Dancers put Durham poet's work in motion

Pencil and paper are all most poets need. But Durham poet Tanya Olson used a different tool with her new poem about Army defector Charles Robert Jenkins: dance.

"Love and War Return Home, Walking Hand in Hand" came together through a collaboration with Choreo Collective. The dancers will perform the new dance, with Olson reciting her poem, as part of the Current Collection shows this weekend.

Olson, who teaches at Vance-Granville Community College, at first envisioned writing her poem and then working with the dancers to interpret it. Instead, the dance and the poem came together concurrently, each drawing new ideas from the other.

"The most fascinating thing to me out of this whole process has been the sort of translation that has gone back and forth again and again between text and movement -- interpreting language into movement and interpreting movement back into language," Olson says.

Jenkins, a North Carolina native, was a sergeant serving in South Korea when he deserted in 1965. He lived in North Korea until 2004. He pleaded guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy, and was sentenced to 30 days of confinement and dishonorably discharged.

Olson says she began writing an anti-war poem, but the dancers made her see more universal themes.

"It's really about going forward and crossing over borders and making decisions not knowing about what's on the other side," she says.

Choreo Collective performs at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Chapel Hill High School. Tickets are $8. Details: 259-4686, www.choreocollective.org.

Touring troupes to visit

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company comes to Page Auditorium at Duke University at 8 p.m. Wednesday with "Chapel Chapter." The multimedia piece uses court documents and jailhouse interviews to look at the country's court and prison system. Tickets are $25 to $46. Details: 684-4444, tickets.duke.edu.

"Lion King" choreographer Garth Fagan's company comes to N.C. State University's Stewart Theatre at 8 tonight. Among the works on the program is the 2003 "DanceCollageforRomie," inspired by visual artist Romare Bearden. Alyson Colwell-Waber, founder of Meredith Dance Theatre at Meredith College, will lead a preshow discussion at 6:45 p.m. in the Walnut Room at Talley Student Center.

The Acting Company, a touring troupe whose alumni include Patti LuPone and Kevin Kline, returns to the Triangle with "Moby Dick Rehearsed." Orson Welles' adaptation of Herman Melville's classic centers on a group of actors who decide to stage "Moby Dick" while in the midst of their "King Lear" rehearsals. The show is at 8 p.m. March 25 at Stewart Theatre.

Tickets for the Fagan show and the Acting Company show are $24-$28; $14 for students. Details: 515-1100, www.ncsu.edu/arts.

The magic is back

Durham actor-magician Joshua Lozoff, who enchanted audiences last year in a sold-out run in Durham, returns to Manbites Dog Theater with new tricks up his sleeve. His revamp of the solo show, called "Joshua Lozoff: Beyond Belief," includes what he calls a "fun" look at quantum physics.

The revival, produced by Ghost & Spice Productions, will run March 20 to April 6. Six shows were already sold out as of Tuesday. Tickets are $15 and $20; $5 minimum for the "pay what you can" preview March 20 (walk-up sales only).

Lozoff will also perform a benefit magic show at 7 p.m. Sunday for Safe Passage, which helps children living and working in a Guatemala garbage dump. Tickets are $25.

Reservations for Sunday's performance or "Beyond Belief": 682-3343, www.manbitesdogtheater.org.