The James Boys - a Novel Account of Four desperate Brothers, by Richard Liebmann-Smith, Random House

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Wide Blue Yonder – that's what it is swinging out into air, toward the audience, in, out, sidewise through the air, moving in choreographed wonder in intricate formations, never hitting the other, up, down rope climbing cables, swinging shadows cast on the wall behind.

How is this performance different from other troops with people swinging from ropes, their legs stretched out with swaging, volumes of scarves.  That would be "pretty" with its swirling stripes of color – see one swirl and you have seen them all.  But this is theater – three actual plays, short but complete unto themselves.  The flying is used as an extension of theater, a way to go further into the drama.  The play would be less without flying. "Up" offers a more compelling, liberated reality. "We create works of art that temporarily alter the physical sense of reality."

As a teenager, Lisa Christensen, wanted to join the circus; she wanted to fly – early ambitions that jumped-started and bumped on their road to fruition. Fly into the present, she has been creating this style of aerial theater for the past 4 years as actor, dancer and choreographer.

Andrew Purchin has been improvising dance for 7 years.  All his talents as an artist – painter, dancer, choreographer and psychotherapist – work together in his performance of flying theater. As a therapist, his sensitivity to human needs, play into his dancing and connect to his painting. He says, this work requires him to be internally and externally aware; for him it is a deep meditation. Lisa and Andrew say creating the program starts with improvisation. They find certain movements that "work" as they relate to what they want to say.

Their troop of 15 or so move beautifully and powerfully together, never infringing on the other's space while always moving the story line ahead – there are no muddy movements. For all their improvisation, the drama progresses with the rhythm they have created. The actors have lines to speak and there is occasional narration as well as some appropriate music. This is not a silent show.

Their current performance in Santa Cruz, California, is a collection of three short plays. The first is called "What Made Us This Way?", depicting a homeless encampment. Lisa says she's always on the lookout for locations to attach her rope/cables.  She found a perfect place under a bridge in a nearby town.  It turned out to be also a homeless encampment.  She attached her cables and started swinging. The people came out to watch – they were very curious, not critical.  They accepted her being there, and she observed them, their life style and how they related to each another – thus was born the play, "What Made Us This Way?".

Andrew often brings his artist materials to rehearsal.  Note his charcoal and oil painting in colors of pale orange to salmon to merlot. I think of these colors as coming from the dimmed lights playing on the darks shapes of the fliers. To me, some of the figures resemble bats, hanging in a cave, or "under a bridge." Those shapes are pieces of black canvas the dancers slide into, like a sleeping bag or a tent, swaying in and out, conveying their community connections.

Another of the plays is called "Pearl Berry"  An elderly woman had been sitting in the audience near my friend and me.  I whispered, "She dresses just like my mother did."  My friend said, "I think she's part of the show," and she was.  The woman was younger and a terrific actress; on stage, she was of an elderly lady.  Center stage, was a ladderback chair with a cable running up. Sarah David, or Pearl as the octogenarian, climbs up the rope to a light fixture to change a bulb. She is trying to prove her independence, as she tells the audience her daughter want to put her in a "home."  She's nimble as she plays her part in the air, rather than on the ground, while always maintaining her older-person character.

In the third play, "Hold onto the Chair", Andrew is the therapist and Lisa is the client/patient.  A symbolic prop/motif is the ubiquitous Kleenex box, always available in a therapist's office, and something they pass back and forth to salve each of their needs. Andrew does a mime of pulling out tissues from his mouth and ear – symbolic as pulling out words and emotions. Lisa shows him her dog (stuffed), who gives her relief from her problems. By the end of the play, the dog heals Andrew as well.  

I asked about the physical necessities required to do this aerial work: does this take a lot of strength? "Upper arm strength develops along with core-belly strength."…"We do a lot of sit-ups, for maybe 20 minutes." One of the troop, Mike, did some yoga positions and breathing before he put on his harness. Why fly? Why not just combine dance with drama? Being off the ground a greater proportion of the time displays emotions no one has seen before – this is truly uncharted territory of human expression.

Wide Blue Yonder Dance Company will be performing in San Francisco on Friday, April 11, at 8:00 PM, and Saturday, April 12, 2008, at 8:00 PM, at CounterPULSE.  1310 Mission Street. Admission is $15, from www.brownpapertickets.com or at the door.