THE ALL JOAN SHOW

This fall, Cid Pearlman Performance will present the ALL JOAN SHOW, a retrospective of dances made in collaboration with renowned San Francisco-based cellist and composer, Joan Jeanrenaud. The All Joan Show runs September 21 to 22 at the Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco before moving to Santa Cruz for a three-evening engagement at Motion Pacific, October 19 to 21. All performances start at 8 p.m. Tickets, $15 to $25, may be purchased online at joegoode.org/box- office and motionpacific.com.

Veteran choreographer Cid Pearlman celebrates her longstanding collaboration with Jeanrenaud in an evening of three works: Strange Toys, small variations and Your Body is Not a Shark. The earliest piece on the program, Strange Toys, a 10-minute duet for two women, had its New York premiere at the Joyce Soho in 2004. Nominated for two Los Angeles Horton Awards, small variations premiered as a 30-minute sextet in 2006. For this program Pearlman is adapting the work for four female dancers. “In this reimagining of small variations, the women are doing the lifting that the men originally did, and it’s exciting to see how they adapt this choreography to their bodies,” said Pearlman.

Finally, Your Body is Not a Shark, an evening-length work, premiered at ODC Theater in San Francisco in 2013. Four sections of the nine-part whole will be presented on this program, with the role of the poet, originally performed by Denise Leto, shared by the dancers.

In addition, the Santa Cruz dates will include a 10-minute world premiere for the full ensemble with a new score by Jeanrenaud. The music for this and for all the works on the program will be played from studio recordings.

“I think Joan is one of the most extraordinary musicians and composers of her generation, and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to continue working with her,” said Pearlman.
“In revisiting these old works, I’m conscious of making a place for the dancers to be themselves inside the dance,” continued Pearlman. “These works are not frozen records from my archive. I see them as living things because dancers are not interchangeable. And if the works have a handmade feeling, that’s by design. I want the selvage edge to show, for the seams to be visible, with threads waiting to be snipped off.”

Jeanrenaud and Pearlman will take part in a pre-show talkback with the audience at 7:30 p.m. on September 21 and again at 7:30 p.m. on October 20.

Photo by Beau Saunders of Julia Daniel and Collette Tabone in small variations