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FACT/SF: ‘death’ ~ AASC: ‘For Colored Girls’ ~ The All Joan Show ~ Smuin Ballet's 25th anniversary

Gema Galina
FACT/SF in ‘Remains’ (2017) started two years of research and performance on the topic of grief and loss, and now culminates in the immersive dance performance ‘death’, which runs September 27 - October 13 at CounterPulse (80 Turk St.) in San Francisco…";s:3:"uri

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with Charles Slender-White, founder and artistic director of FACT/SF, about the world premiere of death, an immersive dance performance about the loss of a loved one, which runs September 27 - October 13 at CounterPulse (80 Turk St.) in San Francisco.

deathis the culmination of two years of research and performance on the topic of grief and loss, following Remains (2017), Life (2018) and most recently Memoria (2018). Performances are limited to an audience of 40 individuals per evening, and they should be prepared to move around, since the show occupies two entire floors of the theater. Joining the conversation is FACT/SF Board President Jeanne Pfeffer. 

From the African-American Shakespeare Company, we meet with actresses Natasha LaGrone and Jan Hunter, who play ‘Lady in Blue’ and ‘Lady in Brown’ in the new production of Ntozake Shange’s classic theater piece For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf

This is the first time in more than 20 years that this much-revered, Tony-nominated and Obie-winning play from 1976 is produced in the Bay Area. Called a ‘choreopoem’ by its author, For colored girls is a transformative and riveting evening of provocative dance, music and poetry, which tells the stories of 7 individual women dealing with the brutal, tender and dramatic arcs of their lives.

We talk to choreographer Cid Pearlman about her The All Joan Show, a retrospective that celebrates her longstanding collaboration with renowned San Francisco-based cellist and composer, Joan Jeanrenaud, who will also be in the studio. 

The All Joan Show includes three works: Strange Toys (2004), small variations (2006) and excerpts from Your Body is Not a Shark (2013). Performances run September 21 and 22 at the Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco (401 Alabama St.), before moving to Santa Cruz for a three-evening engagement at Motion Pacific (131 Front St.) on October 19 - 21. 

Plus, we talk with Smuin Ballet's artistic director, Celia Fushille, about the company’s 25thanniversary season, which opens on September 21-22 at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek and on September 28-October 6 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. 

On the program Blue Until June,  Trey McIntyre’s tribute to Etta James; and also two works by founder Michael Smuin: Schubert Scherzo,  an effervescent dance set to Schubert’s sprightly C-Major Symphony, and Eternal Idol,  a romantic pas de deux inspired by Auguste Rodin sculptures.

Open Air with host David Latulippe, heard live on Thursday, September 20 at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…