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By Rita FelcianoTHE JON SIMS Center for the Performing Arts celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. At its Mission Street location, the organization addresses the needs of gay and lesbian performing artists by offering four rehearsal/performance studios and a wide array of outreach and educational activities. Among its most valuable programs is AIRspace, which offers artists something more precious than money: space and time. Four hours a week over a three-month period may not be much, but it can mean the difference between creating a work or just dreaming about it. This past weekend two recent grantees, Abby Crain and Samuael Topiary, showed work they had created during their residences. The performances were quite low-tech -- speakers suspended from support beams, lights arranged on the floor, and a movie screen that makes a postage stamp look like CinemaScope. Still, the sense of talent beginning to blossom, the opportunity to see good dancers in a small space, and the energy in the audience (50 people, which is all the studio can hold) made up for any shortcomings. Both women seem fascinated with silent movies. Crain's Smashing Spiders examined the more or less acknowledged relationship between Greta Garbo (danced by Monique Jenkinson) and Mercedes DeCosta (Sharon Picasso). The piece tentatively delineated a relationship that, at least for a time, was important to both women and yet had to be kept quiet. Picasso shadowed and supported Jenkinson, and the tension between the two very different women, the gestures of intimacy and rejection, the big eyes and expressive faces, all gave an indication of ideas that could someday be developed into a more coherent piece. The end worked well, as Jenkinson snapped her fingers several times, no one answered, and her knees crumbled just slightly as the lights went down. Topiary's Atalanta is a work in progress. She showed one live segment, a dance for goddesses, and three excerpts from the silent film that the work will eventually be. If she continues in this direction, the piece has the potential to be a smash. It is the story of a young girl who was abandoned by her father because she wasn't a boy. Found by the goddess Artemis, she was raised to be a better hunter than any man. Atalanta ran swifter than the wind and refused to marry anyone who could not beat her in a footrace. The goddess Aphrodite finally tricked her into marriage after distracting her with three golden apples during a race. Topiary gave the fable a decidedly contemporary twist. The live dance, simple circle walks and skips, showed that the goddess of the moon (Jenkinson) -- in camouflage shorts, black boots, and a cape, if nothing else -- kept strange company. Her fellow divinities included Isu, the swamp goddess (Isabelle Gotkiewicz), a refugee from a leather bar; Arnica Flora (Crystal Thompson), in a flower-studded bra; and Aphrodite (Sue Roginski), in red bell-bottoms and a floozy blond wig, looking like an advertisement for tattoo artistry. The filmed
segments included excellent performances by more than two
dozen Bay Area dancers. The completed work will have a two
weekend run at the ODC Theater at Performance Gallery. |
