If you think professional dancers should hang up their tights after turning 40, Martin A. David would probably tell you to take a flying leap.
After all, he does. Every day. At 66, David remains a marvel of physical endurance. He still dances with inextinguishable joy, and two years ago created a company of older dancers called “… And Still Dancing.”
The company will present “Colors … and More,” a show of new modern-dance works, Friday, Jan. 13 and Saturday, Jan. 14 at the ODC Theater in San Francisco.
David is one of several choreographers presenting in the show, but his piece “Colors” might draw the most attention. In one solo segment titled “Yellow,” David dons a striped death-camp prisoner’s uniform and yellow “Jude” star to express the anguish of the Holocaust. Joining him onstage, a lone actor will read an essay on the Holocaust written by David himself.
“It’s not a joyous piece,” says the dancer/choreographer from his Santa Clara home. “It takes place in a camp. I play somebody who is there, who is immersed in it. This is a thought-provoking piece.”
David’s Jewish heritage has gradually played a greater part in his choice of material. Last year, in his company’s first season, he created a dance piece called “Ruach” (Hebrew for “spirit”).
“I’ve gotten more interested in the Jewish side of my experience,” he says. “I wanted to do theater and dance about that experience.”
Other choreographers include Mark Foehringer of the Western Ballet and Brian Fisher, whom David calls “one of the best male modern-dancers in this region.”
The guest choreographers, like the company’s dancers and even the support staff, are all over the age of 40. The concept for “… And Still Dancing” grew out of David’s conviction that older dancers had much to contribute, yet are too often put out to pasture by middle age.
“Most major ballet companies expect dancers to get lost and go into teaching or some other career by the time they hit 40,” he says. “But it’s been proven that dancers can continue their art form well past 40. We’re coming into our best chops and our most mature artistic thought.”
He admits that older dancers cannot necessarily do everything the young bucks of American Ballet Theatre might pull off. “I don’t leap as high as I did at 20,” adds David. “Parts of my body won’t cooperate in the same way. But I had more injuries when I was younger, got smarter and more careful. You walk the path long enough, you see more things.”
David launched “… And Still Dancing” after securing seed money from Theater Bay Area’s Dancers Group and CA$H grant. He put out a call for dancers and was overwhelmed with the response. “I did a free workshop for National Dance Week last year,” he recalls, “and almost had to turn people away.”
A native of New York City, David grew up the son of Yiddish-speaking immigrants and the grandson of a famous Orthodox Jewish circus strongman called the Mighty Adam (“He bent bars, pulled things with his hair, broke things with his teeth,” David says). Taking to theater at an early age, David studied performing arts at Brooklyn College and later served under Joseph Papp of the New York Shakespeare Festival.
He went on to form dance companies in Denmark, and later became a leader in the Los Angeles dance scene as both artist and critic. David is also the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including an upcoming collection of short stories titled “Shtetl in My Mind.”
His wife, Sarah David, is his partner in all things terpsichorean, though he jokes how his modern-dance orientation is at odds with her ballet training. “It’s a bone of contention,” he says, “like the Litvaks and the Galitizianers.”
Though he isn’t getting any younger, David has long-range future plans for his company. The way he figures it, there’s no end to the supply of dancers who could eventually join, nor of dance fans to watch them.
“People really understand this issue of aging,” he says. “This can be a continuing showcase project, not only of my work but of people who fit this category and want to say ‘I’m still here.’ There are lots of them.”
“Colors … and More” by “…And Still Dancing” plays at 8 p.m. Jan. 13-14 at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., S.F. Tickets: $20. Information: (415) 626-6745.