lineage’s Dance for Joy dancers.
A talkback “Dancing Over a Lifetime” that questions narratives of who “can” and when “should” one dance will follow the Sunday May 5 performance.
