Jess Curtis/Gravity: Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies February 3, 2011

World Premiere!
Jess Curtis/Gravity: Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies

Thu, Feb 3-Sun, Feb 6, 8pm

From surgically sculpted cyborg sex kittens and chemically enhanced superhuman road warriors to genetically engineered/selected wonder children - our bodies more than ever are shaped and marked by the imagination of higher and higher levels (and narrower definitions) of performance. Is the body obsolete? Who decides which bodies are relevant, beautiful, and desirable? Who is imagining the body of the future and how is its (mass) production already affecting us all?
Jess Curtis
Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies is a performance-based project examining the role(s) of imagined societal ideals as a kind of “fictional body” that disables individuals in terms of our ability to see others and to be seen as beautiful, empowered, and autonomous. The piece challenges our widely-held ideals of beauty based on socially imagined perfections of form that rarely exist in actual bodies and alternately celebrates the unique beauty in the idiosyncrasy of each individual performer. For this new work, Bay Area choreographer Jess Curtis has gathered an all-star collaborative team from six countries including dramaturg/provocateur Guillermo Gomez-Peña (SF/Mexico) Composer/Musician Matthias Hermann (Germany), and performers Maria Francesca Scaroni (Berlin/Italy), Claire Cunningham (Glasgow), and Jörg Müller (France).

Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies has been commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Franisco), DaDaFest International(Liverpool, UK), Fabrik Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany), TigerTail Productions/Florida Dance Association (Miami) and the National Performance Network.

Where:
Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies – 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 – YBCA Forum

Public Info:
415-978-2787 or ybca.org

Admission:
Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies
$25 Reg/$20 YBCA Mem/Sen/Stu/Tea

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