Elizabeth Streb
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Streb is an American choreographer, performer, and teacher of contemporary dance
.
in 1972, she was interested in experimental works and worked and performed for many years with investigational groups including Molissa Fenley’s
. She also worked and performed with Margaret Jenkins in San Francisco for two years before relocating back to New York City In 1975, upon her arrival in New York City, Streb created her dance company STREB/ Ringside.
In 1996 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In 1997, she was awarded a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (sometimes called a “Genius” grant), two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards, and grants from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Mellon Foundation.
In 2003, Streb established SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which created a new outlet for the community where people could come and watch rehearsals and even participate in classes. She also published her documentary "Streb: Pop Action" showcasing some of the rehearsals and dances she has created at SLAM and giving insight into her life and career.
In 2010, Streb's book, How to Become an Extreme Action Hero, was published by The Feminist Press.
She has been creating works from 1975 to the present and is known for her outrageous risk taking and experimental shows she puts on. Streb includes risk into all of her choreography, giving the audience sensations of extreme feelings while watching the performers. She inquired about movement and the suppositions that the dance world created; and integrated actions and principles of the circus, rodeo, and daredevil “stunts.” She is interested in the effects of gravity, math, and physics on her choreography. And has said, “A question like: Can you fall up? This is the bedrock of my process” and that she tries “to notice what questions have not been asked in a particular field that need to be asked and answered.” She grew up participating in extreme sports, therefore she associates a lot of her work with athletics; for example, skiing and motorcycling, and has also expressed her interest in the circus and performance artists such as Chris Burden
, Marina Abramovic
, and admires Trisha Brown
.
She wanted to gain a better understanding of the effects of movement on matter so she studied math, physics, and philosophy as Dean’s Special Scholar at New York University
. Streb explains that "'Pop-Action' is all about the popping of the muscles, training to utilize them over the movement of the skeleton" . Custom-made trapeze
s, trusses, trampoline
s, and a flying machine give Streb a way to discover new ways for the body to move in space while being subjected to gravity and other indistinguishable forces. Moves consist of diving off 16 feet (4.9 m), metal scaffolding, also known as a “truss”, landing level on a mat. The performers also can be found launching through the air in “Quick succession with timing so precise that they just miss occupying the same space at the same time.”
Streb’s work is extremely demanding and necessitates endurance, dexterity, great physical strength and the ability to be daring. Streb focuses progressively more on single actions, particularly falls and collisions. By 2010 Streb stopped performing these extreme actions herself, explaining that, “I stopped because that started to become the subject of my activity. I started to hear, Wow, you can still do that and you’re 48? It was a practical decision—three hours a day to keep in that shape?...I had been training for 30 years. It’s very boring to exercise. I stopped. I let it go, which was a good thing.” But says, “I still let extreme things happen to me.”
In her recent years, productions have become less harsh and she has begun incorporating texts, videos, and projections of slides. Within her video collaborations, she incorporates camera angles that appear to evade gravity and making the dancers bound off and crash into the edges of the monitors. They also are often swung from cables and are seen leaping off platforms or hurling against padded walls or mattresses. The dancers who are trained under Elizabeth Streb are taught to follow movement’s natural force to the edge of real danger. Collaborators on the videos include Mary Lucier
, Nick Fortunato, and Michael Macilli
Communication between dancers includes verbal cues and in place of music the dancers’ grunts and gasps were electronically recorded and amplified as well as the thuds of their landings and the clank and clatter of the stage equipment. With her newer choreography, Streb incorporates music as a part of the show being experienced by the audience. However, she has always upheld that "[m]ovement has its own timing, unrelated to music.” Streb has always tried to contact more than just usual dance audiences.
She is also known for generally seeking out performance spaces that are out of the norm for most dance performances. Her works are showcased at high art venues such as the Lincoln Center , the Spoleto Festival
, or the French Festival Paris quartier d'été but also Grand Central Station, the boardwalk at Coney Island in New York, and in a mall in front of the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
Streb has expressed her philosophy thus: “Go to the edge and peer over it. Be willing to get hurt, but not so hurt that you can’t come back again.” She has also said that, “Movement is causal; it’s a physical happening. You can stick a high C next to a low F-flat, whereas you couldn’t connect a move where you’re 30 feet in the air and falling, then skip a spot in space, land on the ground, and walk away. So I thought the arbiters of dance training and presentation were lying at the first basic step. Dance does not address its compositional methodology. It’s not true to the form. This form is movement.”
Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...
.
Background
Streb was born and raised in Rochester, New York and, after graduating from the dance program of State University of New York at BrockportState University of New York at Brockport
The College at Brockport: State University of New York, also known as SUNY Brockport, Brockport State, College at Brockport, or the State University of New York at Brockport, is a four-year liberal arts college located in Brockport, Monroe County, New York, United States, near Rochester...
in 1972, she was interested in experimental works and worked and performed for many years with investigational groups including Molissa Fenley’s
Molissa Fenley
Molissa Fenley is a choreographer, modern dancer, and part-time associate professor of dance at Mills College. She has accepted commissions from Deutsche Oper Ballet of Berlin, Australian Dance Theatre, The Ohio Ballet, and The Pacific Northwest Ballet, and has won two New York Dance and...
. She also worked and performed with Margaret Jenkins in San Francisco for two years before relocating back to New York City In 1975, upon her arrival in New York City, Streb created her dance company STREB/ Ringside.
In 1996 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In 1997, she was awarded a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (sometimes called a “Genius” grant), two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards, and grants from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Mellon Foundation.
In 2003, Streb established SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which created a new outlet for the community where people could come and watch rehearsals and even participate in classes. She also published her documentary "Streb: Pop Action" showcasing some of the rehearsals and dances she has created at SLAM and giving insight into her life and career.
In 2010, Streb's book, How to Become an Extreme Action Hero, was published by The Feminist Press.
Career advancements
Streb is known for “A preoccupation with movement and itself was symptomatic of a trend that was altering the traditional profile of modern dance.”She has been creating works from 1975 to the present and is known for her outrageous risk taking and experimental shows she puts on. Streb includes risk into all of her choreography, giving the audience sensations of extreme feelings while watching the performers. She inquired about movement and the suppositions that the dance world created; and integrated actions and principles of the circus, rodeo, and daredevil “stunts.” She is interested in the effects of gravity, math, and physics on her choreography. And has said, “A question like: Can you fall up? This is the bedrock of my process” and that she tries “to notice what questions have not been asked in a particular field that need to be asked and answered.” She grew up participating in extreme sports, therefore she associates a lot of her work with athletics; for example, skiing and motorcycling, and has also expressed her interest in the circus and performance artists such as Chris Burden
Chris Burden
Christopher "Chris" Burden is an American artist working in performance, sculpture, and installation art.-Education:Burden studied for his B.A...
, Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramović is a Belgrade-born New York-based Serbian performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and...
, and admires Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown is a postmodernist American choreographer and dancer.Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and received a B.A. degree in dance from Mills College in 1958. Brown later received a D.F.A. from Bates College in 2000. For several summers she studied with Louis Horst at the American Dance...
.
She wanted to gain a better understanding of the effects of movement on matter so she studied math, physics, and philosophy as Dean’s Special Scholar at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. Streb explains that "'Pop-Action' is all about the popping of the muscles, training to utilize them over the movement of the skeleton" . Custom-made trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
s, trusses, trampoline
Trampoline
A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes....
s, and a flying machine give Streb a way to discover new ways for the body to move in space while being subjected to gravity and other indistinguishable forces. Moves consist of diving off 16 feet (4.9 m), metal scaffolding, also known as a “truss”, landing level on a mat. The performers also can be found launching through the air in “Quick succession with timing so precise that they just miss occupying the same space at the same time.”
Streb’s work is extremely demanding and necessitates endurance, dexterity, great physical strength and the ability to be daring. Streb focuses progressively more on single actions, particularly falls and collisions. By 2010 Streb stopped performing these extreme actions herself, explaining that, “I stopped because that started to become the subject of my activity. I started to hear, Wow, you can still do that and you’re 48? It was a practical decision—three hours a day to keep in that shape?...I had been training for 30 years. It’s very boring to exercise. I stopped. I let it go, which was a good thing.” But says, “I still let extreme things happen to me.”
In her recent years, productions have become less harsh and she has begun incorporating texts, videos, and projections of slides. Within her video collaborations, she incorporates camera angles that appear to evade gravity and making the dancers bound off and crash into the edges of the monitors. They also are often swung from cables and are seen leaping off platforms or hurling against padded walls or mattresses. The dancers who are trained under Elizabeth Streb are taught to follow movement’s natural force to the edge of real danger. Collaborators on the videos include Mary Lucier
Mary Lucier
Mary Lucier is an American artist who has worked in many mediums including sculpture, photography, and performance. Concentrating primarily on video and installation since 1973, she has produced numerous multiple- and single-channel pieces...
, Nick Fortunato, and Michael Macilli
Communication between dancers includes verbal cues and in place of music the dancers’ grunts and gasps were electronically recorded and amplified as well as the thuds of their landings and the clank and clatter of the stage equipment. With her newer choreography, Streb incorporates music as a part of the show being experienced by the audience. However, she has always upheld that "[m]ovement has its own timing, unrelated to music.” Streb has always tried to contact more than just usual dance audiences.
She is also known for generally seeking out performance spaces that are out of the norm for most dance performances. Her works are showcased at high art venues such as the Lincoln Center , the Spoleto Festival
Festival dei Due Mondi
The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958...
, or the French Festival Paris quartier d'été but also Grand Central Station, the boardwalk at Coney Island in New York, and in a mall in front of the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
Streb has expressed her philosophy thus: “Go to the edge and peer over it. Be willing to get hurt, but not so hurt that you can’t come back again.” She has also said that, “Movement is causal; it’s a physical happening. You can stick a high C next to a low F-flat, whereas you couldn’t connect a move where you’re 30 feet in the air and falling, then skip a spot in space, land on the ground, and walk away. So I thought the arbiters of dance training and presentation were lying at the first basic step. Dance does not address its compositional methodology. It’s not true to the form. This form is movement.”