SPELLing It Out!

by Benji Holmann for the San Francisco Spectrum

Keith Hennessey’s Circo Zero Performs as part of SPELL

An enchanting evening will be yours for the wishing at SPELL: 13 Invocations for World Peace at SomArts in San Francisco. Leading us out of what Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live) calls our K-Hole of a Presidency, the collective artists of Spell have captured the energy and enchantment of post-modern activist performance and woven a new path for our collective future with aerial dance, drumming, installation arts and post-modern witchcraft.

Conceived by Krissy Keefer of Dance Brigade and nurtured by Jack Davis of SomArts Cultural Center - the full-frontal multi-media collaboration arts/dance event fully pulls out the stops. Circo Zero led by Keith Hennessy invoked the tribal tour with The Elemental World delighting the assembled hip queers. Representing the elements of Air, Earth, Fire and Water the troupe dazzled with multi-layered dance inflections of a world in flux all with the sonic undercurrents of the freeway above our heads. Transforming emotions into action has been a hallmark of Keith Hennessy’s and this performance was no exception with the dancers literally taking to the water in a giant hot tub/ cauldron stirring themselves into a froth while incanting “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” from The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies (In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776). With a final “whoosh” and a poof the spell dovetailed into what I call “Taiko in tutus”. Performed by Dance Brigade, the Taiko drums are precision island drumming taken to a street level building the energy of the gathered faithful on large drums in a choreographed movement. Our muse guide then led us to the front of the SomArts building where our intermission was a stroll into the annual Day of The Dead exhibit.

I am an altar junkie so I’m always impressed with the annual assembled exhibit by SomArts’ Rene Yanez – this year the Dia de los Muertos (Day of The Dead) emphasis is in special nods to those who have died violent deaths in Mission and Bay View districts. Sixty artists installed altars take on all forms of artistry with glasswork, found objects, black-light tarot decks, holograms, shadow-casting, mechanical devices, neon, and everything between fine art oils to crafty composites.

Tom Fowler’s “All My Stupid Wasted, Dead, Heroes” is a walk down a graffitied sidewalk with dozens of artists, musicians and creative-types whose time was cut short. Many of the altars featured the Virgin of Guadalupe or reflected on the current Bush war, I found the many personalized ones quite moving. Malik Seneferu’s “Blood Spill Era” focused on Black on Black violence in Hunter’s Point with personalized messages hidden throughout the paintings. “To Change The World” by Carla Caletti is in homage to women who have impacted our history from Josephine Baker to Gertrude Stein, from Golda Meir to Georgia O’Keefe, from Evita Peron to Indira Ghandi.

Carla Odin’s “Now You See Me Now You Don’t (Chalk Line Aura)” remarks, “Once a media count and the press coverage fade from public notice the person’s aura you just stepped past or through may go unnoticed except for that strange vibe you felt.” Walking through the altar mazes you feel the loss but also the reflection that death is a part of life and we should open ourselves to the many ways of seeing death through other eyes.

The crowd was welcomed into the second half performance and were thrilled to start off with folk femm-nazi Holly Near bringing forth a cappella bliss and sing-alongs including “1000 Grand-mothers (with 2000 loving arms)” and my favorite “I Ain’t Afraid” with echoes “…I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God”

The stage turned into a wooded clearing where the magical singing trio of Copper Wimmin and six witches of Dance Brigade open a circle and interwove incantations from Krissy Keefer as Hekate, Queen of the witches. Collectively they casted spells and dance ritual complete with witchypoo poems and pagan eruptions, dirt rolling and burning of ritualized offerings. “…Monsanto’s, DuPont’s & Disney’s will go the way of the dinosaur…” she emoted. The witches of Dance brigade were impressively athletic and inspiring (everyone to go to the gym more often) making use of brooms drums and their voices to weave within spells. At one point Queen Hekate lamented that having George Bush look for weapons of mass destruction was like OJ (Simpson) looking for really who killed Nicole. Keith Hennessy summed it up nicely – “It’s power performance meets power activism meets power ritual.”

SPELL: 13 Invocations For World Peace featuring Dance Brigade, Keith Hennessy / Circo Zero and Copper Wimmin in conjunction with Day of The Dead gallery installation. Through Nov. 2nd at SomArts Cultural Center - 934 Brannan at 9th Street in San Francisco. Shows 8pm, Sundays at 7pm. $17 advance/$20 night of show. Dress warm for first portion of evening, children welcome.

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