La Jolla Music Society continues its exciting Dance Series with Complexions Contemporary Ballet at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Saturday, May 20, with a hit program called STAR DUST: From Bach to David Bowie, honoring two musical icons. Founders Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, armed with a rich Alvin Ailey lineage and a cadre of 18 spectacular dancers, have re-envisioned ballet through technical precision, athletic prowess, and sheer passion.

In addition to dancing to the music of Bach, STAR DUST, a ballet tribute to David Bowie, includes dances set to beloved hit songs like “Changes,” “Life on Mars,” “Space Oddity,” “Heroes,” “Modern Love,” and “Young Americans.” This ballet takes an array of his hits and lays a visual imprint, inspired by Bowie’s unique personas and his restless invention artistically—to create a rock opera-style production in his honor. With Bowie’s 40+-year career and 25 albums that stretch across musical borders, STAR DUST pays homage to the iconic and chameleonic spirit of what can only be described as… Bowie.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet

Complexions was founded in 1994 by Master Choreographer Dwight Rhoden and the legendary Desmond Richardson with a singular approach to reinventing dance through a groundbreaking mix of methods, styles, and cultures. Today, Complexions represents one of the most recognized and respected performing arts brands in the world. Having presented an entirely new and exciting vision of human movement on five continents, more than 20 countries, to over 20 million television viewers, and to well over 300,000 people in live audiences, Complexions is poised to continue its mission of bringing unity to the world one dance at a time. 

Complexions has received numerous awards including The New York Times Critics’ Choice Award. The company has appeared throughout the US, including the Joyce Theater in New York, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans, Paramount Theatre in Seattle, The Music Center in Los Angeles, Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston, New Victory Theater in NY, the Music Hall in Detroit, The Bolshoi Theater, The Kremlin, The Mikhailovsky Theater, and Melbourne Arts Center, and made  its debut at the Kennedy Center in 2017 as a part of Ballet Across America.
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Complexions has appeared at major European dance festivals including Italy’s Festival of Dance, the Isle de Dance Festival in Paris, the Maison de La Dance Festival in Lyon, the Holland Dance Festival, Steps International Dance Festival in Switzerland, Łódź Biennale, Warsaw Ballet Festival, Kraków Spring Ballet Festival, the Dance Festival of Canary Islands/Spain, and the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur in Canada. In addition, Complexions has toured extensively throughout the Baltic regions, Korea, Brazil, Japan, Egypt, Israel, Russia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Serbia, Jamaica, and Australia.

The company’s foremost innovation is that dance should be about removing boundaries, not reinforcing them. Whether it be the limiting traditions of a single style, period, venue, or culture, Complexions transcends them all, creating an open, continually evolving form of dance that reflects the movement of our world—and all its constituent cultures—as an interrelated whole.

Together, Rhoden and Richardson have created in Complexions an institution that embodies its historical moment, a sanctuary where those passionate about dance can celebrate its past while simultaneously building its future. In the 27 years since its inception, the company has born witness to a world that is becoming more fluid, more changeable, and more culturally interconnected than ever before—in other words, a world that is becoming more and more like Complexions itself.

Tickets are $25 to $90 and are available at TheConrad.org, with group rates and student and military discounts available.