San Francisco has a rep to protect. Seriously: We're known as "the" aerial dance city (eat that, Denver!), and we have a lot of good flying practitioners such as Joanna Haigood and Jo Kreiter. But a related form seems to be fermenting pretty vigorously, too. Lizz Roman and Dancers is a site-specific company, meaning the dancers tend to climb the walls. They climb windows, railings, and rafters, too. In a new piece, "At Play," they start outdoors, ascend stairs in ways you've never considered, and then swing around a big old cavern of a theater, completely surrounding the audience, 360 degrees. If aerial dance hybridized from contemporary movement's romance with rock climbing, site-specific dance may have evolved from contact improv getting in parkour's pants.
Fridays-Sundays, 8 & 9:30 p.m. Starts: May 15. Continues through May 24, 2009
