Katha Dance, Flying Foot and Zorongo Flamenco seek a sense of timelessness in 'Time Piece'

Three long-running dance companies in the Twin Cities are teaming up for a production called "Time Piece," bringing together different traditions of rhythm-rooted movements.

From Katha Dance Theatre's North Indian kathak dance style to Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre's furious rhythmic structure to Flying Foot Forum's theatrical and percussive innovation, the show highlights the best of all three companies and the fruits of a new collaboration titled "Dandelions." "Time Piece" will be performed for two consecutive weeks, starting Friday, at St. Paul's Park Square Theatre.

Artistic directors Rita Mustaphi (Katha), Joe Chvala (Flying Foot) and Susana di Palma (Zorongo) are all veterans of the Twin Cities dance scene. "They're family," di Palma said. "We just have so much fun."

The companies trace back decades together, and their collaborative approach harkens back to the 1990s at Minneapolis' Southern Theater.

"All of our companies were performing there, and it was such a hub for dance, theater, physical theater and performance art," Chvala said. "That really helped to create long-lasting connections."

Zorongo's dance performances were one of the first Chvala attended when he newly arrived in 1990 from New York City. He recalls that when he saw its performance, it made him want to settle down in the Twin Cities, where he'd go on to start his own company. He'd also danced occasionally with Zorongo, including the role of a general in "Garden of Names," about political dissidents who disappeared during the reign of Argentina's military dictatorship from 1974 to 1983.

The Zorongo-Katha connection goes back many years. The companies performed together at the Southern, celebrating the roots of flamenco and kathak, and at St. Paul's O'Shaughnessy, where Zorongo performed in Katha's "In Retrospect."

While Mustaphi and Chvala had been friends for a long time, their companies had never performed together. That changed when they both received McKnight Fellowships two years ago, and they began thinking about collaborative work.

During a weeklong retreat at Tofte Lake near Ely as part of the McKnight Fellowship, "we were just jamming with each other in the dance studio," recalled Mustaphi, who will receive the 2025 Dance/USA Ernie Award in June. She suggested getting Zorongo involved as well.

Later, when all meet at a restaurant, Chvala came up with the title "Time Piece."

"I thought, that's so wonderful," Mustaphi said. "It captures heritage and rhythm and a sense of timelessness."

For "Time Piece," the companies will present the world premiere of a new collaborative piece called "Dandelions."

Initially, "Dandelions" was to be duet Chvala created with his longtime collaborator Karla Grotting. But they decided it would be even better if they teamed up with Zorongo and Katha, Chvala said. And a piece structured around the four seasons was born.

Katha will perform a traditional kathak dance about the monsoon season.

"In India, summer is not a single block of weather," Mustaphi said. "It is pre-monsoon March through June, and then monsoon is June through August."

Culturally, she said, the monsoon season is associated with romance. In the dance, the heroine longs for her beloved who is not there, and relays that emotion looking at the rain clouds. That emotion shifts when she sees peacocks dancing at the end of the monsoon.

The companies also will present their own separate works within the structure of "Dandelions."

Besides Katha's "Varsha Ritu ("Season of Monsoon"), the company will perform an abstract work, featuring lots of footwork, spins and gestures. Flying Foot will present an older work called "Footfall," while Zorongo will perform "Jaleos," choreographed by La Conja, and "Amor de Dios," a new work by di Palma.

Di Palma got the idea for "Amor de Dios" after reading a novel about babies who were abducted from their parents from 1937-90. She even attended protests in Spain around the issue, and spoke with families impacted.

"All my girlfriends kept saying as we're working on it that it's really an important message for today, when church and government take over women's choice and freedom," she said "You have to tell the story, because it could happen again."

"Dandelions" not only features dancing but also music composed by Chvala. In the "Spring" section, dancers will not only play different instruments but also sing. And guitarist/composer Ben Abrahamson, flamenco singer Alfonso Cid and violinist Tessa Nichols-Meade will perform live music in "Amor de Dios."

The dance styles by Katha, Zorongo and Flying Foot are rooted in a percussive musicality, though each is unique in its own way. Traditionally, flamenco goes with 12 counts, while Flying Foot Forum often uses eight beats. For kathak dance, "it goes anywhere from six beats to countless beat numbers," Mustaphi said. In each case, she added, "we are really emphasizing what the beauty is of that particular percussive dance."

The different beat counts don't interfere with one another in "Dandelions," Mustaphi said, because the emphasis is on its theatrical nature. "It's a very poetic way of doing dance."

The show not only celebrates the sound of dance but also heralds three important voices who have come together in the spirit of shared exploration.

'Time Piece'

What: Flying Foot Forum and Zorongo Dance Theatre team up with Katha Dance Theatre.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., through May 18.

Where: Andy Boss Thrust Stage, Park Square Theatre, 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul.

Tickets: $34. 651-291-7005, eventbrite.com