Lori Belilove and Company
Fri/16, Mills College

WHEN BERKELEY NATIVE Lori Belilove graduated from Mills College in 1984, becoming an Isadora Duncan dancer was about as unfashionable a career as one could choose. Yet Belilove stuck with it. After she moved to New York, she periodically returned to the Bay Area and performed Duncan repertoire – often to full orchestra accompaniment. She studied with not one but two of Duncan's disciples and supplemented that training with her own research. Today Belilove is the foremost authority on the woman who founded modern dance. The dance-theater play Isadora ... No Apologies is Belilove's latest endeavor to keep Duncan's artistry alive and to share with contemporary audiences the work of a woman who was so ahead of her time that she still seems larger than life. The role of Duncan is danced by Belilove and acted by Aimee Phelan Deconick; Christopher Oden portrays the men in Duncan's life. Children from Berkeley Ballet Theater interpret Duncan's students, the "Isadorables" – some of whom grew up and spread across the world to become Duncan technique teachers. 8 p.m., Lisser Hall, 5000 MacArthur, Oakl. $15. (510) 430-2007. (Rita Felciano)