A Walk In The Parkour
I first heard about Scott through a friend who basically said, ‘You should work with this guy. He likes using athletic dancers in his pieces.’ At that time I wasn’t living in San Francisco, but I commuted from Santa Cruz every day for a week to take his summer workshop. The workshop was great and afterward I was sure I wanted to work with him. A few months later I moved to San Francisco. We ran into each other again and he invited me to perform in his annual home season. That was three years ago and I’ve been dancing with him ever since.
Scott’s work is known in the Bay Area for its use of contact improv, deft partnering, acrobatics, and humor. To me his performance pieces are refreshing and satisfying, both as a performer and audience member. By the time the curtain goes up, most of the material has been set into repeatable choreography, but there are almost always a couple of sections that are loosely structured with plenty of room for spur-of-the-moment improvisation, inspiration and risk-taking.
This year, his home season features last year’s “Ball-ist-ic” and premieres “A Walk in the Parkour”. Ball-ist-ic creates unique environments and movement possibilities with dozens of balls: physio balls, medium-sized ‘gertie’ balls, and juggling balls. The work places heavy emphasis on ensemble choreography, as with 7 performers and all the equipment bouncing and rolling around the stage, there are many factors to work with in making sure the sequences go according to plan. Or at least mostly according to plan.
A Walk in the Parkour displays a new hybrid form mixing contemporary dance, contact improv, and parkour. Parkour is an athletic discipline based on efficiently traversing an environment with one’s body. The roots of parkour are in the urban landscape and moving through it with high dynamic. In the past 10 years or so, parkour has gained popularity and become well-known enough to be featured in a number of big budget films. Most cities around the world now have parkour crews practicing together.
Our rehearsals for this piece have taken place at The Athletic Playground, where we have been using vaulting equipment and crash mats to create new vocabulary. Some moves are new versions of parkour standards, such as vaulting over an obstacle only to be caught by another dancer and thrown onto a mat or rolled to the ground. The final piece is quite exhilarating and acrobatic, to say the least.
The show runs at CounterPULSE May 20-22 and 27-29 at 8pm, with a matinee on the 29th at 2pm.
www.counterpulse.org
Following this Home Season, Scott’s annual summer workshop takes place June 8-12 in San Francisco. The workshop features a variety of exercises in contact improv, lift vocabulary, acrobatic partnering, etc. Participants are encouraged to work at their own level, so you don’t need a lot of improv or acro experience to participate. I have attended six of Scott’s workshops (summer and winter) and assistant-taught a few of them. Each time I have had a total blast and place high value on having that week to build kinetic community and hone skills. scottwellsdance.com
For more on the Author, Sebastian Grubb, visit his ‘Movers’ page!