- Refuge’s remaining performances are June 11 and 12.
A few issues ago, I reported on a handful of dance companies located at Liberty Station. I encouraged LGBT Weekly readers to consider taking a dance class or attend a choreographed production as a way of adding some variety to your local art-going activities.
I took my own advice and recently attended a preview of Refuge, a powerful work-in-progress performance presented by North Park’s Eveoke Dance Theatre. Refuge’s remaining performances are June 11 and 12, and I encourage you to attend. Tickets are $15 or $20 but pay what you can is offered an hour before show time.
Eveoke Dance Theatre was established 17 years ago. Unlike many dance companies that emphasize aesthetics and perhaps push the formal envelope a few inches, Eveoke’s mission is to cultivate compassionate social action through evocative performance, arts education and community building.
Refuge does just that. This 75 minute production showcasing the work of emerging choreographers Becky Hurt and Myriam Lucas is about finding refuge through captivating spoken word and hip hop that illuminates the complexities of sexual and domestic violence.
The work in progress which is appropriately rough at the edges yet feels complete even at this early stage is part of a year-long collaboration between Eveoke Dance Theatre and the Refuge creative team (many of them students from Eveoke’s programs) that will explore personal and community violence. This culminates in a full production at the La Jolla Playhouse during the 2011/2012 season.
The dancers performing Refuge range in age from 16-32. The themes and narratives that underscore both the spoken word portions of the production and the choreography are drawn from personal experience and the result is both emotional and compelling. The primary focus of the all-female production is violence experienced by women but the program notes are quick to point out that abusive relationships and their long term emotional fall-out are experienced by men, women and entire families.
Refuge flies by, particularly the first half which has a vivid narrative arc kicked off by Myriam Lucas’ powerful introduction. Every dancer/performer gets their moment to speak a truth and the balance between poetic choreography, spoken word and the primal, assertive thump of hip-hop is just right.
Sometimes art is just entertainment and sometimes it’s simply beautiful. Sometimes, however, it can be both of these things and a vehicle vitalizing serious themes, leaving audiences thinking and feeling something new or new again. Refuge did that for me. Go see for yourself!
Eveoke Dance Theatre is located at 2811-A University Ave. in North Park. For information, log on to eveoke.org or call 619-238-1153.
