Joe Goode Performance Group Premiere 'Traveling Light' at SF Old Mint July 30, 2009

Light, space, time and what humanity decides to take into the future-by choice and of necessity-will be explored in the world premiere of "Traveling Light," a new site-specific work by choreographer/director Joe Goode in collaboration with leading dance and theater designer Jack Carpenter at San Francisco's Old Mint Building. "Traveling Light" is the next work in a series in which Goode explores non-traditional venues for dance/theater by revealing external and internal landscapes that resonate with history, place, ideas and time. San Francisco's Old Mint is currently being restored and repurposed by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and is rarely open to the public. These performances are a unique opportunity to experience this historic building as a performance venue.

At a time when the international dialogue is increasingly turning to eco-consciousness, Goode and Carpenter want to challenge the viewer to examine his or her relationship to excess. In particular, how do we "travel light" into the future? What is the role of fossil fuels, of synthetic materials, indeed of personal possessions? What does it mean to be "natural" and do we still have that capacity in this overtly technological society?

As we "travel lighter" we will need to consider what we must shed - our ideas of prosperity, of ownership, of territory. Perhaps we enter a world with no borders, a place where one's sense of self is defined not by what you have accumulated or accomplished but by how porous and transparent you can make yourself. Akin to the spiritual journey, this effort to "travel light" is an attempt at losing attachments and beginning to see oneself as a humble component in a vast and rich ecosystem.

July 30-August 2 and August 4-9 at 8 p.m.; also July 30 and 31, August 1, 6, 7 and 8 at 10 p.m.

$27-$35.

Official Website: http://joegoode.org