This week on Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with members of Dimensions Dance Theater (DDT), the oldest continuously operating African American dance company on the West Coast. Founding Artistic Director Deborah Vaughan, and choreographer Latanya Tigner join us in the studio to share details about Kick High, Turn Fast, a program with two world premieres, marking DDT’S 45th anniversary.
Kick High, Turn Fast features a choreography by company member Latanya d. Tigner, representing voices of the homeless; plus Ain’t No Turning Back, a work paying homage to the life and legacy of Harriet Tubman, the 19th century abolitionist, women’s suffragist and a ‘conductor’ on the Underground Railroad, choreographed by former company member Andrea Vonny Lee. The evening will conclude with a remount of Tigner’s acclaimed second line dance parade, St. Ann and N. Rampart. Performances are on Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14 (8pm), at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland.
From 3Girls Theatre Company, we meet with playwright AJ Baker and lead actress Sally Dana to discuss the brand new play Disruption, a darkly comic, fast-paced whodunit for our collective #metoo moment. Disruption is a tale of sexual harassment, a metabolic miracle drug just about to go public, social media, and corporate espionage, all at a time when our national conversation is focused on sexual politics and power in the workplace. At Z Below (450 Florida Street, San Francisco) through April 28.
Looking ahead at the closing weekend of the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival (through April 17 at venues across the Bay Area), we talk to three makers of short films, a very popular genre at most film festivals. Bradley Smith is the director of 49 Mile Scenic Drive, a ten minute documentary about the scenic road tour through most of San Francisco; Kate McLean directed Marty, about a mother and son’s encounter at a funeral home, following the death of a loved one; and Leah Nichols is director of the animated short 73 Questions, about a long time San Francisco resident who offers some sage and sincere advice for all those who love the Bay.
Plus, Peter Robinson, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, reviews the 2017 political satire comedy film The Death of Stalin, and he previews the upcoming program of music and lectures at Humanities West, titled Lucrezia’s Family: The Renaissance Borgia Dynasty, to be held on Friday and Saturday May 4 and 5 at the Marines' Memorial Theatre (609 Sutter Street, 2nd Floor) in San Francisco.
Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, April 12 at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…