‘Diffusion’ dancers go deep inside Glen Canyon – The San Francisco Examiner
Performers in pink T-shirts, black shorts, red knee socks and masks looked like dots amid the grandeur and green of San Francisco’s Glen Canyon Park in Diffusion, a celebratory new piece by contemporary dance group FACT / SF.
The invigorating, abstract 45-minute piece was served in eight performances over the weekend in the spectacular City Park (just a 10-minute walk from Glen Park BART station), where company founder and choreographer Charles Slender-White led a small audience wearing masks on a contemplative , but fun and extremely picturesque, kilometer-long nature walk.
Mother Nature actually provided the great set and sound – birds chirped wonderfully loudly and incessantly – for the show, in which the seven androgynous dancers from FACT / SF performed in various smaller, constantly moving groups along the way.
Samuel Melecio-Zambrano (left) and Katherine Neumann perform in Glen Canyon Park in San Francisco. (Courtesy Robbie Sweeny)
They started in the distance in a sports field near the park entrance on Chenery and Elk Streets. Then they approached and appeared to appear everywhere: on the main gravel path, on the slope, on steps, or balancing on a short wooden ledge. At some point a dancer chased a passing jogger, who was adorned with fluorescent chartreuse pieces, down the path. Was it or wasn’t it planned?
The walk came to a dramatic halt in the canyon as the onlookers looked up at several massive boulders to see the dancers’ arms waving behind the huge rocks in the distance.
On the way back, the dancers got very close again and did their thing in the midst of park visitors of all ages and also dogs. The performers shoveled gravel along the way and gathered on the lawn near the recreation center. At a point where their faces were clearly visible, some appeared to be looking quizzically at the audience while their arms and legs were in motion.
When Slender-White and the guests returned to the field on which the show began, there was another group of FACT / SF actors with magenta shirts, who waved colorful ribbons in rhythmic gymnastics, and thus the end of the whole signaled a pleasant journey.
From the left, Katherine Neumann and Erin Yen walk along a path in “Diffusion”. (Courtesy Robbie Sweeny)
In creating the purposely abstract piece in collaboration with dancers Eric Garcia, Emily Hansel, Meegan Hertensteiner, Samuel Melecio-Zambrano, Katherine Neumann, Wiley Naman Strasser, and Erin Yen, Slender-White said his primary role is to “bring people together in real space and time ”, while“ transitions and perspectives are considered and how both particles and people diffuse from densely packed situations into environments with more space and possibilities ”.
Eric Garcia appears in FACT / SF’s “Diffusion” on the forested hill in the distance. (Courtesy Robbie Sweeny)
Created almost two years after FACT / SF’s last in-person appearance, “Diffusion” follows a number of nifty digital presentations the troop made during the pandemic, including the short films “Detour-19a” and “Detour-19b” in response COVID -19.
But earlier this year, when Slender-White began planning another virtual performance, he had a change of heart: “After a few rehearsals, I just couldn’t stand staring at the computer screen anymore. I thought, ‘When I’m done with online art, maybe other people will get over it too?’ “, He said.
It gave him the idea of doing a dance set in his neighborhood, a place he, family and friends visit regularly.
“I’ve always valued the park as that kind of hidden gem in The City, and it was only recently that it occurred to me that it could be a fun and inviting place to go public. The entire creative process in the gorge among each other and among the other residents was amazing for me and the team – the simple act of closeness to one another has never felt so profound. “
To see FACT / SF in action, visit http://factsf.org/.
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