‘Ring-a-Levio’ to Get West Coast Premiere

IRVINE —  UC Irvine dance professor Donald McKayle’s newest dance, “Ring-a-levio,” will have its West Coast premiere at 8 p.m. on Thursday at Los Angeles’ Japan America Theatre.

The piece was performed for the first time last week in Denver by that city’s Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater, which will restage it in L.A. during the Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century festival. It will be repeated May 8.

McKayle recently pitched his new musical, “Shimmy,” about the birth of jazz in New Orleans, to the resident theater troupe of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The troupe, however, didn’t have the money to develop the work, said McKayle, who is now seeking other financing.