His nine-member Koresh Dance Company will perform three works this weekend in a show called "Le Bal Noir," the title of one of these works, by New York choreographer Donald Byrd. Koresh, known as Roni, created the other two pieces: "Standing in Tears" and "Looking Back: The Music of the '40s and '50s."
"Le Bal Noir" was inspired by the ballroom ballets of George Balanchine and is neoclassic, contemporary and athletic, Koresh said. This world premiere has been funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts' highly competitive Dance Advance program, which is administered by the University of the Arts.
"Standing in Tears," to be given its first full staging, came into being through the simple act of watching a dancer walk down the street.
"I saw her looking just like anyone else," said Koresh, "without anyone realizing her incredible talent. The ballet shows the idea in the light and outside the light, and uses world music from five countries."
A few years back, Koresh created the Lindy section of a work about popular dances for the Annenberg Center. He expanded that piece into "Looking Back," based on songs from the 1940s and 1950s.
In rehearsal, the brilliantly accomplished dancers' movements to Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack," Peggy Lee's "Fever," Elvis' "Hound Dog" and Louis Armstrong's "Kiss of Fire" were funny, superbly worked out and very sexy.
"Music from that period has elegance and humor, as well as optimism," said Koresh. "I don't look at dance as one particular thing - folk, jazz, classical, modern. It's just movement, and if you go to 10 different cultures they will all react differently. It's about the mood it makes you feel, a universal feeling."
Koresh's early training came from his mother, a folk dancer in the Yemenite tradition, and through a Tel Aviv folk-dance group. He studied with Martha Graham's Bat Sheva Dance Company, finally emigrating to the United States at age 21.
After training with Alvin Ailey for a year, he settled in Philadelphia and danced with several companies, winning an award in 1987 as the city's outstanding jazz dancer. He held residencies in the United States and Europe until founding his company and has taught dance at the University of the Arts since 1986.
Koresh's company spends at least eight months on the road each year traveling to 20 locations. He has choreographed more than 60 works, many commissioned by other companies.
At the Koresh School of Dance, which opened in 1993 and is now at 2020 Chestnut St., nearly two dozen teachers give lessons to more than 800 dance students. The school has become a mecca for dancers from age 2 through seniors, as well as a practice location for many traveling companies.
Koresh and his brother Alon, the company's executive director, remember the early days, when their goal was to somehow pay the dancers $100 a week. There have been many weeks when the two took no salary at all.
But hope is on the horizon. By next season, the company will have a permanent home in the new, 450-seat Suzanne Roberts Theater in Symphony House, now under construction at Broad and Pine streets. "Suzanne actually approached us," said Koresh, "and we're very fortunate that she's been a friend and supporter."
Koresh's new goal is at least two, and possibly four, Philly shows a year which, considering his track record of fulfilled dreams, looks like a certainty.
This article appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News November 10, 2006.
by TOM DI NARDO
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