Double Vision

Probably one of the best performance troupes I have ever seen. Their art makes me want to take my meat cleaver out of the original packaging and «do work» on the audience next time they are in town.

modern dance… snore…zzzzz…
honestly, i don’t get dance and i don’t pretend to. they seriously bore the shit out of me… and modern dance is the worst culprit of them all. i make no apology about it.
interpretive what? postmodern what? contemporary what? expressionist what? who the fug cares? all these big words… i do not understand. i am such a neanderthal. so be it.
then one saturday night in the mission, while everyone in town was dining out and getting drunk and hooking up, a small evolution was taking place at the mission dance theatre. i, the self professed neanderthal, was there to support a friend who is affectionately known to many Unilocalers as the tiny dancer. her name is tiffany b… and she was absolutely amazing!
such intensity and energy in that woman…
such power and athleticism in that woman…
such poetry and grace in that woman…
i didn’t know a body can move like that. i didn’t know a body can defy the laws of physics like that. tiffany was in another world… another time. she was in the matrix… and if you know me, that is the ultimate compliment.
…and that’s how got myself some culture.

A feast for your senses… that’s how I would describe Double Vision’s annual benefit held at the Dragon Bar Thursday night. I was a little disappointed at the venue size, but the visual, audio, touch, and taste sensations, nixed that notion. As we walked in, we were treated to eerie sounds piping through the club’s speakers. The LCD monitor setup at the front gave the notion that we were about to see Sadako from the Ring jump out of the screen any minute. We quickly proceeded to the bar to wash away the heebie jeebies. Drinks were included with our entry so we took advantage of what they had to offer. I really enjoyed the vodka special that I ordered. The red wine was satisfactory. Not as good as my previous night’s sampling, but that’s ok. It’s a benefit after all… so it’s not about what you get, but what you contributed. Everything else was just gravy. We proceeded to the larger room where Double Vision was in action. I’ve never really seen modern dancing up close, so it was a treat. The dancers all looked like they had jumped right out of one of the web pictures of one of Unilocal’s finest. I enjoyed the visual artist manipulating the colors projected on one of the walls. The electronic music pumped and the dancers contorted themselves in various poses to the crowds delight. We checked out the silent auction to see the special offerings. I opted to wait to the end to secure an item, but was not the only one with the same idea. No sooner had I signed my name, somebody else picked up the pen and inked her name in under mine. I’m better at it on EBay. The highlight of my excursion was the complimentary massage provided by Joanne Stearns. I’ve never been one to succumb so easily to experience hands without giggling… when it comes to massages. I was definitely ready for a nap afterwards. All in all, an excellent offering provided by Double Vision. I’ll surely catch them in action in the future.

I think my eyes, and all my senses, were kissed by true speakers of the language of the soul.
Here’s the thing with art: when done right it makes even the most impenetrable molecules tremble with excitement and fear. It can make you slit your wrists and it can make you fall in love with an enemy; and any combination of everything inbetween.
Transcending time, space, and any vernacular of which I’ve known, Double Vision moves you from the inside-​out.
At least that was my experience last night.

Double Vision hosted their annual benefit event last night at Dragon Bar, which was a real kick. The dancers were all in one area of the bar, which had been ‘sectioned off’ into different areas by tape on the floor. Attendees were given raffle sheets which contained riddles, and they were encouraged to attempt to determine the answers to the riddles by interacting with the dancers and the space.
The most fun riddle had to do with determining how what the dancers did changed based on what the people around them did.
It became a fun and fascinating little game that many of us were enjoying, figuring out how we could influence the dancers. And once you’d determined something, it gave you a fun sense of power, and resulted in a bunch of us having fun messing with them. Hopefully they found it as entertaining as we did.
Anyway, it was a fun evening, and with the free drinks and Amazing selection of foods for snacking, was absolutely worth every penny.
Personally, I think they should do this sort of thing much more often. :)
I’ll be interested to see a more structured performance to see how it’s different.

I just had the chance to witness/​experience the collaborative dancers from Double Vision this past Thursday, at the Unilocal Elite Party at the SFMOMA. They created an interactive and site-​specific dance performance, playing off the them of the current Matthew Barney Drawing Restraint exhibit.
I found the work to be exhilerating, funny, challenging, complex, beautiful. Their style involves a serious immersion in a theme, and I felt that the Schwab Room where they performed will never be the same to me. Unconventional and experimental, just the way modern dance should be. Go see them whenever you can!