Flying High

Jo Kreiter speaks softly but swings from a big stick

Comments (0) By Ann Murphy Wednesday, Apr 4 2001

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Elizabeth Gorelik

Hanging by a Thread: The performers of Flyaway use props with passion.

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Friday through Sunday at 8 p.m. (through April 22). Tickets are $18; call 934-1070.

SomArts Theater, 934 Brannan (at Eighth Street), S.F.

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Using a combination of tension and melting, the movement makes clear that her concern with grief begins with the body, encompassing sorrow's gestural language and its emotional tone as well as its private and social character. The piece then moves to the confrontation with the industrial-strength metal of the apparatus, a confrontation that is thrilling and unpredictable, bound yet free. But even with all the steel and strength, a red dress appears and reappears throughout the course of the dance. "I want things to be beautiful even when they're tragic," Kreiter laughed.

"There's a fine line between grief and rage, and one of the main questions of the piece is how to take your grief and transform it. What is the strength it takes to do that? My mother grew up believing that women were second class. It poisoned her own life, but she made sure not to pass it on." With Maybe Grief Is a Good Bird Flying Low Kreiter gets the chance to shape that ancient grief and let it fly away.