Streb "SLAMS" into HACC's Rose Lehrman Arts Center for sold out show
Feb. 16, 2010
Harrisburg, PA — HACC’s Live at Rose Lehrman presents a sold-out performance with Streb dance company, the acrobatic dance company that combines the thrills of the circus and the velocity of the Indy 500. The Streb dance company show entitled “Raw” hits the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, in the Rose Lehrman Arts Center on the Harrisburg Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.
Streb’s unique choreography was invented by founder and artistic director Elizabeth Streb. Fascinated by the pure, stripped-down movement of bodies yielding to and defying physical forces, Streb incorporates mats, harnesses, trampolines, and climbing apparatus into the company’s performances. Streb’s members are trained in ballet, modern dance, martial arts, acrobatics, and circus skills. Streb has been thrilling audiences with her choreography—which she calls “pop-action”—for the past two decades. Once described as “the Evel Knievel of dance,” she is trained in ballet and modern dance, and studies physics. She has received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “Genius Award,” two New York Dance and Performance awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three New York Foundation for the Arts Awards, and several National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.
The performance opens with the actioneers slamming against a rotating plexi-glass wall in “Wall Run Turn.” Dancers fall backward as the synthesized music crashes to augment and amplify the sound of the spine hitting the mat. “Crash and Slide” is a series of back flips and other jumps, punctuated by pile-ups or an occasional defiant arabesque. The first act concludes with “Artificial Gravity”, where the actioneers walk, jump, and balance on concentric turntables running at different speeds and directions. The most daredevil of pieces is “Gauntlet,” where actioneers constantly dodge one another and the swing of cinder blocks, this piece is dancing with danger. “These captivating episodes evoked the subtle organization of pedestrian traffic that one might find at an amusement park.” Says Theodore Bale in a recent “Dance Magazine” article about Streb.
Support for this Live at Rose Lehrman event comes from the HACC Student Government Association (SGA). Media Sponsors for the event is abc27-WHTMandPennLive.com.
This tour of Streb is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program.
Live at Rose Lehrman will present the Streb at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27 in Rose Lehrman Arts Center on HACC’s Harrisburg Campus. This performance is sold out.
