When Eveoke Dance Theatre choreographer/artistic director Gina Angelique thinks Sisyphus, her collaborator/producer/husband, Christopher Hall, builds the rock. After much cajoling, Hall emerges from the shadows to talk about the Downtown-based Eveoke, which celebrates its 10th anniversary March 5-25 with the world premiere of “Parting the Sea.”

It’s not that Hall is shy or inarticulate. He’s simply accustomed to yielding center stage to Angelique, whom he met when assigned to light her show when both were students at University of California, Irvine.

“At Irvine everything was built-in — audience, marketing and facilities,” Hall says. “All you had to do was make the art.” When Angelique graduated it became apparent to both that they had to be good at much more than art. Apparently they would have to create their own institution and resources to support it. This is not necessarily something they teach artists in college.

“If you build it, they will NOT come,” says Hall. “We’re talking a dance company that has no name, no track record, no nothing. Before they could even open the door on their art they had to have money up front. Marketing is just as hard if not harder than making the art. We had to create an organization that could take care of three things: The art, the community (which is marketing) and the community support (which is fund-raising).”

Angelique has family in San Diego, so the couple moved south and established a nonprofit corporation. Eveoke Dance Theatre’s initial San Diego work was produced in a tiny loft in the old Rattner Building at F and 13th streets. The first year’s budget was $16,000. Hall and Angelique took no fees or salaries for several years, but the payoff was a situation that allowed them to do a show anytime with no restrictions.

“Ten years later, our budget is a little over $400,000, which is pitifully small,” says Hall, “but we have five staff members employed 52 weeks a year, full health and dental benefits, and decent vacation time. We also have eight part-time people, dancers who regularly perform with us and teach classes.”

There are 30 classes a week at the studio on Seventh Avenue and around 20 classes off-site. Hall says Eveoke likely will dance four dozen performances this year. Last year was an anomaly, with 125 performances, because Eveoke produced a nine-week commercial run of its radically popular hip-hop piece, “Funkalosophy,” at Sushi.

Among the outstanding dance theater works produced over Eveoke’s 10-year downtown residency are the heart-stopping “Soul of a Young Girl: Dances of Anne Frank,” produced at the Lyceum Theatre in 2000 as part of the Jewish Arts Festival; a punk-modern commentary on our wasteful society titled “Wireless City,” produced in conjunction with Palomar College at the old Carnation Milk Factory; an homage to San Diego’s former fishing industry titled “Fishtales,” produced on the Broadway Pier; and a kind of housewives’ nightmare titled “House of Hysteria,” produced at Sushi in the former Reincarnation Project.

Parting the Sea will be produced at the turn-of-the-century Wonder Bread Bakery (147 14th St.), owned by Bob Sinclair, whom Hall terms “a wonderful Downtown landowner, an icon of San Diego, who is so excited to have us open our 10th season there.

“The building is fantastic,” Hall says. “The bakery had these big old silos, so you walk into rooms with holes, big open spaces that go two or three stories high. The performance space itself is a gorgeous, 100-foot- long room with arched, trussed ceilings and brick walls.”

Conceived and choreographed by Angelique, “Parting the Sea” is described as an all ages fairytale about the earth, borders and the spirit of children. Placed in the context of modern day politics and border issues, it employs hip-hop, Butoh and modern dance styles. The work is based on the legends of Sisyphus — who toils mightily to roll that rock uphill — and Narcissus — who almost drowns admiring his reflection in the water. Angelique took further inspiration from photographs of “la frontera” made by Maria Fernandez, a mother of four.

Dancers are Butoh artist Charlene Penner as Sisyphus; Anthony Rodriguez, who came up through Eveoke’s education program, as Narcissus; Erika Malone and Nikki Dunnan as the sea; and Yvonne Hernandez as the child who causes their parting.

Having been in its studio at 644 Seventh Ave. for eight years, Eveoke — eveoke.org — is officially a Downtown icon. Hall is producer, builder, scenic, set and sound designer, and also Angelique’s artistic collaborator, husband, and father of their 2 1/2-year-old son, Shealyn. Additionally, he is a Downtown activist, although he soft-pedals the fact that he is an elected member of the Centre City Advisory Committee and chair of its long-range subcommittee. He’s also a board member of C3.

“To be asleep at the wheel would be an abuse of the privilege of creating our art Downtown,” Hall says. “At Eveoke we think that art has to be for more than its own sake. It has to be for great purpose, because it’s too expensive and too precious a natural resource to be squandered on nothing, or on selfishness.”

As he watches “Parting the Sea” rehearsals, a theme emerges: “You are not your most essential self unless you are helping somebody else and being part of the community. You are least yourself when you are focused on the self. Our mission is to cultivate compassion. You can’t do that unless you’re acting compassionately. We make sure that everybody has access to the work we do. The dance festival in Balboa Park? There’s no charge. Even the homeless can attend.”

Half of Eveoke’s performances, including “Parting the Sea,” are pay-what-you-can. “We’re partnering with every single audience member, saying we trust you, we want to partner with you. The deal is this: You come to the show and receive the art. We will not make obstacles for you.”

Hall’s dream is that every audience member walks away saying, “Wow! I may have gotten more than my money’s worth.”

— Charlene Baldridge