Tina Finkelman Berkett woke up one morning during the pandemic and pondered how long a disaster could last.
As the artistic director of BODYTRAFFIC, a Los Angeles-based contemporary dance company that she co-founded in 2007, the future looked uncertain.
“It became abundantly clear to me that this might be an opportunity to reset,” Berkett said.
“I said to my husband, ‘If I don’t have the company I want today, and I don’t take this moment to change everything I want to change, when will I be given this opportunity again?’”
Some dance organizations were sunk by COVID-19, while others stayed afloat by treading water.
BODYTRAFFIC, making a tour stop in La Jolla on Thursday and Friday, set sail on a new course.
The company had built an impressive reputation.
For years, it commissioned notable choreographers.
Choreographer Micaela Taylor and BODYTRAFFIC artistic director Tina Finkelman Berkett, far right, conduct a rehearsal with company dancers in 2022.
(Guzman Rosado)
Its incandescent dancers performed nationally, served as United States cultural ambassadors and garnered positive reviews for a movement language that spoke modern, hip-hop and ballet.
“We did these amazing things, but now, the goal is not to keep re-creating those experiences,” Berkett said.
“It’s to build an organization that maybe changes the way people interact with dance, and the way people come together to form a community. I decided this is the moment. I’m going to reorganize and rebuild.”
With theaters and venues shuttered, there was no place to perform. Many artists, including most of the BODYTRAFFIC dancers, left to pursue teaching or alternate sources of income.
Berkett parted ways with her co-founder, former dancer Lillian Barbeito, and began to think about a company that would best reflect her values.
Along with skill, she sought personality, humor and the discipline that comes from a rigorous education.
Berkett grew up in New York and graduated from Barnard College at New York City’s Columbia University with a double major in mathematics and economics. She’s also a founding member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and has toured internationally as a dancer.
She said a dancer’s discipline attracted her to her career.
“In my industry,” she said, “I feel a responsibility to rise to be a leader and to make a big impact.”
As the pandemic restrictions began to lift, BODYTRAFFIC was invited to return to the American Dance Festival. Berkett held an audition that she described as a “gift from the universe” in that it produced five exceptional dancers.
Along with associate artistic director Guzmán Rosado and dance captain Tiare Keeno, a graduate of The Juilliard School, a renewed BODYTRAFFIC was born.
“That was two years ago now, but they are my dream company and they stuck it out,” Berkett said.
“We added one more member and they are the company I always wished for. Our dancers have incredible training and their physicality and athleticism is top notch. They also have a charm and a personality that is unusual in dance today. They let people in and want the audience to get to know them.”
Keeno joined the company as a dancer and became dance captain last year. She said if there is one word that describes the La Jolla program it would be “joyful.”
A lot of the musical accompaniment includes classics from the 1940s and 1950s.
There is Alejandro Cerruda’s witty “Pacopepepluto,” for instance, a series of male solos danced with partial nudity (the men wear dance belts) to songs popularized by Dean Martin.
Keeno performs in three other numbers: choreographer Matthew Neenan’s “A Million Voices,” inspired by the music of Peggy Lee, and former resident choreographer Micaela Taylor’s “SNAP” (a comment on social conformity set to the music of James Brown).
She also dances in Richard Siegal’s “o2Joy,” accompanied by a score that includes Billie Holiday’s “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “All of Me.”
“’A Million Voices’ has a beautiful nostalgia to it,” Keeno enthused.
“There are a lot of balletic elements that feel familiar. But ‘SNAP’ lives in a more grounded, earthier place in my body. It requires a sense of connectedness to the group. It also gives so much space to bust out-still rooted in Micaela’s vocabulary, but there is a lot of freedom in that.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is BODYTRAFFIC’s tradition of providing training opportunities for pre-professional and professional dancers, along with outreach programs for underserved communities.
“I love the connections we make with the audience, with the students we teach and with other dancers in the community,” Keeno said.
“I really enjoy the time we get to share our love and passion for dance. That feels like success to me.”
Luttrell is a freelance writer.
La Jolla Music Society presents BODYTRAFFIC
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday
Where: The Baker-Baum Concert Hall, The Conrad, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla
Tickets: $25-$85
Phone: (858) 459-3728
Online: theconrad.org