Best Local Dance Production '96

Best Local Dance Production (Since 7/95)

Stepping Out
The Invisible Theater

READERS' PICK: Okay, readers, Stepping Out, staged by Invisible Theatre, really was a play; but we'll let you slide because the actors' divinely catastrophic tap dancing was indeed some of the funniest, deliberately bad dancing we've seen since Ballets Monte Carlo de Trockadero passed through town a few seasons back. Stepping Out was about an assorted bunch of earnest non-dancers who came to church-basement dance class week in, week out, valiantly trying to turn themselves into tap dancers. Even though the story was a bit of a cliché--"Hey, kids, let's put on a show!"--the play was hilarious and, yes, heartwarming. We have to applaud its underlying subtext that art, even amateur art, can transform lives.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: The Nutcracker, Ballet Arizona.

STAFF PICK: Ballet Arizona's The Masters, staged at the PCC Center for the Arts in March, was our pick of the year. True, true, Ballet Arizona is based in Phoenix, but it is the official ballet company for the whole state and its dancers regularly make the journey down the road to Tucson for performances. Besides, we want to give credit where credit is due. The Masters is simply the best thing we've seen yet from this improving company. A concert of three works by modern ballet masters, it included George Balanchine's "Serenade," Antony Tudor's "Lilac Garden" and, best of all, Paul Taylor's "Esplanade," a robust dance for a dozen performers that was so extraordinarily athletic it left the dancers and the audience gasping for breath. This is just the kind of pushing-the-envelope work that ought to draw a larger audience for the company, which like many troupes has too often been mired in overblown 19th-century extravaganzas.

1998 Winner: Orts Theatre of Dance
1997 Winner: Orts Theatre of Dance
1995 Winner: Orts in The Park