Tag archives: Selah Dance Collective

Selah’s Summer Dance Fest
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 27, 2024

It’s been a couple of years since the local Nebula Dance Lab has produced its HHII Dance Festival, so Selah Dance Collective has stepped up to offer something similar in the same Center Stage Theater space this weekend. While the event won’t be as wide-ranging nor as long in duration as HHII, the vibrant and […]

Selah’s Sound, Smoke, and Vibes 
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 16, 2024

Selah Dance Collective has a slogan that undulates across its website and shows up on the company’s new t-shirt: “No choreography, just vibes.” The phrase came from a post-show comment by a dancer’s spouse about a segment in their latest work, Sound and Smoke, which resonated with Selah founder and artistic director Meredith Cabaniss Ventura. […]

A Crescendo of Dance
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 5, 2022

Arianna Hartanov, who moved to Santa Barbara to join State Street Ballet (SSB) in 2016, has danced lead roles in the company’s productions of Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, among others. But ballet isn’t her only bailiwick.  As a choreographer for SSB’s Evenings and Modern Masters events, she indulged her contemporary side back in 2019 […]

A New Season for Rite of Spring
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 19, 2022

Le Sacre du Printemps has had immense influence in the classical arts ever since the collaboration between composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky was premiered by Ballets Russes to great controversy in Paris in 1913. The decades-ahead-of-its-time music has gone on to great success in the concert hall while the ballet has been adapted, […]

Center of Attention: CST Wastes No Time Bringing Back Live Performances
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 24, 2021

Who could have predicted dance as the art form that would dominate reopening at the Center Stage Theater? Sure, the “black box” theater upstairs in Paseo Nuevo has been a happy home for several of the local dance companies that produce their own periodic performances and has also hosted a few festivals featuring revues. But […]

Selah Sees ‘The End of the End of the World’ As We’ve Known It
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 17, 2021

Meredith Cabaniss-Ventura, the Selah Dance Collective founder and artistic director, doesn’t remember where she first found the main word of her dance company other than remembering it’s featured heavily in the Bible in the Book of Psalms. But while she liked that the word isn’t directly translatable to English, one of the meanings struck her […]