Voice of Dance - SF Trolley Dances 2011

Voice of Dance
"Voice Of Dance is the real deal. It is the best dance site on the web..." Anna Kisselgoff, Former Chief Dance Critic, The New York Times.

May 16, 2012

Search:

Global Dance Directory

Search Directory:

Search 17,245+ listings!

Dance

Major Professional Dance Companies (Million+)

Famous Dancers

Professional Dance Companies

International Dance Companies

Presenters

Tickets

Festivals

Famous Choreographers

Shopping

Dance Shops Near You!

Dance Apparel On Line

Costumes

Dance Shoes

Dance Videos

Collectibles

Dance Music

Dance Make Up

Dancing

Dance Classes Near You!

College and University Dance Programs

Competitions

Summer Dance Programs

Pre College and Pre Professional Academies

Professionals

Dancer Health

Artist Management and Agents

PR Agencies

Presenter Conferences

Service Organizations

Fundraisers

Foundations

Designers

Rental Performance Venues

Web Services

Photographers & Videographers

Dance Entertainment

Kids' Dance Birthday Parties

Special Event Dance Entertainment for Hire

Add Listing

Features

Email Article to a Friend

Rate this Article!

Art on the Move : San Francisco Trolley Dances 2011 By Brittany Delany October 7, 2011 © VoiceofDance.com 2011 Kim Epifano’s Epiphany Productions’ eighth annual San Francisco Trolley Dances, winner of SF Weekly’s award for Best Transit Ballet, is a true celebration of art on the move. On October 15th and 16th, 2011 from 11am to 2:45pm, the route will go from the San Francisco Main Library at Civic Center to the West Portal Muni station. The event is free with a regular fare and bicycle maps are available online and at the sign up table. Audience members will be treated with an exciting lineup of performances by: ODC/Dance, Capacitor, Tat Wong Kung Fu Lion Dancers, Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater featuring students from SFSU, Antoine Hunter & Christine Bonansea, and Salsamania. I was thrilled to speak with Kim Epifano about her creative process with this special event. Kim Epifano developed the idea for San Francisco Trolley Dances after seeing Jean Isaac’s San Diego Dance Theater’s Trolley Dances. The debut Trolley Dances featured the F trolley and has since taken off to neighborhoods all around the city. I asked her what she was looking forward to this year and she complimented MUNI’s ongoing support, the collaborations with students, and the diverse group of talented performers. In speaking about the particular sites, she remarked “The library has been a great partner and we enjoy collaborating with their exhibitions.” Salsamania will be performing in conjunction with the library’s exhibition American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music and Sweet Can Circus will perform in the Children’s Reading Room. “I’ve always loved the circus--the movement, sound, angle of performance”, Epifano shared. Another amazing act this year features Jodi Lomask’s Capacitor--she will be dancing on a seven-foot sphere in front of the West Portal Library. Next, I asked Kim how she selects the various groups. She responded, “The process is organic, dynamic, inclusive.” She values diversity of performers, places and sites. In preparation for each year, she asks herself ‘where am I going? who is along the line?’ First she has to find the line; then she has to excavate the history of the line. In this research, she acts as an ethnographer : studying the history, engaging the communities, learning the environment -- all ways to discover the life of the place. This process folds into her site-specific choreography. I asked her to share some advice for site-specific choreographers, to which she replied “Sites aren’t obvious.” She said it’s more about meeting people and revealing new angles. She works with site-specific improvisations in order to collect information on the sounds, neighbors, architecture, stories and the sense of living there. “Gracefully become a part of it. Don’t think ‘I’m something separate’”, she said. She has noticed often there is a rotation of people who live in zones. Sometimes transient street people will become part of the performance if that’s their spot or their bench. She noted “Don’t assume anything. Show respect for people who live on the streets.” The program “Kids on Track” hosts four tours and four schools along the line for the Friday performance. In addition, they host education workshops, where the kids learn about the architecture and site-specific dance. MUNI, a supportive partner, sees Trolley Dances as valuable and important. Kim has meetings with them to figure out sites, train schedules and safety. She appreciates the dedicated tour guides and the volunteers who help run the event too. In a previous year, an attendee offered written feedback: ‘Trolley Dances is art for citizens’. The free event attracts families, students, residents and visitors. Kim enjoys the diversity of SF Trolley Dances and is particularly excited ODC/Dance will participate. To learn more about their premiere ‘Transit: A Vertical Life’, I met with Max Chen, a designer/engineer and K.T. Nelson, co-artistic director of ODC/Dance, to learn more about their collaboration. Max Chen has designed, built, recycled and reconstructed “Rideable Stuff”, as he calls it on his website oilycog.com. He has also taught a Frame Alteration Class at the Crucible, an educational nonprofit collaboration of art, industry and community in Oakland. K.T. Nelson heard of his work from a friend and approached him a year ago for a new dance project about bicycles. Max said, “She was clear on what she didn’t want: no circus, no tricks. It would be more about transportation. Then later, K.T. applied for grants to get funding for two bicycles in a production.” Max and K.T. played with bicycle ideas, like coasting downhill or bypassing traffic. However, the speed and efficiency of a bicycle needed to adapt to a distance more appropriate for a stage and an interactive audience. So K.T. requested he make one bicycle go very slowly. Max rigged a gear and added a governor to limit the speed. In a rehearsal this summer, Max observed the dancers playing with additional surfaces around the bicycles. He later added platforms to the bicycle so two people could ride it and go on and off of the object. The production’s second bicycle has a special feature: it turns into a bench! Max created pieces of the bicycle which fold out and become armrests and legs for the bench. When I asked him what he enjoys about bicycles, he offered “When you’re driving, you’re in your shell...when you’re biking, you’re in your own world...but you can relax.” K.T. agrees with Chen: “you can smell, feel and hear with a bicycle” she said, “we get isolated in our cars.” And she appreciates the beautiful design too. “Human beings can create technology that is brilliant, simple.” she notes. ‘Transit: A Vertical Life’ celebrates the way we transit and the way we are in urban space. K.T. points out how high and low speed, high and low tech can live side by side. “We value space - it’s important to be where you are”, she states. K.T. grew up with parents who loved nature - viewing it as a space for renewal and a space for serious retreat. Her mom was an environmentalist. In this piece, she explores various environmental issues - urban planning, economics of sprawl, energy concerns. One of K.T.’s inspirations for this piece was environmentally sound urban planning. She learned about a city in Australia which gave itself a charge to have a zero carbon footprint in downtown by 2020. I asked her about the development of the work. “We needed to start with the bikes day one” she said, “they were central to the creative process.” She observed how the objects provided a different state of mind, allowing the dancers to consider movement in a new way. They built material in the studio and in public transportation. The rehearsals in the street and in the subway changed the scene and the steps. The flow of the piece became more about interruptions, like daily life, so they created a lot of transitions. While it will be interactive and sited at the San Francisco library, K.T. also plans to create a stage version. With this work, K.T. wants to demonstrate “the interdependence of community, common spaces, and common good” -- what a great match for Trolley Dances !

Comments

Win Tickets!

See More Monty Python Videos

Must See

San Francisco Ballet

San Francisco, CA
Mar 6 - Mar 11

Paid Advertisement

National Dance Calendar

Oct 1 - Sep 30
Brooklyn, NY
CAVE Organization, Inc Open Call Studio-Share Residencies at CAVE

May 21
New York, NY
Keigwin + Company KEIGWIN + COMPANY 2012 Summer Intensive: LET'S MAK...

View Calendar Add Your Event