Social change and art wrestle crisis

Dance Mission, a space for dancers to breathe and great performances, has been the home of Manifesti-val Dance Brigade's Festival for Social Change the past few weeks and so I took in one of the shows. Why not? You walk through a labarynth how many times in your life? Social change and art. Nothing new to the Bay Area and how often there is a direct correlation between concerns artists have and the art they create. A causeway to grappling with environment, science and the social atmosphere.

The night didn't leave me with more answers about the universe, but it made me appreciate the questions and the works of these artists. Ferren, who as they wrote on the website for Dance Mission is one of the greatest contemporary poets and songwriter, had a slow start with a piano piece set to a rather boring slide show of outdoor landscapes. Then, as she played her guitar, there was more to appreciate and with violin. Ferren's love song in a minor key was a crowd pleaser as many have felt the significance of love be suffocated by a paltry reciprocation. That feeling that approaching love will have to be done carefully ever since that umpteenth heartbreak. That feeling that it's always going to be confusing when you toyed with love or reached into its void and instead brought up a chirade when you were looking for something more meaningful. How extravagent the desire to be loved and to love.

Dance Brigade was fierce with their taiko drumming and dance. Angular and agile, strong and dismantling human suffering through performance. Krissy Keefer's choreography is fantastic. The group of women who perform the piece would find delicate as an antonym to their style.

Krissy Keefer's exploration of global warming was hysterical. Portraying a woman who choses to live at a crisis point continuously is a difficult role to orchestrate without losing interest, and Krissy kept it interesting even as the glaciers melted away and we were all heading for disaster through her lense.

Glad the labarynth was there, to get us out of the revved at 11 last half of the show. It calmed the mind and got audience members a lot of time to negotiate space on a labarynth and the best thing was that few of the audience looked at their feet at all. Thank you Margie Adam.