and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me May 10, 2009

and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me
a free performance installation by Stephen Pelton Dance Theater

Sundays-May 10 & 17 at Patricia Sweetow Gallery-
77 Geary Street, mezzanine level-San Francisco, CA
4-6pm, admission free

Stephen Pelton Dance Theater, known for its lyricism, intimate theatricality and emotional intensity, will perform its first ever performance installation at the Patricia Sweetow Gallery in downtown San Francisco. The installation, choreographed for 8 performers, is composed of twelve variations on the company's acclaimed 10-minute work from 2008 and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me.

This dark and subtle work, set to a score by Gavin Bryars, was inspired by the poem "Prayer Before Birth," by the Anglo-Irish poet Louis MacNeice. Written at the height of the World War II, the poem expresses the poet's fear of the world's tyranny destroying his reason for living. For choreographer Stephen Pelton, the poem instigated a meditation on aging.

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with wise lies lure me, on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me
with water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me
- Louis MacNeice, "Prayer Before Birth"

The complete work will run from 4-6pm on a continuous loop and the public is invited to come when they choose and stay for as long as they like. Audience members who stay for the entire event will experience twelve quietly different versions of a single meditation on how one must reconcile one's self not only to mankind's sometimes cruel and despotic impulses, but to the unstoppable progress of time and the body as well.

The installation is a free event and each performance will be followed by a reception with the artists.

Free.

Official Website: http://stephenpeltondance.org