When
Where
Duetrospectives presented by GRAVITY
Duetrospectives is a collection of Jess Curtis’ duets from his work over the years, spanning 1995-2018, now restaged and re-imagined by Rachael Dichter, Maria Francesca Scaroni & Stephanie Maher, Sherwood Chen, Miguel Gutierrez, Vong Phrommala & Dylan Skybrook, and Claire Cunningham.
Show Dates + Times:
Thursday May 28, @ 7:30pm
Friday May 29, @ 7:30pm -ASL & AD provided, Haptic Tour @ 7pm
On May 29, join Sherwood Chen, Rachael Dichter, Miguel Gutierrez, Steph Maher, Maria Scaroni, Dylan Skybrook and Vong Phrommala in conversation after the performance. The discussion will be 30 minutes and moderated by GRAVITY’s Co-Artistic Director, Gabriele Christian. ASL will be provided.
Saturday May 30, @ 7:30pm
Run Time:
2 hours | 10 intermission
Concessions will be served
About the works:
Not a Prayer by Jess Curtis, performed by Miguel Gutierrez, Vong Phrommala, Dylan Skybrook and Mark Growden
Not a Prayer was created for the Men Dancing Festival in 1995 here at Theater Artaud. It was choreographed by Jess, and is performed now by the original cast of three men (previously four as Jess performed as well). The movement is an example of the San Francisco 90’s style of release, emphasizing a surrender to gravity, with dancers moving fluidly in and out of the floor in simple movement phrases that are repeated and reconfigured in solos, duets, trios, and quartets. The work examines male partnering in ways that are both virtuosic and tender, challenging traditional representations of masculinity.
The dance also incorporates Mark Growden’s music and soundscape, which not only supports the dancers but acts as an additional “character” in the evolving relationship among the performers.
See What You Say by Sherwood Chen
See What You Say draws elements from Jess Curtis’s ensemble works Touched : Symptom of Being Human (2005) and Fallen (2001) this stitch incoming solo exploits the subjectivity of words and of interpretation, building from colliding, iterative loops.
After Symmetry by Maria Scaroni, Stephanie Maher
The Symmetry Project was first developed in its variations between 2007 and 2011 by Jess Curtis and Maria F. Scaroni and it lives on as an embodied contemplative practice. After Symmetry is a reprise of the original work in collision with an older work from 1995, Sex and Gravity, in which Stephanie Maher and Jess Curtis collaborated to render, in the form of songs and dances, their intimate life transformed by the radical collective sexual (and political) exploration of those years around 848 Community Space. Sex and Gravity’s soundtrack has been reworked via a VHS recording by sound designer Anton Tkachuk. The whispers and echoes of the recording are the tapestry upon which the symmetry score unfolds.
Walking On by Claire Cunningham
An audio work that steps and speaks softly on/of past dances from the show The Way You Look (at me) Tonight (2018), drawn from voice recordings from the piece, rehearsal notes/writings and the sound world created by composer Matthias Herrmann. The work is also shaped by an attendance to audio description practices used by Claire and Jess that were a key element of the show and both artists practice.
You used to be naked by Rachael Dichter
This work is based on the duet Jess and I made in 2013, When I think of you your naked, that recently he had asked us to perform again. Originally, we stood next to each other facing the audience (me dressed up and wearing heels, him naked) and improvised a conversation, always starting each new sentence with, “I want you to…”
Now, in revisiting it on the two year marker of his passing, it’s become more about that. About passing, about transition, about the deep unknowability of death and what comes after.
Photo Description (Cover): designed by ainsley tharp. blue background with a mirror image of Jess jumping down a light blue slide in underwear.
Photo Description: (Reserve Now) A photo of jess, body parallel to the floor. His upper body is supported by his forearm and his legs are open with his torso twisted.
Dancer: Jess Curtis, Photo: Robbie Sweeny