September 24, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
The witty and affecting Joe Goode Performance Group presents The Best of Joe Goode at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Joe Goode Performance Group
- The Best of Joe Goode
- Known for its astounding blend of theater and dance
- Winner of both New York dance awards (“Bessies”) and San Francisco dance awards (“Izzies”)
- Thursday, November 7 / 8 pm
- UCSB Campbell Hall
- General: $28/$25, UCSB students: $19/$16
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Dance-theater innovator Joe Goode and his multi-talented company of dancers/ singers/actors, the Joe Goode Performance Group, will perform The Best of Joe Goode on Thursday, November 7 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. This delightful retrospective of classic Joe Goode works will feature What the Body Knows, Doris in the Dustbowl and a revised edition of Take/Place. Goode and his Group balance their core discipline of dance with incisive narrative, clever costumes and sets, moving and memorable music and engaging acting to create a full theater experience that few companies can match. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times writes, “The absolute polish with which Goode integrates speech and movement should stand as a model for many others in the dance and performance art field.” The San Francisco Chronicle praises Goode, asserting, “Make no mistake, nowhere is modern dance more daring and new, more exhilarating than here in the hands of this San Francisco choreographer...The canon is enriched by his witty and powerful spectacles.”
The three works on the program embody the Joe Goode ethos, as they pose rich existential questions while remaining unfailingly good entertainment. What the Body Knows struggles with the age-old dilemma of mind-body dualism, wondering whether intellect or intuition, thinking or feeling, should be more highly valued. Ironic text works in sharp counterpoint to clever video projections and extensive periods of eloquent dancing. Doris in the Dustbowl, originally part of the Disaster Series, is a loopy duet about the broken promises of Hollywood dreams, with dancers playing Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Take/Place explores what it means to be connected and grounded through a series of theatrically rich images, a dreamlike unfolding of breathtakingly wistful moments and graceful dance that a character in the work itself calls “a dark fairy tale, with some pain.”
Joe Goode first came to public prominence as a dancer with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. In 1986 he founded the Joe Goode Performance Group as a way to explore his diverse interests in theater and dance. Goode is also a visual artist, and has presented installation projects at museums and galleries across the country. In 1995, he was one of only ten U.S. choreographers to receive a prestigious National Dance Residency Program grant for artistic development. In 1998 his work Deeply There (stories of a neighborhood) won both a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) and a San Francisco Isadora Duncan Dance Award (“Izzie”). “Goode likes to blur the boundaries between modern dance and theater, and the results are often uproarious,” the Los Angeles Times writes. “Clearly, Joe Goode is a major subversive and must be watched. The only question is how soon we can watch him again.”
Audience members are invited to stay after the performance for a meet-the-artists discussion.
The Joe Goode Performance Group is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The concert is supported by funds from the California Arts Council Touring Fund. Tickets are $28 and $25 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.