Cake in my Face: New Dances with Betty Crocker and Misbehavior June 20, 2009

Five misbehaving, mess-making performers serve up an evening of new theatrical dances that creatively re-imagine the history and mythology of Betty Crocker. Weaving together contemporary dance with circus tricks, storytelling, and of course food--the dance queries how Betty's presence has affected notions of American female domestic identity. Through it all, Betty Crocker is still one sweet-talker.

Melissa Hudson Bell is the Artistic Director of HudsonDance, a small contemporary dance company based out of San Francisco. Bell is a Gluck Program for the Arts Fellow, a certified pilates instructor, and she recently completed her MFA in Experimental Choreography at UC Riverside. Her work as a professional choreographer and dance scholar has been devoted to examining the interplay between “food culture’” and “performance culture,” which she has been exploring since the inception of the company in 2005. HudsonDance was an Artist in Residence at Shotwell Studios in 2006 and at Red Ink Studios in 2007. Bell's choreography has been featured at ODC, CounterPULSE, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Sweeney Art Gallery, and at countless dinner parties in conjunction with the underground supper club Ghetto Gourmet. Locally, Bell has danced and trained with Joe Goode Performance Group, Charlie Moulton/Janice Garrett and Dancers, Erica Shuch Performance Project, Huckabay McAlister Dance, RAW Dance and Ahdanco.