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January 19, 2005

At Home in the Sky

I checked out Zaccho Dance Theatre’s "Dances Around the House" for the Chronicle last Friday:

"More than 25 years ago, Remy Charlip -- septuagenarian dancer, writer and beloved illustrator of children's books -- began sending his "Air Mail Dances" to soloists and companies around the world.

The performer receives an 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheet of Charlip's whimsical figure drawings showing a sequence of daydream-like poses. It's up to the interpreter to supply the transitions, the music and perhaps the meaning. Charlip's "scores" have allowed dozens of choreographers to find imaginative freedom within restriction; in 2003, Oakland's Axis Dance Company memorably transformed his "Dance in an Armchair" into a vision of angelic tenderness.

But last weekend Charlip's sketches seemed tailor-made for the Exploratorium museum and the entrancing talents of Joanna Haigood at the premiere of "Dances Around the House."

Haigood, the artistic director of Zaccho Dance Theatre in Bayview, is an aerial dance artist as likely to be found scaling the Ferry Building's clock tower as swinging from a theater's rafters. She's also an artist-in-residence at the Exploratorium, and part of the fun at Friday's opening was walking through the museum's after-hours chill and playing with the science exhibitions en route to the main attraction."

Posted by Rachel at January 19, 2005 07:29 PM

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