Judaism provides grounding as dancer’s career takes off

Lauren Jonas is still a little ambivalent about a decision she had to make back when she was in the eighth grade. A dedicated dance student, she was taking ballet class six times a week. Committed to Judaism, she was attending Hebrew school in preparation for her bat mitzvah. Something had to give and her parents gave her a choice. She chose to dance.

It gave her a career and now the Marin native is co-founder and artistic director of the Diablo Ballet, now in its eighth season. She also dances with the troupe, as she has with the Moscow Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Oakland Ballet and the now-defunct Albuquerque, N.M.-based Southwest Ballet.

But she still regrets that lost bat mitzvah.

She retains and holds dearly several things from her years at Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, however. One was a firm grounding in Judaism -- she and her family still attend services together. The other was her best friend.

Jonas met San Francisco Ballet leading dancer Joanna Berman as a child in Sunday school at Rodef Sholom. The two girls also were together in classes at the Marin Ballet School. The friendship blossomed as they grew up, and they were maids of honor at each other's wedding, Jonas said. But, while Berman recently announced her impending retirement from the stage, Jonas dances on.

Diablo Ballet has gained a firm footing on the Bay Area dance scene in recent years and is moving around and outside the state. Its subscription base has grown considerably since 1999 when performances, formerly only at the Dean Lesher Center for the Performing Arts in Walnut Creek, which is still the company's home base, spread to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley and Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

"Sometimes when you get out of the community and you're recognized, then the community says, 'Wow, we've got something really great here,'" she said, noting that ticket sales increased 20 percent last year. The troupe's 11 dancers give some 35 performances annually and have started to tour beyond California. An outreach program also brings the Diablo dancers to 12,000 school children each year.

But you won't see "Swan Lake."

The unique repertoire includes seven new commissions each year, Jonas said. Works by George Balanchine are as close as it gets to standard. Performances scheduled for Friday, Nov. 23 and Saturday, Nov. 24, for example, will include a piece with the intriguing title of "Fluctuating Hemlines," done to a live jazz percussion score, a world premiere by Jonas' associate artistic director Nikolai Kabaniav, and "The Petites," by KT Nelson, co-artistic director of ODC San Francisco.

Jonas is involved in all aspects -- from writing grants to auditioning dancers. "I never thought I would be doing this," she said. "I just wanted to dance."

She noted that she wears a Magen David on a chain around her neck all the time. "It's so important to be connected to my Judaism. It feels so good. I never take it off -- except when I dance."