San Diego Dance Theater artistic director Jean Isaacs is hanging up her dance shoes on Jan. 31.
She was honored for her 24 years of distinguished service with San Diego Dance Theater on Jan. 8 at Liberty Station’s inaugural First Friday event. First Friday’s feature an art walk introducing guests to museums and galleries as they explore Liberty Station’s growing Arts District.
The Jan. 8 tribute to Isaacs’ legacy included feature clips and excerpts from her time with the company celebrating her prolific artistry and the training she has provided to San Diego Dance Theater and the San Diego dance community.
Looking back on her career, the
Del Mar resident and known Princess of Punk, has been a celebrated designer of some of the biggest celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Cher,
Diana Ross and
Freddie Mercury. The San Diego Opera in 2001 also commissioned Rhodes to design the costumes for The Magic Flute, which led her to other opportunities with the opera, including set design.
The England native also founded The Fashion and Textile Museum in London in 2003. Since its opening, the museum has featured work from some of the world s leading designers, including Anna Sui, Missoni, Kaffe Fassett and Bill Gibb.
To cap her 50th year in the industry, Rhodes will release a book all about her career, as well as a London exhibition. Both events are expected to happen in the fall.
Mainly Mozart is gearing up for a big return to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, where it staged a series of groundbreaking 2020 drive-in concerts after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered indoor and outdoor concert venues across the country and around the world.
The 2020 drive-in concerts were the first such performances in the nation by an established classical-music presenter and paved the way for San Diego Opera’s subsequent drive-in performances of “La bohème” with members of the San Diego Symphony and La Jolla Music Society’s upcoming four Del Mar drive-in concerts in February by jazz great Wynton Marsalis.
Founded 33 years ago, Mainly Mozart will kick off its even more ambitious 2021 Festival of Orchestras in February with four drive-in performances. The all-star festival will continue with drive-in concerts in April and June, when it hopes to shift to a car-free outdoor venue, health regulations permitting, and expand significantly adding performances in Orange County.
While the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of screen time Zoom teleconferencing, more Netflix than anyone thought possible and FaceTime as a way to socialize it also seems to have brought out a lot of authors and other creatives in our own backyard.
Here’s a look at the local books, murals and more of the past year, as well as the inventive ways that arts institutions have continued to provide programming during the pandemic.
January
Polar Bear Plunge: An estimated 400 people participate in the Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day at La Jolla Shores. Sponsored by the La Jolla Cove Swim Club, the plunge is a 30-year-old local tradition in which La Jollans and others rush into the cold ocean for play or swim.
Created by Peter Rothstein, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, All Is Calm is a retelling of firsthand accounts of this truce and uses Christmas carols, patriotic tunes, trench songs and spoken text from the letters and diaries of soldiers. When we produced All Is Calm in 2018, the audience response was overwhelming, and we ve received requests to produce it again since then, said David Bennett, San Diego Opera s general director. Although current safety protocols in response to COVID-19 make it impossible for us to produce it live now, I m thrilled to be able to share a beautifully filmed performance from 2018 with our audiences.