Flips, twists, falls, and dives! Get ready to gasp, because this is no ordinary dance performance. It’s EXTREME ACTION, as the title states, with a big dose of dance, athletics, rodeo riding, boxing, circus, and stunt work. This dance fusion is what choreographer Elizabeth Streb likes to call “Pop Action.”
Simply put, Elizabeth Streb believes humans can fly. She admits this is a bit absurd, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to make it happen. Her dancers spend a lot of time in the air by leaping, spinning, swinging, or falling, often with the help of equipment. But Streb isn’t trying to defy gravity. In fact, gravity is what she’s really interested in. It’s the moment when the fall ends that fascinates her—the failure of human flight. It’s when a dancer is about to make contact with a surface moving full speed ahead, that’s when things get interesting. The surface could be the floor, a wall, or even a pane of glass. For Streb, the real excitement happens at the precise moment of impact.
Streb has stated that dancing should be more like football or boxing, because impact in those sports is important to the action and isn’t avoided. Streb’s form of performance is quite different from other dance forms like, for example, ballet. (Try to imagine a ballerina hitting the floor with the thump flat on her face and you get the idea!)
You see, a ballerina gives the impression of lightness—with her posture, movements, and foot work while up on her toes wearing pointe shoes. If anything, ballet is about controlled movements that defy gravity. Streb takes the opposite approach. Her dancers give in and let the fall, or spin, or dive take them down. In fact, they train to learn how to land without hurting themselves. Is it dangerous? Yes, and sometimes, it can take your breath away. That’s how Elizabeth Streb likes it—where the audience is engaged, on the edge of their seats, and wondering exactly what will happen next.
Check This Out…
The incredible equipment. Face it: The mechanical gear Streb dreams up looks like a lot of fun to play on. Streb designs her company’s equipment in collaboration with an engineer, and then has the pieces built for the dancers. Notice all the different kinds of equipment on stage. About a third of her dances involve an apparatus of some kind.
How the equipment allows the dancers to travel faster, higher, and further on stage. It also gives them momentum in unexpected ways. This added time in air allows them the freedom to create shapes in space they couldn’t have otherwise. Watch for trampolines, bungee cords, a giant rocking semi-circle, a 25-foot ladder, and air rams used to blast people upward in action moves. Sounds thrilling, huh?
How the dancers fall. Watch how the dancers tend to land with flat body (think pancake) instead of catching themselves with their hands or landing on their feet (think cat). Why? Because they can spread the force of the impact out if they have a bigger surface to work with. Also, it’s against our human instinct to fall with a flat flop. (This greatly adds to the audience’s “wow” and “ouch” reactions.)
How the dancers use their upper bodies as much as their lower halves. Other dance styles utilize strong legs for fast foot work, jumping, and leaping. Streb’s dancers are closer to gymnasts because they often need to hang or hold on. One dancer said after he started working with the company, he could feel his upper body changing dramatically.
Watch this video that explores how the company pushes the boundaries of physics with dance.
Think About This...
Imagine what it must feel like to be a dancer in this show. Would you be scared? If so, you’re not alone. Many of Streb’s dancers admit they’re fearful. In fact, Streb herself feels better if they’re afraid. She says, “Fear is normal. I want terrified people, or they do stupid things.” The dancers confront their fears and learn how to fall correctly. In every rehearsal and performance, they agree to do something that might end up in an injury, even if the moves are thrilling.
Streb discusses this fear and the art of extreme movement.
Think about how the dancers know where they are in space. Have you ever done a summersault in the water, and not known which way was up? STREB dancers have the same challenge without any water to help cushion their fall. They have to know where they are in space so they can get perfectly horizontal for that important moment of impact. They learn awareness of their place in space with practice and “muscle memory.”
How STREB does not buy into gender stereotypes. Often there are as many women as men, and all of the dancers do all of the moves. There are no gender-based roles so common in other dance genres. Men catch women, women catch men. Period.
Take Action: Find Moments That Matter
When she was a girl, Elizabeth Streb was very close with her father, a contractor in the construction industry. Fascinated by the physicality of his work, she would often tag along and help on projects. At one particular job, Streb caught a box of nails in midair as it was falling to the ground. In that moment, she became intensely aware of her body movements and knew she wanted to further explore gravity and machinery. Here she is years later—after a path of great experimentation—creating STREB EXTREME ACTION Company and Pop Action choreography.
What about you? Have you ever had a moment when you found something really interesting? Think about a time at school or at home when something really grabbed your attention. What was it? These moments can tell us about things that matter most to us. If we’re lucky, we can turn those passions into a career.
Try writing down one or two of the moments you’ve had like that in your life. Think about ways you can explore your interests further.
Post it to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, or any platform of your choice. Tag five friends and ask them to do the same. Use #momentsthatmatter.
Explore More
Go even deeper with the STREB Extreme Action Performance Extras.
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PHOTO by Josh Flannigan
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This performance is made possible by the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.
Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.
Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts and the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.
