Adventurous attendees can expect to discover not just artistic escape and the bracing company of other humans at Julia Adam Dance’s LUNAE (July 17-19 and 24-26). They’ll also find sustenance—an open-air feast of locally sourced food served on communal tables at Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma, accompanying a professional dance performance under the stars.
LUNAE is one of the company’s regular forays that “strives to provide a deep connection to the environment through a wholly immersive experience that brings together dance and local gourmet cuisine in a breath-taking outdoor setting,” according to Adam. The dance itself is debuting during JAD’s 13th season, and was inspired by that number.
“There are 13 moons in every year, which took me to the title LUNAE,” Adam told 48 Hills. “Then that took me to women and the relationship they have to the moon and the tide. Which then took me to tales of women. I was going do maybe 13 tales of women—which then took me to myself. So that’s the journey of where I’ve arrived.”
There’s also a theme of regeneration that ties into both the natural and romantic aspects of the experience. “It’s roughly based on Romeo and Juliet, except they don’t die; they wake up. What happens after that is what happens when two people fall in love and then spend 25 years navigating their way together.”
The idea of bringing together food and dance together began 13 years ago as an evolving collaboration and actual marriage between former dancer, current choreographer, and company founder Julia Adam and Aaron Lucich, a producer, rancher, and agricultural activist.
Lucich said, “This isn’t your typical ballet with a catered meal. It’s a cultural event rooted in our surroundings. We set out to create an authentic experience not easily found in the modern world. Each year seems to go deeper. It’s as if all participants, whether our team or the attendees, bring something special, which makes each evening unique and complete. It’s really starting to have a life of its own.”
Adam’s own life-long experience with dance is one of incredible depth. Her mother was involved with dance as a teacher and performer, and Adam began dancing in her hometown of Ottawa at a very young age. At 13, she began training at the prestigious National Ballet School of Canada in Toronto, graduating in 1983 and immediately joining the National Ballet of Canada. After five years, she moved on to San Francisco Ballet, where she eventually became a principal dancer before retiring from the stage in 2002.
“When I came to San Francisco Ballet there was way more freedom than I was used to,” Adam said. All her Canadian training had been quite rigorous, with little room for individuality. “It was such a gift coming to SFB. I had all these amazing choreographers come and make work on me. And with Helge [Tomasson, former artistic director] and many others, I felt free.
“But it took me a long time. I wasn’t promoted to principal [dancer] till I was 30. When Helge did promote me, I was thinking ‘are you talking to me?’ But he said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you. You’ve had all the potential but you weren’t able to let go. And now you’ve found that.’”
Adam had already become interested in choreography before hanging up her pointe shoes, creating her first ballet in 1993 for SF Ballet’s Choreographic Workshop. Since then she has gone on to make more than 60 works for many companies including Houston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Atlanta Ballet, Nashville Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet. Adam created and staged 10 works for Ballet Memphis and was their artistic associate from 2010 to 2013.
While continuing to choreograph around the country, and winning critical acclaim for her work, the next stage was to form her own company in 2014. The titles of each season are enough to show the natural directions in which her work has heading. The first season was the BoatHouse Project with Adam’s Dew Point on Tomales Bay, followed by the WoodLand Project with The Mycelial Nature of Things: Little Red Cap in a secluded grove in Nicasio, then AIR, A Delicate Balance at a farm outside Bolinas.
Solis explored themes of fire and our relationship to energy and the sun. QuintEssence delved into the elusive fifth element. The Sixes and Sevens series, its borrowed from the old idiom—a phrase for disarray and inner tumult—mirrored the unease we may feel when we gaze upon the world as it is.
Chrysalis addressed themes of metamorphosis and emergence, a reminder of what it means to shift, survive, and begin again. Age of Entitlement, the second chapter in the Sixes and Sevens series, was in response to the challenges of the global pandemic—art made accessible in a time of distance, when connection and creativity were needed most.
RESILI3NCE, essayed to show the ever-shifting terrain of technology, and the evolving nature of human connection, and our enduring capacity to adapt, to reconnect, and to persevere—even in the face of profound change. 2024’s VISCERĀLIS revealed the growing tension between the rise of Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence and our innate need for visceral experience and embodied, actual intelligence.
LUNAE runs July 17-19 and 24-26 at Tara Firma Farms, Petaluma. More info here.
