Hooray and halleluiah!

Honest to gods professional dance has returned at last to Key West – and all thanks and praise to Ganesha Dance Theatre, the Waterfront Playhouse and Danny Weathers (who in an earlier life was a successful Broadway hoofer, eg Chorus Line et al).

Opening night April 3 for their debut Opening the Way was almost as much fun as an audience can have without being arrested – the qualifier awaits the revival of Naked Boys Singing, which opens at the Waterfront May 21 -- and I love every single extraordinary dancer, beginning with the gutsy Kyla Piscopink, artistic director, gutsy not only for creating a dance troupe and a killer program but for dancing exquisitely while suffering from a couple of cracked ribs. Ouch.

Ganesha is somewhat a reincarnation of the delightful Brazen Hussies; Piscopink and Leigh Pujado were once hussies, and I thought the always stunning Denis Hyland danced a guest turn with them a couple of years back, but apparently not. But with Hyland and Mary Kay Lee and Andre Harper joining them on the boards (or often soaring above the boards), the new troupe takes the art to a higher standard of excellence, as playhouse guru Weathers correctly commented as I almost incoherently babbled my delight after the show.

So what a joy to have the hope of truly professional dance presented regularly in Key West. An unconventional plea for support was included in the very creative intervals of video punctuating the numbers – necessary with such a small troupe; time to catch their breath between numbers is obligatory. The videos seemed mostly to be rehearsal shots filmed (or does it have to be videoed?) at the Coffee Mill Dance Studio and were listed as Reels, all created by Piscopink and one Steve Dimse. All were artful – some realistic, some impressionistic, one surreal, creating (with the mirrors and a kalidescopic lens of some sort) a cast of more than a dozen, merging and emerging and re-emerging. It reminded me of the very late-night “happenings” staged in smoke-filled Manhattan movie houses in the late 60s.

Oops – forgot the main point back there, the pause for a commercial announcement: Anyone willing and able to support the troupe please contact Waterfront Playhouse at 305-294-5015. Please do!

Back to the critique – or rave or whatever. Yet another sign of the dancers’ skill: each choreographed at least one piece which the creator might or might not dance; Pujado created several, dancing most memorably in the hilarious ”Take Out” with its component “Hot and Sour Robot” and Ninja Stir Fry”.

Most memorable for me (the first thing I did when I got to New York as a striving theater pro, since we got theater comps free, was to get myself fifth ring tickets to the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center) was one of the truly classical ballet offerings: “The Last Farewell,” an excerpt from the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (music performed by the London Symphony Orchestra), choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan and re-staged by Mary Kay Lee, who danced Juliet to Andre Harper’s Romeo, with effective lighting by Rich Simone (but more about that later). The dancers, the dance, everything about the ballet was breathtaking – and the equal of any pas de deux I’ve seen anywhere on two continents. Lee and Harper seemed created for the roles. I don’t know what brought a real pro like Lee to Key West, but thank the gods for it. And Harper.

Harper. Talk about gods. The man is gifted – clearly an immense natural talent. (Just looking at him and Hyland on the stage probably would have killed me, had I been more straight.) As I polish this column early on April 8, Harper’s bio notes, he turns 23, not quite so young and untrained as the Coconut Telegraph initially reported (20), but his training appears to have been hip-hop (which he teaches for kids) and modern; he confirmed to me that he had had no formal ballet training. You sure coulda fooled me.

I could go on and gush about almost every one of the total of 19 numbers and reels – but it would get to sounding like the same old same old – and that is the last thing I’d want to communicate about this performance. I have one carp, however (don’t I always?).

Rich Simone is obviously a seasoned pro; audiences have acclaimed him as director and/or designer of umpteen shows at  all local venues – The Graduate, The Rocky Horror Show and Most Happy Fella stand out – but a lighting designer has got to know that lighting design is done to light the performers, not the stage. This is particularly crucial in dance. Actors can adjust the blocking a step or even two to seek the light; dancers can’t. More than once the choreography used the area far downstage, at the very edge – and it wasn’t adequately lighted. (During the tech rehearsal it wasn’t lighted at all.) Simone has to know better: lighting serves the performers, not vice versa.

That said, Ganesha’s second week run begins tonight and closes Saturday the 12th. Word is they’ve been playing to full houses, so maybe it would be nice to hold it over . . . . but don’t count on it. (I’ve seen it twice and will see it again if I can.) Get your tickets now: 294-5015.

Also on Saturday, Key West Burlesque presents its special Spring Show – the “most magnifcenet show to date,” producer Marky P. claims – but what else would he say? Just maintaining their usual high standard would promise one hell of a good time. The venue again is Alexander's Guesthouse, 1118 Fleming; doors open at 7:30 and showtime is 8 p.m. Cover is $20, but email Marky at marky@markypierson.com “to be on the list – with discount.”  Worth note: the super lovely and truly ethereal Brad Little joins the usual suspects (I guess I love Frenchie and Tattah best)  for this special evening.

The troupe continues its Friday night run at Kelly’s Upstairs through May 23. “We leave for Vegas June 1 for the Burlesque Hall of Fame Competition,” Marky reports, and May 24 they’ll preview the Vegas show at the Southernmost House as a fundraiser for the trip. The talented troupe is keeping a delicious but dying art form alive; they deserve support.

A quick note on my beloved Key West Symphony Orchestra, which closed a triumphant tenth anniversary season last weekend with a magestic show. (We were warned; it was billed as “Fit for a King” and it was, although I like the incusive “Fit for Royalty” better.) Since my reaction to symphonic music is purely gut level, let me say only that in soprano Yurico Nonaka’s performance we have almost certainly heard the definitive Madame Butterfly of this generation.

That’s it for now. Happy Spring!