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By Nadine Kam
Star-BulletinLeave it to Peter Rockford Espiritu to test women's fury. Two years ago he staged his first "Men Dancing" performance. In a state where women dancers outnumber men 10-to-1, he said he heard all the complaints about a show that excludes one gender, but he's back for more with "Men Dancing 2000." After all, a man's gotta do what he's gotta do.
This time around, the director of Tau Dance Theater is broadening the event's scope, having invited Tony Conjugacion, 24-VII DanceForce and Halau O Na Pua Kukui with kumu hula Ed Collier, Oregon's Rainbow Dance Theatre, and many more local dancers to perform.
The mix of performances will demonstrate the rapid changes democratization is bringing to the art form. Today's dancers are as likely to have been pulled off the street and from sports such as gymnastics and martial arts as they are to have been classically schooled.
MEN DANCING 2000
On stage: 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday
Rainbow Dance Theatre, directed by Valerie Bergman and Darryl Thomas, counts among its members men with gymnastics, karate and tae kwon do backgrounds.
"We kind of take what they have and mold it," said Thomas, a former member of the renowned Pilobolus Dance Theatre.
The results are colorful, to say the least. One piece involves rapelling from the ceiling. The company fuses West African and Haitian dance, with hip hop and modern dance against backdrops of computer animation and pyrotechnic effects -- "smoke, fog, as much as Hawaii Theatre will allow us to do" -- the latter no doubt due to Thomas' interest in video games.
"We do animation with people on stage. It's a video-game type thing and we're trying to bring those characters to life. I play a lot of 'em myself -- like 'Unreal' and 'Quake.' "
Shoot-'em-up games are a typical guy interest, he said, and it's only logical that men dancing would be interested in subjects that interest them as they build their own dance vocabulary.
"Traditionally, dance is not a field for men. It's tough to get them interested in it and work toward building expertise.
"There's a real homophobia that's associated with men dancing," he said.Thomas, who grew up in Detroit, said that when he decided to pursue dance at age 20, the first question his mom asked was, "Are you still dating women?"
He was not only dating them, he found dance helped him get to know more of them.
"In college I was interested in meeting girls, but I was really shy. I remember peeking into a dance class and seeing all the women and thinking, 'Hmmm, maybe I could meet them if I took a class.' "
He had already had one experience as a performer. He'd meet a former girlfriend after her dance rehearsals. One day, their troupe was simply in need of a man to lift her on stage and off. "They said that if I could pick her up and just look like I could dance on and dance off, that I could be in their show."
He didn't trip, so that was a good sign.
He did meet someone, eventually marrying his partner, Valerie Bergman, one of his teachers when he was working toward his master's degree in performance and choreography at the University of Hawaii between 1991 and '93.
And professionally, he went on to receive an Emmy for his 1996 Kennedy Center performance of the Pilobolus work "Untitled," and performed in the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He is a dance professor at Western Oregon University, where he teaches hip-hop, West African dance and modern dance technique.
He said hip-hop is gaining more respect as more people teach it in the schools. "In years past, hip-hop was not respected as an art. It has been regarded as a folk art.
"Teaching allows it to become a concert form, and more now, ballet is seeking to revitalize itself. The big companies in New York will never lack an audience, but some regional companies are using anything possible to keep people interested in ballet, and they're looking at hip-hop."
When Espiritu brought up the "Men Dancing" theme, Thomas had no doubt he had to be in it.
"It's so unusual to see men on stage. I'm really happy when others come up to me after a performance and say, 'That's really cool, how can I get involved?' "
And, he says he's looking forward to being with the guys.
"It really feels like a boys' club, where we're, like, 'I'll show you what I can do; you show me what you can do.' "
Espiritu echoes his sentiments.
"Whenever you get a group of men together, they get competitive. It's a raw energy thing," he said. "The closest we get here is the men's kahiko competition at Merrie Monarch.
"Some people might also compare it to the energy at a wrestling match, but with dance it's artistic, it's like a subtle brutality," Espiritu said. "It's funny, but when you get male dancers together, they'll all walk around each other, sort of like how sumo wrestlers size each other up. They really try to one-up each other.
"It's a whole different vibe that you don't get with women."
Said Thomas, "There's a certain athleticism men have and grace that women have. It may be sexist to say it, because some women have (athleticism) in them, but it's a challenge to bring it out of them.
"I think, culturally, girls are taught to be graceful and fluid and it's not ladylike to be out with the guys."
Thomas and Bergman have already initiated their son into the world of dance. At age 5, the other dancers "kind of toss him around."
"I think boys get a sense of manhood through interacting with men and it helps them as they grow into their own manhood. I'm glad we can be there as mentors for him. I wish I had that kind of relationship when I was growing up."
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