LIVE RAW Show on 7/31!
June 29, 2021
Contact: Joe Landini 415-518-1517; joe@safehousearts.org
SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts presents RAW – Resident Artist Workshop and Grand Reopening
Live performances and film screenings: One night only, Saturday, July 31, 2021
Seatings at 7:00pm; at 8:00 pm; and at 9:00pm PST – see details below
All showings at SAFEhouse Arts venue, 145 Eddy Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district
Tickets $10
RAW Returns Live!
SAFEhouse Arts welcomes in-person viewing of
performances and films at their venue reopening.
RAW schedule for SATURDAY, JULY 31: See below for bios and descriptions.
LIVE @ 7:00pm: Aishwarya Chandrashekhar
LIVE @ 8:00pm: Angelica Velez, Maggie Ogle, Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş, Kitty Conlon & Sawako Gannon
Films @ 9:00pm: Jessica Fudim, Raven Malouf-Renning, Rebekah Enderle, Kat Flipse
San Francisco, California: SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts presents RAW: Resident Artists Workshop live performances and film screenings for in-person audiences one night only, Saturday, July 31, 2021. The lights are coming up on the artists who have been busy coming up with all new works in anticipation of this grand reopening of their 145 Eddy Street venue in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Three seating times at 7:00pm, 8:00pm, and 9:00pm are meant to encourage audience members who wish to come for one or more of the three different events to buy individual tickets for each program at $10 each. There is limited general seating so advance ticket purchase highly encouraged. Ticketholders should check website for safety protocol updates.
SAFEhouse Artistic Director, Joe Landini, had to come up with a hybrid format to accommodate the company’s resident artists who have been working steadily this year in a variety of genres. Buzz is brewing for the freshest in-person performances starting at 7:00pm. Four artists opted not to gamble on making live shows in the event Covid restrictions were extended. Their pre-recorded films range from a 70’s disco homage to a rebooted Medusa tale. They all reflect the inescapabability of pandemics, racism, misogyny and gender identity. They all bring a resurgence of creative energy to RAW, which in turn provides the venue for rehearsals, videotaping and performances, plus mentorship, marketing and production support!
Please consider a preview or review, article or listing to help bring attention to the fact that we are losing performance spaces at an alarming rate. The producers and artists are available to be interviewed.
PROGRAM A: Live show at 7:00pm
Two dances by Aishwarya Chandrashekhar
The first piece is a Jathiswaram, an entirely rhythmic dance set to only swarams (notes) that follow a variety of rhythmic patterns. The fast paced and non-stop nature of the music presents a test of stamina for the dancer. The second piece is an original piece inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
PROGRAM B: Live show at 8:00pm
Strikethrough 21 is a collaborative installation with concept and choreography by Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş; text and animation by Jade Lien; and sound composition by Michael Wall. It asks: Can language erase our memories as easily as filling them? What do words mean when we scatter them and sparingly pick up the pieces? On that lonely tour through not-knowing, where does dance enliven what it means to know?
kapwa by Angelica Velez is a solo dance. Velez asks the audience to share space and ask questions together. Bring an ancestor with you to connect with personal spirituality and Indigenous knowledge.
Untitled by Maggie Ogle is a solo using spoken text and contemporary movement to examine social cues and the impact physical distance invokes on relationships through casual interaction and fleeting moments of ambiguous connection.
Kitty Conlon and Sawako Gannon present an improvisational duet to music by the late Juan Gabriel.
PROGRAM C: Films at 9:00pm
Venomous is the latest solo of Jessica Fudim who solicited the help of more than three dozen contributors who each offered a single word toward the rewriting of Medusa’s tale. Voiceless in the classic legend, Medusa now takes her narrative away from Ovid, the man who murdered her and invites us to see through her eyes. Set to Morten Harket’s rendition of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Fudim’s vision is haunted by ancient Greek statues and punctuated by raw physicality.
Until The Next Breath by Raven Malouf-Renning is an autobiographical dance theater film which chronicles Raven’s battle with COVID-19 in December 2020. It is dedicated to all whom we have lost, to those who have lost loved ones, to long-haulers still suffering, and to those who have recovered but are still haunted by the impact of having had the virus.
Reflections on Wildness by Rebekah Enderle is a film on the meditation of impermanence.
Love and Loneliness by Kat Flipse and hearthdance is a film on how glamour and mundanity intersect and manifest through escapism. The company dove into queer identity through the lens of the disco era and they pay homage to how the 70’s aesthetic presents in modern society. Their writing, movement and choreographic exercises were done in their own homes.
Biographies
Aishwarya Chandrashekhar is a freelance dancer based in the Bay Area who has performed at prestigious venues like Shanmukhananda, Mumbai and RR Sabha, Chennai. She is also a trained Nattuvangam artist and often sings and does nattuvangam for her own pieces. Aishwarya studied under the tutelage of guru Mythili Raghavan for 13 years and specialized in the Kalakshetra bani (style). She is currently undergoing advanced training under guru V. Balagurunathan of Kalakshetra.
Photo of Aishwarya Chandrashekhar by Chella’s Photography
Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş is a hybrid artist from Northern California. Her ongoing project, strikethrough-score.org, is a digital platform where poets can generate choreographic scores for dancers. It is currently being exhibited at the Museum of Wild and Newfangled Art. poeticabythebay.com. Jade Lien grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. She has experimented with different artistic mediums including film, photography, writing, and digital art. Poetry is the basis of her work, technology the tool she uses to create.
Photo of Artwork by Jade Lien by Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes
Maggie Ogle moved to San Francisco after receiving a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology and Dance Minor from Purdue in 2020. She was with the Purdue University Dance Company along with the American Collegiate Dance Association, where her work was chosen to perform for the 2020 National Gala held in Long Beach, CA. She was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, recognizing the highest standard of proficiency in the visual and performing arts.
Self portrait of Adam Shay and Maggie Ogle
Angelica Velez is an artist and teacher residing in San Francisco, who has performed works by eMotion Arts, LV Dance Collective, Embodiment Project, Melissa Lewis, Dexandro Montalvo, and others. Trained in multiple dance lineages from a young age, Angelica draws from Laban/Bartenieff fundamentals and her current choreographic works concern indigenous/ancestral connections; the intersections between the personal/political/spiritual bodies; and precolonial Philippine cultural practices.
Photo of Angelica Velez by Kyle Adler
Jessica Fudim has been performing her dance theater work for over two decades, both as a solo artist and with her ensemble company, The Dance Animals. She has shared her work locally at The SF International Arts Festival (SFIAF), CounterPULSE’s STREAMfest, the FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble Theater, Women on the Way Festival, at the 418 Project in Santa Cruz, The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) and in New York at the Mercury Lounge. Her solo, Sheepish, received a 2006 “Best of the SF Fringe” honor and she captained an award-winning musical contingent in the San Francisco Pride Parade. She was a resident artist of The Voice Factory SF and at The Workspace for Choreographers in Virginia. She was an original member of the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project and a co-founder of The Experimental Performance Institute (EPI).
Photo of Jessica Fudim by Kyle Adler
Raven Malouf-Renning is a Lead Artist at SAFEHouse where they created five solo dance films and co-hosted the Online Digital Showcase series. They premiered a metagender identity film, They, Not She, for the West Wave Dance Festival in June. Raven has performed with SpectorDance, Big Moves Mass Movement, emFatic dance, Chris Black, Jesse Bie, Dawn Frank Holtan, Kupers and IIE & DanceSingDrum Company. Raven co-organized the Inclusive Performance Festival in April and performed in Wandering In The Wilderness: Cycle 1.
Photo of Raven Malouf-Renning
Rebekah Enderle is a contemporary dancer, performing artist, choreographer and experimental filmmaker. Rebekah performs with Dandelion Dancetheater and the Walks-Between-Wandering Ensemble, and is a Lead Artist at SAFEhouse Arts. She has performed and presented work at West Wave Festival, Kinetech Arts, the New York Lift Off Film Festival, Jacob Jonas The Company Digital Film Festival, the Inclusive Performance Festival, Joe Goode Annex Virtual Open House 3.0 and SAFEhouse Arts. She holds an MA degree from New York University.
Self portrait by Rebekah Enderle
Kat Flipse directs hearthdance, a project-based dance collective founded in 2020 to build community around making group artworks that are sourced in creativity and openness.
Sawako Gannon and Kitty Conlon are Japanese/multi-racial Japanese artists based in San Francisco. Last seen at SAFEhouse’s Dance for Australia in 2020, they have been working together since 2019.
Top: Photo of Sawako Gannon by Rahman H
Bottom: Photo of Kitty Conlon by Dirgni Raquel Betancourt
FREE PRESS TICKETS: You and a guest are welcome to complimentary tickets to the show of your choice. Please confirm by email to Joe Landini: joe@safehousearts.org or call 415-518-1517.
SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts is a California nonprofit that specializes in incubating new performance art through residencies, workshops and performances. SAFEhouse is funded by San Francisco Grants for the Arts, California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Horizons Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, plus generous individuals and businesses.