Review: MoToR/dance presents “People Are You Ready,” Jan 30 – Feb 1, 2026, 3 Tour locations in Northern California

Attending MoToR/dance’s People Are Your Ready is what I imagine participating in a spiritual revival feels like for the faithful. Exiting the historic landmark Hillside Club in Berkeley after the hour-long performance, I feel uplifted, energized, and dare I say happy. Living in difficult and divisive times, bombarded daily with soul-crushing news and events, our individual efforts of resistance can feel meager and ineffective.  Now more than ever we thirst for solace, connection, and rejuvenation. 

MoToR/dance is a self-scored moving choir of female-identified performers ranging in age from 28-62. I first saw their unique percussive folk dance in a pop-up performance as part of Trolley Dances 2019 and was completely smitten. I longed for this nascent ensemble to thrive.  In 2023 MoToR/dance produced a fully-staged and magical work, “Water in the Kettle” (my review here) at Alameda’s Rhythmix Cultural Works. And thus began a series of annual presentations aligned with International Body Music Day (1^st Sunday in February).

Kicking off their 4^th season, this new production, People Are You Ready, self-produced once more by Artistic Director Evie Ladin, is debuting in a 3-city tour in Davis, Berkeley, and Bolinas. As the music is created solely from the performers vocal and movement stylings, the venues have been selected for their sprung wood floors and bright acoustics.

Over the years, MoToR/dance’s shows have become increasingly immersive.  On this night, the audience is seated on 4 sides of a center playing area, with just enough room for dancers to enter at the corners or to sing and strut behind us.   

MoToR/dance ensemble in performance; Photo by Lisa Berman

Drawing from many folk traditions including Appalachia, the music expresses joy and sadness.  There are humor and deep female truths to be found in the lyrics.

Ladin and her seven castmates display a deep connection with each other, as they scuff and slide, clap their hands, and thump their chests. Syncopated rhythms and lush vocal harmonies grow as a solo becomes a pair, a quartet, an octet.

The possibility of audience participation is likely the thing my wife dreads the most about a theater outing.  I assure her that there won’t be any on this outing. I misspoke. People Are You Ready is more participatory than past MoToR/dance shows. And yet, here my spouse is willing, in fact it would appear gladly keeping time by patting her own lifted palm, and then that of her neighbor, while singing the simple verses which we echo back to the musicians.

Our participation is always consensual and seems a natural outgrowth of the song at hand.  We begin with a simple bass rhythm, matching the heart thumping of Heather Arnett whose pitch-perfect “It’s all in your head” cuts clearly through the silence.  Soon, with just the encouragement of her open and inviting countenance, we too will sing, joining in the chorus, between her stanzas. 

The complex round singing of Sam Amidon’s melancholy folk song “Sugar baby,” finds the dancers moving in a circle allowing different voices to rise as they move past us, as their triple-step footwork contributes a percussive foundation.  One of Ladin’s many occupations is square-dance-calling. For a fun and festive rendition of Lonnie Donegan’s “Don’t Rock Me Daddy-O” she leads the audience in a seated square dance in which we all lean left, lean right, sparkle hands, wave and bow at her prompts.  Serpentining through the space their elbows interlocking with their partners, the dancers partake of a proper square dance to the boisterous clapping of the energized onlookers.

One of the pleasures of a MoToR/dance show is experiencing the diverse sounds we can make with our bodies.  The rich hollow resonance of a cup-handed clap versus the soft swish of hand brushing over thighs, or the staccato click of a snapped finger all work together to create complex textures.  Add in the interweaving choreography and some audience clapping, and the power of  communal effort expands to include us all.

Ladin has a gift for creating mash-ups, one uplifting song featured verses from The Five Stairstep’s “Ooh Child” (Ooh, child, Things are gonna get easier, Ooh, child, Things'll get brighter), Ted Nugent’s “That’s the Story of Love” (you gotta give a little, take a little, let your heart break a little) and Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everyday People” (There is a blue one who can't accept the green one, For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one) whose chorus of “we got to live together” hits home especially hard as I think about how Minnesotans are presently supporting each other in unified resistance against ICE’s violent border patrol actions.

Swirling softly through dappled golden light, Kristin DeAmicis transports us to a field of sunflowers. She dips an arm, scooping it up as if to lift their scent.  As she windmills through the space, pausing now and then to waltz with a remembered loved one, her castmates bear witness. Standing oddly still, they sing about longing to see one’s mother, one’s lover, one’s friend, sometime, where the flowers bloom forever. Amidst the constant coming and goings, and high energy music making, this moment feels reverential, perhaps a tribute to their recently passed colleague Bay Area dancer Julie Kane, in whose memory this season is dedicated.

Breaking the spell MoToR/dance concludes with a raucous rendition of the bluegrass traditional “Ain’t No Grave.” Stomping, swinging, side-stepping, and scraping their feet, the dancers carry on a fascinating rhythmic conversation with each other. Music is a kind of medicine, and so we are healed.  My only wish is that I not have to wait another year for a show. Please producing gods, bring this gorgeous song and dance troupe to your venue soon! It’s what the world needs more of.

Review by Jen Norris, published February 2, 2026

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Production credits

MoToR/dance

People Are You Ready 

January 30-February 1, 2026

Odd Fellows Hall, Davis (Jan 30);

Hillside Club, Berkeley (Jan 31);

Bolinas Community Center (Feb 1)

Performers:

Evie Ladin, Valerie Gutwirth, Sydney Lozier, Tammy Foquina Chang, Keira Armstrong, Kristin DeAmicis, Heather Arnett, and Dana Gerstein.