I got the opportunity last night to go to YBCA to see David Roussève’s multi-media contemporary dance performance Saudade. I hesitated for a moment about writing on that here because it’s not a sexy performance per se. And I hesitate to discuss what is sexy about the show because it is so much more than that. It is a serious, yet funny, look at life and how we manage to get through all of the tough things that happen to us as we move from birth through death.

But I enjoyed the work immensely and I wanted to share that with others. And really, what this blog is all about is the fact that there are so many different kinds of sexy things here in this city. And that includes things that are sexy only in small ways while also being concerned with other things. And come to think of it, this mixture of something a bit sexy with something a bit more intense and intellectual seems to perfectly sum up what Saudade is all about.

You see, the dance performance is themed around the word “bittersweet”. Specifically, the scenes in it are looking at those moments in life when we feel both the tremendous horror of life and the tremendous joy of being alive. For example, we feel this in sickness. We feel the agony of not wanting to live through the pain of illness and yet the happiness of being alive and having what we do have - our minds or our sense of self or our family or whatever it is that we manage to find to be thankful for in the darkest of times.

This is conveyed through a dance performance that weaves a variety of different stories together. These stories are told through a combination of live and recorded storytelling, recorded animation and video and, of course, the dance. What struck me most about the performance was how sensual it was - meaning appealing to so many different senses. The dancers made sounds - heart-wrenching sounds and silly, joyous sounds. They made faces. They touched each other. In the audience, I was looking and hearing but I was also seeing this touch and hearing descriptions of smell and taste. All of my senses felt engaged in a way.

It was a powerful piece. It crosses cultures and touches at the humanity of how difficult it is to live life sometimes and yet how grand. And I loved it. It’s not included on today’s list (posted earlier) of my suggestions for seven sexy things to do in San Francisco today but tonight is the last night of the show so I’d say it’s worth heading over there if it’s something that might interest you.

Finally, I have to share a very San Francisco moment that I got to experience while I was at the performance. It was the Q&A night for the performance which meant that after the show, the cast came out and the audience got involved in asking questions. Most of the questions were predictable questions about the process of creating the piece and how to understand it better as an audience member. But one man stood up and made a statement. He said that he is a Portguese American man who has been listening to fado music every night for seventy five years. Fado was a key form of music used in the performance and he expressed how inspired he felt by the way that it was used. It was a very touching thing for him to say. And then later he stood up again and said that he also wanted to add that he’s not only a Portuguese American man but also a gay Quaker. And the audience and the cast laughed and clapped. And that is not a statement - nor a response - that you get to experience in a lot of other cities in this country. And I fell in love with the city again like I do almost every day.

Recent Entries

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• Deadline Approaching for Male Sex Worker Arts Festival Submissions
• Everyone Loves San Francisco
• San Francisco is Sexy on Travelogged
• 8 More Sexy SF Artists on Etsy
• Sexy Sunday Brunches in the Castro
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• Saudade: Dance for all the Senses
• Saturday’s 7 Sexy Things to do in San Francisco

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 9:26 am and is filed under Dance, Entertainment, Things To Do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.