Meridian Gallery & Berkeley Arts Present:
“The Orbital Variations”, a New Ballet by
David SamasFriday May 30, 8pm
Meridian Gallery
535 Powell st SF
$10-$15 sliding scale
Sunday, June 1, 8pm
Berkeley Art
2133 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
$10-$15 sliding scale
“The Orbital Variations” is a cosmically inspired conceptual ballet and emergent collaborative love letter to the strangely weak force that anchors people, beings and objects firmly to the earth even as it sets in motion the smallest atomic structures and the spinning of the universe. The show is a blend of contemporary dance, vaudevillian physical and movement theater, text, object manipulation, mime, clowning and vocal experimentation. Pet The Tiger has created a live score performed on Glassilalia, an instrument made of clear goblets filled and tuned with water.
Plus- on June 1 only- Pet The Tiger performs “full spectrum love songs” peppered with poems and noise, lamentations and standards. Celebrate inventor/composer
David Samas’ birthday with an evening of distractions, delights and entertainments to exalt the senses.
Pet The Tiger is an improvised acoustic collective for invented instruments with
David Samas (composer/inventor/extended technique vocalist), Ian Saxton (programer/percussionist), Peter Bonos (horns/explosives), Amanda Chaudhary (keys/apps). We explore new concepts in friction bowing and split pics, with a special interest in unusual multiphonics and interference patterns. We play a wide assortment of invented, found and re-purposed instruments in order to create landscapes and tell stories in sound punctuated with song and text.
Right Brain Performancelab is a company that explores the paradoxes of existence by way of metaphor. Their performances are darkly comic, edgy and vaudevillian. The Performancelab began in San Francisco in 1999 as a collaboration between John Baumann and Jennifer Gwirtz who intersected their work in theater, dance, music, puppetry, philosophy, performance art and videography to create a hybrid, minimal style of performance that is accessible, simple and rich.
Over the years many wonderful performers have joined the Performancelab as collaborators. This year’s company features the work of John Baumann, Lisa Claybaugh, Jennifer Gwirtz, Laura Marsh, & Jennifer Minore, directed by Gwirtz.
Cost: $10 sliding