Elizabeth Streb Overview

Elizabeth Streb is an extreme dancer. In her incredibly athletic works, dancers swan-dive from scaffolding, hurl themselves against primary-colored walls, and bounce vigorously on trampolines. This recipient of the 1997 MacArthur genius award describes her ideal move as "dangerous, hard, fast,... [more]

Elizabeth Streb is an extreme dancer. In her incredibly athletic works, dancers swan-dive from scaffolding, hurl themselves against primary-colored walls, and bounce vigorously on trampolines. This recipient of the 1997 MacArthur genius award describes her ideal move as "dangerous, hard, fast, wild, turbulent, and out of control." Fear, for Streb, is an inspiration. The name of her company, Ringside, evokes not traditional dance forms but the circus or a boxing match. But Streb's work is definitely rooted in the Cunningham/Postmodern aesthetic of pure movement. Her plotless pieces stimulate the adrenal system, blurring the boundaries of dance and the other sports that inform her vocabulary (gymnastics, pole vaulting, downhill skiing, rock climbing), satisfying dance audiences and thrill-seekers alike. Action, rather than dance, is probably the true basis of her art form. Streb actually refers to her work as PopACTION, with "pop" referring to both mass culture and explosive movement. She makes no attempt to cover up the efforts and struggles of the dancers who perform her work. In fact, microphones, attached to the various surfaces that the dancers spring from and land on, amplify and distort the sound of impact. The manipulation of sound acts as an aural dramatization of the collision. This amplification is the only "music" in her work. Streb criticizes traditional dance composition for relying too heavily on musical structures. She thinks music is "too bossy," and instead allows the physical rules of action to determine her choreographic method. It is as if Streb feels the proscenium stage is also too bossy, or too limiting. Stretching the skills of her set designer, who doubles as an expert rigger, she choreographs for the walls and ceilings of the theater, not just the stage. Streb's PopACTION is an exploration of the human body's relationship to gravity. Simply put, her choreography cannot be confined. [show less]