Turbulence
(a dance about the economy)

A collaborative failure choreographed by Keith Hennessy

performances (in progress)
December 17-18, 8pm, CounterPULSE

Performer/collaborators: Jassem Hindi (France/Lebanon), Julie Phelps, Emily Leap, Laura Arrington, Jesse Hewit, Jorge De Hoyos, Hana Erdman, Gabriel Todd, Ruairi O'Donovan (Ireland), Karina Sarkissova (Sweden), Empress Jupiter, Keith Hennessy.

Unstable structures supported by unsustainable systems, this dance cannot stand up on its own. Turbulence (a dance about the economy) is a bodily response to economic crisis.

Created during short residencies with companies of 12-25 performers, Turbulence engages the frictions between economic crisis, disaster capitalism, debt, precarity, propaganda, torture, union busting, magic, collaboration, war, and physical performance.

Instigated before the recent Occupy Wall Street actions, Turbulence is intended as both provocation and affirmation of global movement for economic justice.

Responding both to economic and ecological crises, Turbulence is an experiment not only in performance, but also in developing alternative modes of producing performance. Integrating new cast members (as generative collaborators) for each performance, the work is intended to be developed quickly and intensively, with performances following five days of intensive research. Improvisation is both survival strategy and political tactic. Accumulating dances, images, texts, and tactics with each cast, the process will be tested in venues in San Francisco, Portland, Berlin, and Vienna in 2011. The work will continue to be developed through 2012. The economy of making dances and being a dancer will focus the investigation of this research-based performance experiment.

The US premier of Turbulence will be at PICA's TBA Festival in early September 2012, followed by performances in SF at YBCA, Sep 27-29. Other venues from Vienna to Philadelphia to be determined...

2011 residencies include Stolzenhagen/Ponderosa (Jul 18-23), Impulstanz/Vienna (Aug 1-5), and San Francisco with performances at CounterPULSE, Dec 17-18, 8pm.

2012 residencies include Regards et Mouvements (Pontempeyrat, France) and PICA (Portland).

Turbulence was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Projet, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the MetLife Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional funding includes Zellerbach Family Foundation, the New Stages in Dance grant, and the SF Arts Commission OPG.