Review: Behind the Barre: Made in Sacramento! by Capital Dance Project

Proof of the vibrancy of the Sacramento arts scene—and the ingenuity of the city’s dancers—is no further than the Crest Theatre this Friday and Saturday. Capital Dance Project, an independent collective of Sacramento’s professional ballet dancers, will present its fourth annual Behind the Barre: Made in Sacramento!

The show is an eye-popping congregation of dance, art, tech and live music, featuring all Sacramento-based choreographers, dancers, artists and musicians from the city’s diverse art scene.

Eight dancer-choreographers, plus the group as a unit, chose collaborators to create a new work. Some, like choreographer Dylan Keene and musician Schuyler Petersen (aka Makebelief), worked closely together on a dance that combines music and movement.

Each dance is interesting and exciting in its own right. Among other highlights:

Choreographer Kaori Higashiyama created a modern ballet based on a Japanese feud between two ninja clans, the black-clad dancers becoming “shadow ninjas” against a striking backdrop by artist Raphael Delgado.

Choreographer Christopher Nachtraub solicited 200 drawings from Sacramento students (billed as Youth of Sacramento) to accompany his dance inspired by a 1997 hypothetical commencement speech by Mary Schmich ("Wear Sun Screen").