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In her press statement Donette remarked: “the Vision Series was initially designed to provide professional performance opportunities for choreographers or various backgrounds and expertise.” Based on her own experience, she added, “Through my experiences in dance, it has been so competitive and demanding. I want a place for dance artists and performers to give of themselves and feel they are embraced and supported as they grow. Dancers can be harsh on each other, and especially on themselves, when showing their choreography or performing. I believe artists thrive best when they are accepted and recognized and the Vision Series was created to give them this platform. They may just be starting, or have been creating and performing for years, but this festival is a chance to blend these masses and embrace each other as we struggle toward artistic success. Professional Mentors that are respected and established artists in the field enhance their abilities and give them loving guidance they might not have received otherwise.”

Fortunately because of the mentor system what I saw February 20 was entirely adequate while certainly not technically supreme. If you watched with the statement in mind, that was not the point. February 19 the groups numbered seventeen; February 20 there were sixteen numbers from schools and performing groups from Sacramento and Hayward,one year from Pasadena.

For the high school groups, particularly from public schools, the task of the teacher, frequently choreographer, is to get a group of non dancers, with a minimum of cost outlay for props and costuming, to move and look well on stage without embarrassment. These ensembles, some as large as 21, achieved, exactly the experience Dance Vision wanted. That is no mean trick even with the rooting section of friends and family in a near-capacity audience.

Much of the music chosen ranged from rap to MTV to motion picture sound scores. One group employed inflated rubber tires commonly used in swimming pools or larger enclosed bodies of water requiring a dexterity of use not yet mastered. The convention of cell phones was explored by Sequoia High School from Redwood City, teen-aged exclamations, parental commands, gossip and greetings interspersed with floor patterns. Moreau Catholic High School explored the reactions of dinner dialogue and the relative speed of ingestion as its theme. If you can believe it, Steve Reich and Philip Glass provided the background for pep girls at a football half; the semi-professional exposition seemed far more self-conscious than the strictly high school ensembles. Lowell High School used contemporary pop effectively, exuding energy, coherence and enthusiasm, all of it notable.

Notes on my program mention some beautiful images for Delta Eco from the New Dance Company in Sacramento, and green and grey costumes on the Crystal Springs Dancers from Hillsborough.

For invention an oblong patch of green light used by Joe Landini took pride of production place, together with two figures as tennis players performing to the sound of balls being lobbed forward and back across the court. Ultimately one drops out;the obsessed second continued,while actual tennis balls were tossed from the auditorium as the stage lights faded.

The evening, filled with youthful energy and enthusiasm fully supported Donnette’s intention, making it worthwhile to quote her final paragraph.

“Although it is a goal, this project was not created to present incredible dancers doing incredible work, everyone has their own ideas about what is good, but to bring forth a way for various dance artists, both young and seasoned, to be presented to the general public and gain more exposure. This is to celebrate the diversity fo dance and support one another as each develops and matures into professional artists. Students involved in the festival gain a deeper perspective on what it takes to be a professional dancer and choreographer. The Vision Series is a non-competitive environment based on acceptance for the place we are now, not judgment that we should have ‘done this better and that better.’ It is open, loving and supportive at the most vulnerable and vital place for artists – on the stage. Expertise is a result of experience, and everyone deserves a chance to be seen.”

I would change just one word in this wholly admirable statement; I would substitute the word ‘aspirant’ for the word ‘artist’, since the definition of the word is ‘a person who works in, or is skilled in the techniques of,' or ‘a person who does anything very well, with imagination, and a feeling for form, effect, etc.’ Aspirants, many of them admirable, they definitely are; artists in the stricter sense of the word is what they aspire to become.