Pictured: Christine Cali. Photo by Nathan Weyland.

Joe Goode Annex 
401 Alabama St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Get Directions

TICKETS:

$20 in advance
$25 at the door
Buy Tickets

Click here for the Press Release or High Resolution Images.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July #, 2013 – Flyaway Productions is proud to announce the world premiere of Give a Woman a Lift, a visually arresting aerial dance created by choreographer Jo Kreiter and visual designer Sean Riley. In an exploration of the meanings inherent in the idea of “going up,” especially as seen through a feminist lens, Give a Woman a Lift affirms the necessity of rising on one’s own steam, rather than waiting for others to push or pull us up. Give a Woman a Lift opens Friday, November 8, 2013 at the Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco, and runs through Saturday, November 16.

In Give a Woman a Lift female self-determination is physicalized on multiple planes. Co-created by Kreiter and Riley, each taking part in the visual and movement design of the piece, Lift continues the duo’s long-standing experiment in the relationship of space, ascension and velocity. Invented scenic elements using repurposed steel and suspended, dynamic lighting support an articulate off-the-ground movement vocabulary.

“Riley remains an invaluable partner in collaboration,” says Kreiter. “But to the extent that he has created a design of moving lights – something I’ve never worked with before – light itself is a new creative partner on this project.”

After a 2012 CHIME residency with Elizabeth Streb, Kreiter was inspired to strip down her work to its core, physical elements. “Lift is, in many ways, a return to the formalist aesthetics that propelled me into dance when I started my company 18 years ago,” explains Kreiter. “My aim remains the same as it was then: to create a high water mark in innovation for off-the-ground movement. But that doesn’t mean Lift isn’t politically charged. I remain committed to a hard-core, dance-based exploration that affirms ascent for women. For me, it is a process that is embodied by the female body’s literal self-propelled upward dash. In Lift, I am challenging myself to return to this metaphor and still find new physical invention.”

Joining the creative team behind Lift is composer and vocalist Jewlia Eisenberg and Laura Inserra. Their original score for Lift will be the company’s 20th commissioned score for a female composer since its founding in 1996.

Returning company members Jennifer Chien and Patricia Jiron join new dancers MaryStarr Hope, Lisa Fagan, Becca Dean and Christine Cali in Lift.

The world premiere of Give a Woman a Lift is made possible by the Rainin Foundation, Center for Cultural Innovation, Zellerbach Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and Flyaway’s generous individual donors. 

About Jo Kreiter 

Over the past 18 years, Jo Kreiter has gained increasing recognition for the distinctive form of site-specific performance dance she has developed for her company, Flyaway Productions. Her work is created as an intersection of social justice and acrobatic spectacle, with specific attention to empowering women and girls. Flyaway has performed on fire escapes, a live billboard, an active construction site and a bridge replica. Recent projects include dances for 7th and Market St, giving a human face to urban decay and renewal, The Women’s Building, celebrating its centennial; and the Rincon Annex, to commemorate the historic Bloody Thursday. Kreiter is the recipient an Isadora Duncan Special Achievement Award, numerous NEA grants, a Creative Work Fund Grant, MAP Fund grant, Meet the Composer Award, and two Gerbode Awards. She is featured in Site Dance, the first book about site-specific dance the United States.

About Sean Riley 

Sean Riley has a 14-year career combining suspension, kinetic movement and performance. Through scenic design, rigging design, and lighting design, often in concert with each other, he creates unique performance environments. Concentrating his design on site-specific and experimental work, Riley creates scenic and lighting installations in collaboration with a spectrum of accomplished artists including Marc Bamuthi Joseph, ESP Project, Ethnic Dance Festival, Cirque Mechanics, Joanna Haigood, and Jo Kreiter. His lighting installation with Cuban artist Tañia Brugera was featured at Documenta 11. Designs for Birdhouse Factory and Boomtown completed successful runs on Broadway. Riley has been nominated for the Isadora Duncan Dance Award in visual design three times, with one win. He has developed an arsenal of specialized tools which make pushing the bounds of performance possible. Through constant refinement of technique, and by maintaining a strong presence as a leader within the specialized aerial community, Riley has earned a flawless safety record within this potentially dangerous field.