Only a hand-scrawled sign with the word 'Saliva' on an orange-and-white-striped construction barrier on Clementina Street hinted that there might be any kind of event going on Sunday night under the freeway.
But despite the chill, scores of people congregated under the graceful curving Fremont Street off-ramps, where performer and choreographer Keith Hennessy reprised his groundbreaking 1988 solo 'Saliva,' an inchoate mass of impulses, ideas, rage, humor and participatory episodes designed to elicit a response in the viscera.
San Francisco has a proud history of guerrilla art, and in the grand tradition, the police came by earlier in the day with a warning - lending a legitimizing whiff of the illegal to the proceedings. But with the air of a champion of public art in public places, Hennessy was characteristically unbowed.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Reworked 'Carol' a bit less inspired
A faint scent of spiced cider lurked in the air at the opening night of the American Conservatory Theater's "A Christmas Carol," the company's peppy seasonal favorite, calculated to dispense cheer and dispel the chilly midwinter gloom.
There would no doubt be a lump of coal in the stocking of anyone who'd grouse about a production that wears its merriment so prominently, and director Domenique Lozano keeps Charles Dickens' evergreen tale of Christmas redemption - adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh, with music by Karl Lundeberg and musical direction by Laura Burton - zipping along, without dwelling too much on any particular episode.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
'SenseScape': Chinese dance tradition updated
'SenseScape': Chinese dance tradition updated:
Traditional, classical Chinese dance gets a fresh flourish of energy in Lily Cai's newest creation, 'SenseScape.'
The Shanghai-born Cai is known for her blend of modern dance and Chinese influences, but whatever dance idiom she chooses, Cai's trademark is to give each work a unique texture. Cai - who founded her troupe in 1988 - credits the initial impetus of 'SenseScape' to composer Gang Situ, her longtime collaborative partner, who has created a partly original, partly sampled score for the work.
"It's about the human senses and the chi," Cai says, referencing the concept of energy and flow of life forces. "My technique itself is about the chi. In the past when I've choreographed, always I see an image first, but this time, I worked from the inside. I keep telling my dancers that the movement is just the result, like when you laugh or cry, you sense the sadness or happiness, then you start the action."
Main portion of the post
Rest of post here.
Traditional, classical Chinese dance gets a fresh flourish of energy in Lily Cai's newest creation, 'SenseScape.'
The Shanghai-born Cai is known for her blend of modern dance and Chinese influences, but whatever dance idiom she chooses, Cai's trademark is to give each work a unique texture. Cai - who founded her troupe in 1988 - credits the initial impetus of 'SenseScape' to composer Gang Situ, her longtime collaborative partner, who has created a partly original, partly sampled score for the work.
"It's about the human senses and the chi," Cai says, referencing the concept of energy and flow of life forces. "My technique itself is about the chi. In the past when I've choreographed, always I see an image first, but this time, I worked from the inside. I keep telling my dancers that the movement is just the result, like when you laugh or cry, you sense the sadness or happiness, then you start the action."
Main portion of the post
Rest of post here.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Left Coast Leaning Festival dazzling, dizzying
Before the curtain went up on Thursday night's opening of the Left Coast Leaning Festival, curator Marc Bamuthi Joseph noted that not only was the three-day event designed to highlight the work of artists from Pacific states, but he hoped that it would define a left coast aesthetic.
Set in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts flexible Forum space, with no proscenium and the vast, floor-to-ceiling backdrop only a few yards from the audience, the first challenge for the festival, co-presented by YBCA and Youth Speaks, was the limitations of, and possibilities afforded by, the space. The effect of video projected onto the backdrop was similar to sitting too close to an IMAX screen - exciting, even thrilling, but also a little nausea inducing.
Set in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts flexible Forum space, with no proscenium and the vast, floor-to-ceiling backdrop only a few yards from the audience, the first challenge for the festival, co-presented by YBCA and Youth Speaks, was the limitations of, and possibilities afforded by, the space. The effect of video projected onto the backdrop was similar to sitting too close to an IMAX screen - exciting, even thrilling, but also a little nausea inducing.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Filmmaker trains camera on Paris Opera Ballet
Filmmaker trains camera on Paris Opera Ballet:
Real life is the script for Frederick Wiseman, the documentary filmmaker, who turns his lens onto one of France's grandest institutions, the Paris Opera Ballet, in his latest film 'La Danse,' which opens Friday. Taking the viewer into the nooks and crannies of the Opera's venerable Palais Garnier and Opera Bastille, Wiseman observes the company in a 'fly on the wall' fashion - dancers in rehearsal, at rest, meeting with administrators, costumers dying swaths of fabric and meticulously beading elaborate costumes - uncovering stories large and small in the process.
Real life is the script for Frederick Wiseman, the documentary filmmaker, who turns his lens onto one of France's grandest institutions, the Paris Opera Ballet, in his latest film 'La Danse,' which opens Friday. Taking the viewer into the nooks and crannies of the Opera's venerable Palais Garnier and Opera Bastille, Wiseman observes the company in a 'fly on the wall' fashion - dancers in rehearsal, at rest, meeting with administrators, costumers dying swaths of fabric and meticulously beading elaborate costumes - uncovering stories large and small in the process.
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