Gualala Arts LocalEyes Series will present Chamber Dance, modern solos and duets, on Friday, September 9, at 7:30 p.m.

The evening will feature dancers/choreographers Lucinda Weaver and Virginia Matthews performing modern dance pieces, accompanied by vocalist Joy Willow. Featured in the program will be the premiere of a dance choreographed by Ms. Weaver to an extended haiku series conceived and written by poet Alan Bern. He and Barbara Villanova will be reciting the poetry. Music will be performed on a shakuhachi flute. There will be a discussion period at the end of the evening where the audience will be able to gain additional insight into the performance pieces.

Lucinda Weaver and Virginia Matthews have danced with San Francisco's principal modern dance company, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company - and both, in their formative years, received modern dance as well as classical ballet training, including studying in New York City. Ms. Weaver, who now lives in Gualala, has performed throughout Europe and the Middle East.

The Modern Dance form began in the early 20th century by Isadora Duncan and was developed by such famous choreographers as Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham.

Admission is $12, $8 for students, and can be purchased at the Gualala Arts Center and The Dolphin Gallery or by calling (707) 884-1138.

Lucinda Weaver began dancing and Alan Bern began writing poetry as young children in Berkeley, California. Both have performed for many years, including performances together in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in September 2002 at the Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, California.

In her adult years Lucinda Weaver danced with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company after studying in New York City and with David Wood at the University of California, Berkeley, then continued to the present as a solo performer/choreographer, for many years living and performing in the Middle East and in Europe. She now lives in Gualala, California, where she is also a physical therapist.

Lucinda's most recent performances were at the Swiss Expo in June 2002 with the Compagnie Vitale in "Danza" and at LA RADA in Locarno and in Orta San Giulio, Lago d'Orta, in 2003 where she performed with poet Alan Bern.

Alan Bern has worked as a librarian in public libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past ten years. He is now Community Relations Librarian at the Berkeley Public Library. Before working in libraries, he was a printer and a college English instructor in both literature and creative writing. Alan has had poems published in a variety of magazines, as well as a sequence of poems in English entitled Red is Fugitive published on an Italian literary and cultural web site, Lo Sciacallo (The Jackal). He also had a book of poems, No no the saddest, published by Daniel & Daniel Publishers in March 2004.

Besides working on poems for his own books, Alan has been engaged for thirty years in translating poems from Italian into English, including Dante, Leopardi, and Montale. He is also a storyteller and author of children's picture and chapter books. His most recent poetry readings have taken place at libraries and bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has performed in collaboration with the dancer Lucinda Weaver and in Orta San Giulio, Lago d'Orta, in September 2002, where he took part in a Memorial for 9/11 and in 2003 where he performed with dancer Lucinda Weaver at LA RADA in Locarno and in Orta San Giulio, Lago d'Orta.

Barbara Villanova is originally from Italy. After living for many years in the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands, she has finally settled in California. She has worked at various times as an Italian and Spanish language instructor and a translator. She has published short stories in the United Kingdom and in Australia, and some of her stories have been produced for radio and aired on the BBC World Service and National Public Radio. More recently, one of her stories appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. She is currently working on a Children's chapter book.

Barbara's collaboration with Alan Bern and Lucinda Weaver began in 2003 when Barbara met Alan while working as a volunteer at the Berkeley Public Library. She has been helping with the Italian and Spanish translation of Alan's haiku collection Three Trees, which is featured in parts of the upcoming performance, Chamber Dance, in Gualala.

The Gualala Arts Center is located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA. Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information.