Kelly Malone (she of great craft fairs in Potrero and the collaboration and creative space Workshop SF) is hosting a second Heavy Metal Aerobics show on Friday at Engine Works on Capp. Why shell out the $10, you ask? If the hair and heavy metal tracks aren’t enough to sway you, maybe weighlifting in the form of Workshop beers will. Think glam rock and awards for for those who dress the part and work hard (you’ll need to sweat off those Jack Daniels cupcakes with HIGHTOWER tunes, after all).
This weekend the San Francisco Ballet opened Giselle, and I’m glad they brought it back to the stage after its local premiere in ’99. While the villager costumes in the first act felt overdone, they made the bride spirits in their white veils that much more striking at the start of the second act. Principal dancer Yuan Yuan Tan is fantastically dynamic to watch as the doomed protagonist, and you can see why she’s been the lead in Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, and The Sleeping Beauty among other area performances. You only have until Valentine’s Day to see her in action.
After practicing at its beautiful space in the Mission, I wanted to share the first part of a video series introducing Rusty Wells’ Urban Flow Yoga studio. In this short clip about one of the city’s first donation-based yoga communities, Rusty describes the studio’s intention to serve all by removing cost prohibitions that deter people from practicing yoga. I find the work that local production company document document put together most powerful, and not just because they captured this: “If you really believe in what you’re doing and then notice that something may be missing, then there’s your duty right there–to provide whatever it is that’s lacking.”
Should you want to get in on the action in person, musician MC Yogi and Urban Flow instructor Andrea Maltzer are hosting the elephant-power themed workshop “Ganesh is Fresh” on August 21. Think art, music, mantra, and flow.
Just as submissions close for male and female nominees for their “40 Under 40: The Future of Feminism,” the Feminist Press’ upcoming publications are worth a browse. Even if someone you support doesn’t make the final list of social justice and gender equity champions, sharing some of the publisher’s titles with them is a great consolation. A few that piqued my interest include:
Streb: How to Become an Extreme Action Hero: Elizabeth Streb has been called a movement architect, action mechanic and Evil Kanevil, and I’m curious about whether her book can do justice to her descriptions of choreographed crashes. Her extreme action is described by FP as “a form of movement that’s more NASCAR than modern dance, more boxing than ballet.” I charge you to find someone who’s able to make better use of confined space (see “Little Ease” at 11 minutes).
The art and music summer fest Wanderlust will be hosting a local teaser of sorts with a party and performance at The Fillmore this Sunday. Lest you’re thinking Janice Joplin, Rupa & The April Fishes and Kula Yoga Project founder Schuyler Grant will be teaching, singing, and essentially getting down. I’ll be trying to disregard memories of an unfortunate bluegrass show I saw at the theater last, but if it helps me get through the time until the late July event at Squaw Valley, it’ll be a small price to pay.
The currently running spring performance of Alonzo King Lines Ballet is well worth a visit, especially for people who think they haven’t seen much that’s unique in SF dance of late. The 7th Street company has combined a powerful duo of performances: a first act that includes four SF Opera’s Adler Fellows interacting with dancers with a second act set to tabla music created by Zakir Hussain for Lines. Like the music, almost nothing happens rapidly, and I didn’t want it to.
Pared-down costuming and well-considered, delicate lighting highlight strong physiques. The only standout coloring was that on choreographer King’s cowboy shirt when we walked on stage to answer questions. “Getting back to what you already know is a long process,” he said of his creative process. I only know that it was the hardest time I’ve had leaving the Novellus Theater.
Free dance aficionados rejoice: Bay Area National Dance Week starts this week with a flash mob-esque Union Square party and continues for 10 days in SF and the East, North and South Bays. Lest you think your style preference won’t be available, options for classes and events include “fire dance, ballet, modern, Argentine tango, same-sex tango, classical Indian, jazz, hip hop, hula, Samba, Chinese classical, belly dance, aerial dance, West African, Scottish country and more.”
An outdoor performance by the Mark Foehringer Dance Project|SF at the Golden Gate Park band shell, an open rehearsal of Deborah Slater’s “Men Think They Are Better Than Grass” and international dance film at the SF Conservatory of Dance are all planned. And the numbers aren’t bad either: 29 (years of the annual week of dance celebration), 2,500 (number of participating artists), and 20,000 (number of expected participants based on past years).
Friday night dance shows are disadvantaged from the beginning: chatty crowds can find it hard to focus after the work week with the second act being the only thing keeping them from a cocktail. ODC, the local company that set up shop in San Francisco after arriving with a busload of dancers from Ohio’s Oberlin College in the ’70s, has worked around that problem. (It is also one of two American companies to join the State Department in a cross-cultural look at dance education in South Africa, according to The New York Times today.)
In staging its the second of its original spring 2010 programs at Yerba Buena, the 10 dancers under Brenda Way’s charge present simultaneously athletic and intentional performances that demanded audience attention. Despite neutral costumes, the playful choreography of “Something about a Nightingale” and the premiering “Labor of Love” is a perfect way to showcase the ability that has helped the company win tests of strength against Cal athletes in recent years. But the keynote of the program, “In the Memory of the Forest,” is most compelling with its video backdrop of dancers interacting in the forest as a live performance of the original score bounces and climbs. The very capable dancers’ imaginative approach reminds me of an observation of e.e. cummings’ poetry: it’s only when you know the rules of the craft well that you can break them.
