“The List”

File_000 (9)A few folks have asked to see the list of all the performances I saw in 2015, dance and non-dance included.  Enjoy!

January 16th, “Restless Creature” Wendy Whelan

January 25th, “Bear/Skin” Keith Hennessy

January 29th, “Giselle” San Francisco Ballet

January 30th, “the why ask why we dance dance” Scott Wells & Dancers

February 19th, “Pavement”  Kyle Abraham

March 7th, “Age and Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note ” Miguel Gutierrez

March 13th and 14th, ODC/Dance Downtown

March 3rd, “Antigonick” Shotgun Players

March 9th, “Schokovitch Trilogy” San Francisco Ballet

April 11th, “Pilot 65: Cruising Altitude”

April 19th, “Sarah (the smuggler)” Sara Shelton Mann

April 23rd, “Berkeley Dance Project”

April 25th, “Univerity of San Francisco Dance Ensemble Spring 2015 Concert”

May 8th, “An Intimate Evening of Three Choreographers” Margaret Jenkins Dance Company

May 27th, SF Danceworks Fundraiser

May 30th, “Stay and The Material of Attention” Hope Mohr Dance

June 5th and 6th, “Walking Distance Festival”

July 9th, “Bestiarium (or a conversation on empire and the multitude)” Paige Starling Sorvillo, Violeta Luna, Evelyn Ficarra

July 10th, “95 Rituals (for Anna Halprin)” InkBoat

July 16th and 17th, “Breath Catalogue” Megan Nicely/Dance and Kate Elswit

August 8th, “Pope.L’s Costume Made of Nothing” Brontez Purnell

August 19th, “Observations of Predation in Humans: A Lecture by Dr. Zira ,Animal Psychologist” Coco Fusco

September 12th, “Six Voice’s Sing Gertrude Stein” Ramon & Jessica’s A Cappella Big Band

September 25th, “Earth/Body/Home” Amara Tabor-Smith

October 3rd, “Eurydice” Shotgun Players

October 9th, “Umusuna: Memories Before History” Sanki Juku

October 29th, “Fact/SF JuMP”

October 30th, “Opus”  Circa

November 11th, “Talk the Walk: Local Artists at the Intersection of Language and Dance” Hope Mohr the Bridge Project

November 10th, “Kaash” Akram Khan Company

December 11th 15 Years of Gravity, Jess Curtis

December 13th, “Peter and the Wolf” San Francisco Youth Symphony

December, 13th “Peter and the Wolf”

San Francisco Youth Symphony

Last performance of the year.

It wasn’t a dance, but I thought it important to reflect on the last performance I attended in 2015.  I took Alice, along with Rich and N.  Perhaps a new holiday tradition.  She really wanted to stay for the sing-a-long at the end, but she hit her 3yr old limit (and there was just too much Nutcracker).

It seemed fitting to end the year in the company of loved ones.  Sharing the wonder of the theater – dance, music, or otherwise – is special.  I have such fond memories of seeing Pilobolus Dance Theater and hearing the Handel’s Messiah as a kid.  As much as people claim the ephemerality of dance and performance, I contend that there  can be a residue, something that sticks over time.

So now what?

More, of course.

 

December 11th, “15 Years of Gravity”

Choreographed by Jess Curtis with conspirators Claire Cunningham (Scotland) and Jörg Müller (France).

There was talking to the audience, thank you Jess Curtis.

I had a hard time finding time to write this response so this might be a bit scattered.   I wasn’t worried about the chairs scattered over the performance space (reminded me of a William Forsythe piece I saw in Dresden Germany in 2011).  And I wasn’t worried about participating in the perspective “game” during  The Way You Look (at me) Tonight.  I did get worried when I read that the running time for Performance Research Experiment #1 was “totally up to you.”  This piece was about engagement.  The audience was asked to participate by verbally acknowledging when they became less engaged by the different sequences of virtuosity – interesting!   I question whether these sequences were really virtuosic (throwing balls from behind a curtain?).  Unfortunately, the audience turned the experiment into a game, and I quickly became irritated.   I didn’t need to see the excerpt from The Dance that Documents Itself, but loved the “dancing” in Mobile and the lovely singing by Cunningham at the very end.  It was a beautiful ending, and I didn’t mind staying out later than normal.

November 10th, “Kaash”

By Akram Khan Company

I took my brother; I think he enjoyed it more than me.

I was interested, and also a little disappointed.  I think I was expecting something a little “more” and I’m not sure that I mean by that yet.  The dancers were strong and I liked the movement aesthetic, overall, but something was missing for me.  There was a stunning solo in purple light – her body moved with such precision and abandon.  I just can’t put my finger on it.  Maybe I was distracted by learning that Anish Kapoor had designed the set.  I saw his piece, Leviathan, in Paris 2011 so my expectations might have been (too) high.  Even so, I still wanted more – a message, question, or statement.  

 

November 8th “Talk the Walk”

Part of Hope Mohr Dance; Bridge Project, Rewriting Dance

A few preliminaries:

  1. The full title: “Talk the Walk: Local Artists at the Intersection of Language and Dance
  2. I also went to the Jennifer Durning Workshop 11/7 and 11/8
  3. I am scrambling to write this before I see my next performance

Sticking to the theme of “writing about everything I see”:

Bear Writes an Equation about Death, Maureen Whiting

More bears!  

Movement Studies for Splinters in our Ankles, Gerald Casel

Not sure about this one.

minifesto, Hope Mohr

More please (pun kind-of intended).

Breath Catalog Curio #8a (Fragment: Pre-articulation), Megan Nicely

More dancing!

Still Life No 1 (excerpt), Lauren Simpson and Jenny Stulberg

Be still my heart!  I was go giddy; I have now seen all three.  I loved all 3 and want to see them all again.

untitled, Mauryr Kerr

Not sure about this one either.

An afterthought: My responses here are not isolated by any means.  The two days of working with Jeanine Durning facilitated a number of conversations and embodied experiences that culminated in the seeing of these pieces.  I arrived alone to the theater, but I was not alone.  There was a sense of community that had built up over the two days and I could sense it all around me.  As I sat and watched, I felt attended to as an audience member.  “The whole” resonated much more than the individual parts.   

October 30th, “Opus”

By Circa

There was choreography.  There was acrobatics.  There was thinking happening.  There was Shostakovich.

I was asked in April if I wanted to purchase any tickets for the CalPerformances 2015/2016 season.  This was the only one I picked for 2015. I chose this show because it looked different, and because I could hang out with a friend I don’t get to see nearly enough.  It was fun even if it didn’t say much.

October 29th, “Fact/SF JuMP”

Choreography by Charles Slender-White and Lauren Simpson and Jenny Stulberg

I went to see Still Life No. 3 (Lauren Simpson and Jenny Stulberg).  A surprise! I think it was intended to be so:

“This is the third work in a developing series of dances exploring gesture, speed, scale, and unison.  There is no hidden meaning, symbols, or storyline, but if you see any of those things, we like that, too.”

The “music” was live sound recordings from the corner of 17th St. and Shotwell, and the dancers mostly faced away from the audience.  It was smart.  There was wit.  I kept trying to figure out what the “still life” was – the street? urban life?   Are we all too still even in the midst of city motion?  I enjoyed the starkness and the tinkering within it.  I wish I could see Still Life #2.

(I also sat through Spread Thin by Charles Slender-White. For the record, it’s always ok to leave at intermission)

October 3rd, “Eurydice”

Written by  Sarah Ruhl  and Directed by  Erika Chong Shuch

On an unexpected date with myself.  I just had to go after hearing from more than one person of its delights, its realness.

What resonated:

Love

Oblivion

Buckets

The chorus!  of stones no less.  For a brief moment I was thrown back into Ch. 2 of the dissertation – my fascination with how playwrights “do” the greek chorus.  They sang, they moved, they were “dancers.”

I was moved – I felt something.

I am compelled to read some Sarah Ruhl….when I have time, maybe next year.

 

September 25th, “Earth/Body/Home”

Choreography by Amara Tabor-Smith 

Dancing on the street – talking with Christy Bollingbroke- kneeling in the lobby watching/observing/listening.  A familiar form (Tabor-Smith had a similar beginning at the Walking Distance Festival in 2013).  Then there was a speech or rather some talking and quoting, a preface of sorts.  It seemed a little much at the time. I did write down some words in my notebook (in no particular order):

mourning

birth

migration – immigration

place no place

what remains?

home

There really wasn’t time to read the program.

It felt like a ritual, but not.

It felt like a dance performance, but not.

The program notes started with: “The ritual which you will participate in…”  But I didn’t feel like a participant in a ritual: I wasn’t asked.  I felt like an audience member that was bearing witness to something I didn’t know much about; it was odd.  What if I refuse to participate?  What then?  I was almost so consumed by this oddness that I mostly forgot the dancing, the movement of bodies on the stage.  What were they doing? What were they saying?  How did they move?  Maybe it doesn’t matter. I wanted it to matter.

September 12th, “Six Voice’s Sing Gertrude Stein”

By Ramon & Jessica’s A Cappella Big Band 

I was hungry.

This hit was just right flavor – of people, space, and words.  Such lovely words, such lovely rhythm. Not a dance, but wondrous movement.  Even if the second ½ lagged, I was still entranced.

Again, I went with a lot of not knowing, but got some bits from Rebekah – just the right amount to make it juicy.  I left with a smile.  Then bought Stein’s book, The World is Round.  I can’t wait to read it to Alice.