Roe Returns to Take Lead for Lo-Tec

SAN DIEGO —  Three’s Company co-founder Betzi Roe has made it her mission to collect modern dance solos by talented yet underexposed choreographers. The style and artistic focus among them varies considerably, but all of the dance makers have two things in common.

“They’re all women, and they all work in California,” Roe said. “I felt California women were making good work that doesn’t get seen much. And I thought (their dances) would make a good journey through the contemporary woman’s perspective.”

Roe has performed this potpourri--called “California Women Dancing”--during myriad guest appearances throughout the country. The dances have even been seen in the Soviet Union, where Roe made historic inroads three years ago as the first U.S. State Department “cultural specialist” in modern dance.

This weekend, when Roe goes solo in the Lo-Tec Series at Three’s Company’s studio in Hillcrest, there will be three new works by California women on the program. But there will also be a couple of premieres that are not part of the collection.

“I’m doing two works by men ,” Roe said, “and not all the choreography is from California. That’s why I’m calling this concert ‘The Next Step.’ This time the dancing is very different--and very difficult.

“The women’s (choreography) is very physical and the men’s are gentle. But these are all very idiosyncratic works. I have had to retrain, and my body will probably give up on me, but I won’t give up.”

Going it alone for a full evening is taxing enough to discourage most young dancers from programming solo concerts. But Roe, 42, feels she’s in her prime as a performer.

“I’m in the best shape of my life,” she said. “I work out three hours a day, running and weightlifting. But this concert is a real challenge because the styles are all so difficult and unusual for me. I do back slips and jazzy moves that I never used to do.”

Taking on new challenges is not new to Roe. When she made her first of four trips to the Soviet Union to teach modern dance, she was “the first female solo performer in the Soviet Union since Isadora Duncan,” who visited in the 1920s, Roe said.

For Roe’s “Next Step” concert, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 p.m., she will also showcase one of her own works, along with five designed by her colleagues. All are San Diego debuts.

“I have a nice little piece from Suzie Goldman, a former Alwin Nikolais dancer,” Roe said, “and I’m doing Susan Rose’s ‘In the Works.’ They’ve both been critically acclaimed. Bill Conrow made a new dance and Lonne Moretton created something for me. I don’t know how it will turn out.”

Stephanie Gieliland’s slinky and sultry solo, titled “To a KD Lang,” is also on tap for Roe’s return to Lo-Tec this weekend.

“I’m so delighted to be dancing in San Diego again after a two-year absence,” Roe said. “But I have to admit, I’m very nervous about this concert. It’s my biggest challenge.”