Reading the original draft of The Waste Land, with critical remarks by T.S. Eliot's wife and unapologetic slashes by Ezra Pound's pen, is like having the curtain pulled back on the Great Oz — it reveals not only the labor behind creative endeavor, but also the magic of alliance. Occasionally, this view behind the scenes is nearly as compelling as the subsequent work (Eleanor Coppola's Hearts of Darkness, about the making of Apocalypse Now, springs to mind) but not every artist is prepared to lay foibles bare. That's exactly what SKETCH 5 | Stirred endeavors to do. In a rare sort of collaboration, Imagery's artistic director Amy Seiwert and ODC's co-artistic director KT Nelson will interrupt and edit each other's choreographed works as they unfold. This is the kind of adventurous gamble we expect from Imagery, which would break rules and hearts before allowing ballet to calcify. The premiere of Seiwert's Back To, set to the Appalachian keening of Gillian Welch, is also on tonight's program.
SKETCH 5 | Stirred starts at 8 p.m. through Sunday, July 19, at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., S.F. $25-$40; asimagery.org or odcdance.org.
415-863-6606
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