Jess/Curtis Gravity presents
The Symmetry Project –Study #14 – (re)Presentation
at CounterPULSE
March 19-22, 26-29, 8pm
www.jesscurtisgravity.org • www.counterpulse.org
After sold out performances of Symmetry Study #7 last year at CounterPULSE in San Francisco. Gravity returns in 2009 with Symmetry Study #14, (re)Presentation, a full-evening version of the sparse, otherworldly duet between choreographer/performers Maria Francesca Scaroni and Jess Curtis.
Symmetry Study #14 is a journey through perception. Two naked bodies interact through a highly structured improvisational score, constricted in a specific physical habit; that of moving symmetrically, relative to themselves or to each other. In this space of temporary “habitus”, the two bodies are constantly tuning, reformulating the perception of the self and of the other. In the sharing of a central axis, spine, mouth, genitals, face, and anus reveal their interconnectedness and centrality in embodied experience. Limbs entangle and intertwine creating an inter-corporeal kaleidoscope of flesh. A kind of über-intimacy develops, going far beyond sexuality into a kind of communal biology, a symbiotic sensory field. Blending, merging, and then again differentiating, the two become “unfinished entities” - improvising new habits, “perceiving the possible”. Exploring and manipulating our perception, they reveal the body’s awkwardness, its monstrosity, its potential failure and finiteness, they create space for the possibility of the unknown, the wondrous, the ecstatic, and the infinite.
"...erotic and acrobatic... with equal parts grace and furiosity....a predatory mating ritual....in a variety of remarkable balancing acts." -A.J. Goldmann, The New York Feuillelton
"resilient, technically fearless and physically eloquent" - Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance
Conceived and Performed by: Maria Francesca Scaroni and Jess Curtis
Original Score and Musical Direction by: Klaus Janek
With Video by: Regina Teichs
History of The Symmetry Project
Over the last three years, a series of 12 studies for the project have been developed (3 more are currently in preparation) in residencies in San Francisco, Copenhagen, Budapest, Dublin Ireland, Cork Ireland, Stolzenhagen, Germany, Berlin and Kassel, Germany and with groups of students from the Theater, Dance and Performance Studies Department at UC Berkeley and the University of the Arts in Berlin (HUZ) where Curtis was recently a visiting professor. Collaborating with a variety of artists, including composer/contrabassist Klaus Janek, composer Sheldon Smith, video artists Regina Teichs and Kwame Braun, installation artist Ricarda Mieth and photographer Sven Hagolani in a variety of presentational contexts, including photo and video media, “live art” performance installations in galleries, internet, public sites and performance in theatrical contexts, Curtis and Scaroni have investigated homologous movement as a lens whose distortion, and or focus, can yield insight into a variety of physical, aesthetic, social, and ethical realities.
Symmetry Study #14 is one of three San Francisco performance events that will be the culmination of this three-year process by the San Francisco/Berlin based duo this spring. In addition to these CounterPULSE performances Gravity will be presenting a series of site-specific installations with a twenty-member community-based movement chorus in public spaces under the auspices of San Francisco International Arts Festival and a gallery-based durational performance/installation at a local art gallery. Curtis and Scaroni force the dislocation of their physically-based work from traditional theatrical dance venues into a variety of alternative contexts, thereby re-framing the work and affording viewers the possibility to see the body--and its metaphorical possibilities--through different filters, with different types of attention, expectation, and contextual association.
Cost: $20