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Trolley Dances treats train hoppers to station presentations
The 20 or so of us with red lanyards were herded down the steps of the Fashion Valley Mall Trolley Station, past the vending machines and clusters of curious commuters. Halfway across the street I noticed the homeless man in the dirty trench coat weaving his way through our group, hand outstretched. We tried to politely ignore him, but he staggered through, holding his hand out and peering up at our faces.
“Is this part of the show?” I heard a member of the Red Hat Society murmur. I wasn’t sure, and I could see the question on other people’s faces.
Then my roommate pointed something out. He was wearing jazz shoes.
Homeless people pirouette to classical music on a footbridge near Fashion Valley Mall. Alice and her White Rabbit gambol across a fire-escape Wonderland. Stressed commuters in overcoats leap inside the lobby of the Santa Fe Depot.
Throughout the two and a half hour tour I felt like I was inside of one the musicals I used to love as a child.
Choreography and public spaces are thrown together to create the 10th annual Trolley Dances, a unique collaboration between the Metropolitan Transit Authority and Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater (SDDT). The red Trolley Dances lanyard audience members receive with their ticket grants a full-day pass on the trolley.
Audience members meet at the Hazard Center Trolley Station and are led by guides to six sites along the trolley’s route. SDDT used elements of each location to create site-specific dance performances, incorporating man-made and natural details into the contemporary dance routines.
At the Mission Valley Preserve — across the street from the Morena Vista Trolley Station — dancers used benches, posts and a footbridge to enhance the yoga-influenced choreography. Trolley Dances brings art into everyday life. Next up: San Diego Magazine Office, the Musical.
Trolley Dances finishes its run October 4 and 5. Two-hour tours leave from the Hazard Center Trolley Station every hour from 10 to 3. Sandiegodancetheater.org.
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