Collaborative projects can get the creative juices flowing, especially when artists from different genres enjoy each other's work.
That was the case when The Rosin Box Project's artistic director and choreographer, Carly Topazio, exchanged programming ideas with Kate Hatmaker, a violinist and the artistic director for Art of Elan.
The Rosin Box Project, founded in 2018, consists of professional ballet dancers who are passionate about performing original works, and Art of Elan, now in its 18th season, is known for presenting innovative classical music.
Topazio and Hatmaker were inspired by a partnership that would blend their creative ideas and make them eligible for a grant that would subsidize "Unified Harmonies," a multidisciplinary concert this week at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla that combines two original ballet premieres accompanied by a live string quartet.
The program includes ballets danced to music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Caroline Shaw and Kian Ravaei , along with "So Close," a cinematic dance created by guest choreographer Emily Adams, performed to a soundtrack by Sundance Fellow and film composer Katy Jarzebowski.
The string quartet also performs works by Maurice Ravel and Philip Glass without the dancers.
"This is our first time working with Art of Elan," Topazio said after a rehearsal at the Roxin Box headquarters in Liberty Station.
"We've known about them for a while and we looked into opportunities for partnering with them. We wanted to have live music, and the symphony is too large in scale for us, but Art of Elan is the perfect size."
The Art of Elan musicians include Hatmaker, also a tenured violinist with the San Diego Symphony, her husband, cellist Alex Greenbaum, violinist and San Diego Symphony associate concertmaster, Wesley Precourt and Hanah Elizabeth Stuart on viola.
Topazio choreographed Ravaei's "Family Photos" with a whimsical take that showcases six dancers.
The music was inspired by three places Ravaei remembered from childhood.
A neighborhood carnival inspired a chaotic, fast-paced movement, his family trips to Tehran are expressed with elements of Iranian classical music, and the final movement has the tempo of a gentle lullaby, reminiscent of his hometown in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
Topazio's idea was to cast dancer Brian Bennett as a photographer who struggles with the effort of taking a family photograph.
"It felt like a fun challenge to create something aesthetically pleasing to the eye," she said.
"The music is chaotic and then it transitions. The subjects are trying to convince him to just be present and enjoy the time."
Topazio also performs as a dancer in Shaw's "Entr' acte," a piece that Hatmaker particularly enjoys.
"There are few who write for strings as well as she does," Hatmaker said.
"It's accessible American music, almost like gorgeous folk melodies that get woven into more rhythmic playful motifs.
"Entr' acte" (French for between acts) is an inventive piece of music, with pauses between its tentative opening phrases that simulate a human conversation, first pensive and then, foreboding.
Roxin Box dancer Katie Spagnoletti choreographed "Entr' acte," and she worked with the written score to structure the dance.
She said that the differing sections reminded her of her favorite stories from childhood, like the portal fantasies in "The Chronicles of Narnia."
Her movement phrases reflect the idea of moving between dreamlike worlds with a sense of childlike wonder and underlying danger.
Tapazio and Hatmaker began developing "Unified Harmonies" last year, a production that required a significant creative investment in that both organizations were intent upon producing a concert of original premieres.
In addition to funding the show through donor support, they applied for a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
"We didn't find out until November that we didn't get it," Hatmaker said. "We had to say to each other, 'Do we still want to try to pull this off or are we going to scale back?' But we were committed. It was too powerful not to continue."
The NEA., founded by Congress in 1965, is an independent federal agency designed to enhance American culture by giving access to the arts on a broad scale. Appropriated by Congress annually, the NEA budget represents an estimated 0.003 percent of the federal budget and more than half of the grants go to small and medium-sized organizations.
Earlier this month, NEA directors overseeing grants for dance, museums, theater, arts education and more announced their resignation after the Trump administration rejected or rescinded grants from numerous arts programs across the country.
Many local arts organizations, including past recipients such as San Diego Dance Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Opera and San Diego Ballet, apply for federal funding to offset programming costs.
That's because ticket sales cover a fraction of the expenses required for presenting a concert, including theater rental fees, costumes, lighting and artist salaries. As state and federal arts funding diminishes, arts organizations are tasked with finding individual donors to continue functioning.
For many nonprofits, the job of fundraising is now center stage.
Besides presenting popular concerts, Art of Elan and The Rosin Box Project are known for youth outreach programs, along with shows that invite nationally and internationally recognized artists to San Diego.
"We've received NEA funding in the past," Topazio said.
"But it's not something we depended upon, so it wasn't a catastrophic blow. After all our conversations, we were so excited about the collaboration that we decided to go through with it."