Known as the Evel Knievel of dance, Elizabeth Streb, founder of the Streb Extreme Action Co., will present a lecture on “How to Become an Extreme Action Hero” at 7:30 p.m. April 2 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
The lecture will utilize multimedia including video, images and Streb’s own drawings to illustrate her unique theory of action. Streb’s choreography, which she calls “PopAction,” intertwines the disciplines of dance, athletics, boxing, rodeo, the circus and Hollywood stunt-work. The result is a bristling, muscle-and-motion vocabulary that combines daring with strict precision in pursuit of public acts of “pure movement.” The lecture is free and open to the public, but tickets are required.
Complimentary tickets can be reserved through the Lied Center Box Office, 301 N. 12th St., or by calling 402-472-4747.
“Elizabeth Streb is an incredibly accomplished speaker and her theories on performance and movement will be both amazing and perplexing to attendees,” said Bill Stephan, executive director of the Lied Center. “This lecture will provide listeners with a better understanding of Streb’s full company performance on April 11 and will help patrons wrap their minds around the seemingly impossible and incredibly dangerous stunts the dancers of Streb perform every time they go on stage.”
Streb’s keynote presentation deconstructs her approach to action, her theory and her process. It shows how humans can fly, how they land, and traces the lineage of Streb action-invention. It also addresses how a sentient audience “sees” or experiences movement, and how we understand action on stage. How do we comprehend size, distance, speed and angle of viewing? Her demonstration shows the effect of the viewer’s own frame of reference on their perception of action. What are action’s reference points? What are movement’s “vanishing points?”
She was a 1997 recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (the so-called “genius” award).
Her lecture will serve as a precursor to Streb’s full company performance on the Lied Center at 7:30 p.m. April 11.
Founded in 1985, Streb tours extensively throughout the United States and internationally presenting performances and residencies and conducts year-round activities at its home studio/laboratory, the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics (S.L.A.M.) in Brooklyn, N.Y. The company is perhaps best known for its death-defying performances at the 2012 London Olympics. It has also performed sold-out shows at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s downtown groundbreaking, and at the River to River Festival.
Tickets to Streb’s April 11 performance at the Lied Center are available at http://www.liedcenter.org, starting at $34.
