Aikido with a automobile – Thoughts in Movement

I met Jess Curtis within the early days of the West Coast contact dance scene. Jess, a founding member of Contraband, a groundbreaking SF Bay Space dance and efficiency artwork troupe for the Nineteen Eighties and ‘90s, and pioneering artist and activist, handed away final week. 

After I heard the information, I instantly flashed again to among the finest dance performances I’d ever seen. It was the summer season of 1997; the event was the ultimate program of the second annual San Francisco Lesbian and Homosexual Dance Competition. Created by choreographer Keith Hennessy, the second piece of the night, Ice/Automotive/Cage, featured Keith, Jess, and their collaborator Jules Beckman performing outdoors the Brady Road Dance Heart. 

There was an extremely sensual (you would possibly even say chilling) nude duet with a block of ice and a suggestive interlude with a cage. Nonetheless, I’ll always remember the third element within the composition: a automobile. Not happy with utilizing it as a static piece of surroundings, they tied the steering wheel in place, put a brick on the gasoline pedal, and, lengthy earlier than self-driving automobiles, created an autonomous, animated companion for the piece. 

With the viewers standing across the perimeter, these three fluid, fearless gents moved round, by way of, and over the automobile because it slowly circled the parking zone. Transporting the talents and methods of contact improvisation to a context I’d by no means have imagined, they did Aikido with a shifting car to Chopin’s piano music. As if that wasn’t sufficient, they positioned a ladder on prime of the automobile at one level and continued their daring, lyrical antics. 

I invite you to click on on this hyperlink and take a couple of minutes to marvel at these agile, adventuresome dancers as they bounce, roll, fly, and fall on and off the automobile and one another.