From Germany to Thermal: Palm Desert Choreography Festival brings dance artists together

In most artforms, the public facing figures get all the credit. But just like a film would be nothing without its screenwriter, a piece of dance would be nothing without its choreographer.

That's one of the many goals of the annual Palm Desert Choreography Festival: to turn the spotlight from movers to movement creators.

McCallum Theatre Education will bring together choreographers from across North America and Europe at the 26th annual event on Saturday, Nov. 11 and Sunday, Nov. 12. The weekend-long affair offers artists a platform to stage their work, but it's more than a two-day showcase. It's also a choreography competition, educational opportunity (featuring workshops and residencies), and a celebration of those who have made outstanding contributions to the artform.

“Each year we look forward to welcoming choreographers and dancers from near and far,” Kajsa Thuresson-Frary, festival producer and McCallum’s vice president of education, said in the release. “Our Festival highlights quality work, nurtures emerging artists, educates local dancers and choreographers, and powerfully engages audiences around dance in the Coachella Valley."

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be awarded at the Saturday night performance, will be presented to artistic director, choreographer and dancer Helgi Tomasson. According to a press release from the festival, as artistic director and principal choreographer for San Francisco Ballet from 1985-2022, Tomasson spearheaded a powerful transformation of the company from respected regional troupe to one of the world's great classical ballet companies.

Bringing international choreography to the desert

During the festival's 25th anniversary performances last year, choreographers of various nationalities competed for the grand prize, but this year, one choreography duo will win the unofficial award of most miles traveled to the event.

Jessica Liu and Albert Galindo are a creative duo based in Mannheim, Germany, and they're flying to the event this week after a short tour around their current home country. They first began collaborating at the Nationaltheater Mannheim under the direction of Stephan Thoss, and the Palm Desert Choreography Festival marks the international debut of their partnership.

The piece they created — which they will also perform on Saturday — is titled "After the Present," and it's been performed around 10 times since its inception in the summer of 2022, but only in Europe.

"It's really a pleasure to be able to take this thing that we created in Germany and to share it with a larger audience," Liu said. "We kind of thought once we had created the piece, why not submit it to festivals and see who else we can share it with?"

Bringing the piece over to the U.S. wasn't as simple as being admitted to the festival, however. The pair choreographed the number around a full living room set that includes a carpet, two armchairs and a floor lamp, and because it would have been an expensive logistical nightmare to ship the set to California, the pair had to work with McCallum staff to find similar furniture to replace what they use for a set back home.

"We always put so much effort and energy into creating our art and to have it only live for 10 performances, it's really such a shame," she said, noting that the theater will be able to keep part of the set. "(So this) is sustainable in many ways."

Liu, who is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, has previously performed with BODYTRAFFIC, Oakland Ballet Company and SALT Contemporary Dance. Because many of her family members still reside in the U.S., she said several of them are attending the Saturday festival performance because it's a rare opportunity to hop on a domestic rather than international flight to see her work.

She and Albert, who hails from Barcelona, Spain, created their piece around the theme of loss, and the anticipation of when a loss might happen. Liu said one element that makes it stand out among pieces she's worked on previously is a verbal component.

"We haven't used our own voices (previously), so now we have more gestural-type movement that corresponds to the words — there's actually a conversation (happening)," Liu said, adding that their spoken word elements are in English, which isn't the native language of most German audiences. "Here in Palm Desert, maybe the response or reaction could be different for people with a better grasp of the language."

Liu left the U.S. for Europe in 2019 and hasn't worked in the states since, so she's excited to make a homecoming of sorts — especially because the last American city she lived and worked in was Los Angeles.

"It's kind of like a full circle," she said.

'More than just a dance'

The East Valley Dance Project, an annual outreach project of the Palm Desert Choreography Festival, brings Desert Mirage High School and Coachella Valley High School students together for a series of after-school rehearsals culminating in an annual performance on the last day of the festival.

This is the 17th year the project is offering Coachella Valley Unified School District students the opportunity to explore and create with professional choreographers, and this Sunday, the participants will showcase all they've learned since they started rehearsing in October. They will hold their final rehearsal on Thursday, marking the first time the student dancers from both schools rehearse together before taking the stage during the pre-professional showcase.

Emma Cabusora will be among several student dancers from the East Valley Dance Project performing at the McCallum. This is her second year participating in the festival, and her third year overall with the project.

“My first time (performing on the stage of the McCallum Theatre) was scary because I had never performed in front of that big of a crowd before,” she said, adding that this time, she expects to be more relaxed and less focused on those watching her.

The 16-year-old Thermal resident is seizing this performance as a chance to inspire unity through dance, just as the project did for its participants. As a veteran performer, Cabusora wants her newer peers to understand that this experience can open up new opportunities in their lives.

“The advice I give them (is to) focus on how much you would like to put into it, how much you would like to experience, where you would like to be in life,” Cabusora said, “and where this dance will take you.”

The Desert Mirage High junior revealed that the dance they'll perform was inspired by clouds: “I hope that our (modern) dance can help people feel relaxed, calm, understanding toward everything,” she said.

Cabusora said she particularly takes pride in the effort and dedication demonstrated by her peers in just six rehearsals.

“Communication, at first, was a struggle,” she said. “But eventually, we got closer as dancers. I feel that’s a really big part (of) the dance. At first, we didn’t know each others’ names. Slowly, we started learning more about each other. The dance itself started to become more than just a dance — (but rather) a lifelong memory that is always going to be with us.”

If you go

What: 26th annual Palm Desert Choreography Festival

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11 and 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12

Where: McCallum Theatre, 73-000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert

Tickets: $25-$50 for the Division I performance on Saturday, and $20-$40 for the Divison II performance on Sunday

More info: Call 760-340-2787, or visit www.mccallumtheatre.org

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Desert Choreography Festival returns to the McCallum Theatre