Review: Turning Corners

Now celebrating 33 years in Davis, the Paula Trokanski Dance Studio is presenting its fall concert. Turning Corners examines personal epiphanies and sudden shifts in perception that allow us to see the world in a completely different light.

Eight dancers ages 9 to 87 present solo and ensemble performances that reveal something about their own experiences of a time when their lives shifted.

The first revelation comes from 9-year-old Asher Habicht, who recounts his decision to become vegan. Habicht is a wonder. He is in every ensemble number and has his own solos and his dancing is as crisp, clean and synchronized as the adults around him.

Allegra Silberstein, 87, has been performing with Trokanski for many years. She recounted discussing the dangers of communism with her college professor in the 1950s and her surprise when he contrasted communism to Catholicism.

In turn, each of the remaining dancers interpreted experiences with things like attending summer camp, decisions of what major to study and a very funny piece about learning to drive.

The athletic choreography was sometimes humorous, sometimes harrowing but always with the precise dancing for which Trokanski is well known. It may inspire viewers to look at things in their own lives from a different perspective.