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Daniel Hope, music director and concertmaster of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, is fascinated by how rhythm and movement transcend time and geography.
“Dance runs deep throughout the human story” he says. “It’s one of our oldest forms of expression—older than written language, and perhaps even older than music itself. The earliest known depictions of dancers are over 10,000 years old, and yet they speak to a deeply instinctive need: to connect, to celebrate, to enter another state of being.”
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In the Bay Area premiere of “Dance! With Daniel Hope” this week throughout the region, the New Century Chamber Orchestra celebrates that feeling in four concerts featuring examples of dance music from medieval times to the present.
“That’s what ‘Dance!’ is about — a journey into this timeless, universal impulse,” Hope says.
The origins of the concert began more than 20 years ago when Hope first had the idea for an album of dance music; the goal was realized with the recording of a two-disc set ‘Dance!’ with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra in 2023 and released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2024.
Hope then curated a concert, which premiered last year in Berlin, from the album.
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“Berlin was a natural choice as it’s a city with an insatiable cultural appetite and deep history of both innovation and reinvention; the audience was open to the idea of traversing centuries and styles in a single evening, which confirmed my belief that this kind of programming resonates strongly in today’s world,” Hope says, adding, “For the Bay Area, I’m bringing that same spirit, and yet with the added brilliance and musical excellence that only New Century Chamber Orchestra can provide.”
The concert is what Hope calls a “magical history tour” that goes beyond a chronological survey, instead following and expressing emotional and cultural trends. As a result, it includes such varied styles as Baroque music, Russian ballet, klezmer, tango and more among its 18 pieces.
“The idea was to curate a journey that not only highlights how Western composers have responded to dance but also reflects how dance itself has absorbed and reflected countless cultural currents,” Hope says. “It’s an exploration of the human need to move—to feel connected.”
There are recognizable tunes as well as household-name composers: Conforto’s “Fandango,” Gluck’s “Dance of the Furies” from “Orfeo ed Euridice,” Bizet’s “Farandole,” Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances,” a selection from Schubert’s “Five German Dances,” Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre,” Offenbach’s Can-Can from “Orpheus in the Underworld” and Tchaikovsky’s Pas de Deux from Act 2 of “Swan Lake,” are a few examples.
But beyond standards of dance music canon, there are also lesser-known works.
“There’s so much richness in the margins,” Hope says. “Erwin Schulfhoff (1894-1942), for example, who wrote his ‘Five Dance Pieces for String Quartet’ in 1924, was a wildly imaginative composer whose music was tragically silenced by the Holocaust.”
The concert also spotlights “Ticklin’ Toes” by Florence Price (1887-1953), an African-American composer who blended classical with spirituals, blues and ragtime in a way Hope says is seamless and deeply personal. However, while her music has enjoyed a resurgence in programming in recent years, for decades it had been neglected.
“‘Ticklin’ Toes’ is deceptively light on the surface, but it carries a rhythmic sophistication and warmth that make it a perfect fit for ‘Dance!’ and it brings a completely different perspective—joyful, characterful and rooted in a distinctly African-American musical heritage,” Hope says. “It’s heartening to see more institutions finally recognizing her work, and her growing presence in concert halls is long overdue.”
Hope says people respond to dance music differently than they do to other forms of music because it bypasses the intellect, goes straight to the body, and taps into something primal and communal.
“Even if you don’t recognize a piece. your foot might start tapping, your shoulders might move—it’s involuntary—and that’s the beauty of it” he says. Whether it’s the hypnotic spin of a Sufi ritual, the maze dances of medieval monks, or a klezmer tune from Odessa, there’s a common thread. Dance reminds us that we’re not alone, and it pulls us together in shared motion. In a world often defined by disconnection, that’s incredibly powerful.”
New Century Chamber Orchestra’s “Dance! With Daniel Hope” is at 7:30 p.m. May 1 at First Congregational Church, 2845 Channing Way, Berkeley; 7:30 p.m. May 2 at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 3 Bayview Ave., Belvedere; 2 p.m. May 3, Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco; and 2:30 p.m. May 4, Bing Concert Hall, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford University. Tickets ($35-80) are at ncco.org.
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