HERO WORSHIP.

HERO WORSHIP STREB THE MOORE THEATRE SEATTLE, WASHINGTON DECEMBER 7-10, 2000

Elizabeth Streb's newest work, Action Heroes, is a tribute to her clarity of artistic vision and penchant for thrills--elaborate ones that require the dancers to master both Streb's unique vocabulary and her sense of daring. Action Heroes is a success in this--memorable for its images, so powerful that I found myself sketching rather than writing my review notes.

The action occurs in a truss box (metallic scaffolding used for rock concerts), rising more than twenty feet in the air. Other props are less visible but still critical--ropes, harnesses and padded gymnastics pads. These enable the dancers to jump from different angles of the box. They hurl themselves wildly and dive spread-eagled (a repeated motif in the piece), suspending in midair before landing on each other.

Streb's real-time action heroes, the company's dancers, are the stars of this piece. Ranging in age from 25 to 39, and with abdominal muscles of steel, they appear as human yo-yos and pull no punches. If they did, they'd most likely be injured. Instead, they sustain only "minor injuries" (according to one of the dancers) and crawl, slither, leap and levitate onto and over any prop they can, with amplified sounds and projected visuals (via closed-circuit television), seemingly defying gravity and other physical forces.

Sometimes, Streb is onstage as an intense master of ceremonies to help tell the stories of her personal action heroes and artists: stuntman Cannonball Richards (who withstood cannonballs shot into his gut), Annie Edson Taylor (a sexagenarian teacher who, fully dressed in petticoats, floated over Niagara Falls in a barrel) and the better-known Harry Houdini and Evel Knievel. Their stories, together with Streb's commentary, serve as inspiration and annotation for the movement.

Completing a work like this is not an easy choreographic task, aesthetically or technically. The piece has evolved into a mesmerizing work, perhaps due in part to its reworking since the premiere earlier this year. Streb added sections, including work by dancer Terry Dean Bartlett and an exciting bungee-cord piece credited to Streb's company dancers and guest artists. Other recent additions include the soundtrack, a soundscape created by Miles Green, narrative voiceover and news-clip projections.

Streb has a vision, an almost reverential homage to her heroes. In Action Heroes she actualizes it with a pilgrimage to the wildest rides ever. It is an inviting trip, as Streb announces early on: "We at Streb would like you to make as much noise as we do." The audience obliges with their support of her present-tense technique, which underscores the importance of living in the moment as well as dancing it.