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SCMP Reporter

THE UNINITIATED often leave STREB performances with their mouths agape, bewildered at how a group of talented dancers could throw themselves against the wall, hurl their bodies mid-air only to land on their faces, or worse, jump through glass.

It is modern dance in its most extreme form. But Elizabeth Streb, the founder and artistic director of the New York-based troupe, prefers the term 'action presentation'.

'I have always been fascinated by how the body moves,' Streb, 50, says. 'It's the art of action that I want to explore. Modern dance relies so much on music to put one movement after another that it's become artificial.

'I am interested in creating action sequences.'

And while stalwarts of modern dance are bewildered by this raw but artistically challenging style, Streb is comfortable in developing what might become a whole new art form.

She doesn't like to be labelled a choreographer. 'I prefer the term action architect.'

With her spiky hair and leather jacket, Streb comes across more rock 'n' roll rebel than Swan Lake, but the Rochester, New York-born, classically trained ballet and modern dance guru insists that you have to know all the rules before you can break them.

This doesn't always sit well with her more conventional peers.  'The others [choreographers] acknowledge me,' she says.

'But deep down we disagree on a lot of things.'

When STREB made its Asian debut with its latest work, Action Heroes, at the recent Singapore Arts Festival, audiences seemed stunned by dancers, dressed plainly in white leotards, body-slamming against an enormous white board. But there is a sensual way in which these performers let go of inhibitions - falling from a platform to land inches from each other - that makes people sit up and watch.

The performance pays homage to eccentric characters such as Evel Knievel, Annie Taylor (the first woman to float down Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel), Harry Houdini and Cannon Ball Joe.

Thanks to a little music, a video screen and a brief narrative of these unusual 'heroes', STREB made all the right moves in illustrating that 'art doesn't need a seal of approval'.

'Please don't ask me to create a dance about the four seasons, or life,' Streb says, taking a punch at the pretty choreography and music that has made some modern dance nothing more than fluff. 'I wouldn't know how to do that,' she adds.

'For the longest time people didn't know what to make of these characters, they thought they were weird.

'People didn't properly acknowledge their amazing feats, these were people who got tired of sitting around and did something different.'

This is the reason her eight dancers (each is signed to a contract) decided to perform with STREB: to do something different.

'They are here when they have done everything,' says Streb, proudly mentioning that one of her dancers had the choice between joining acclaimed Trisha Brown Dance Company and her troupe. 'Here they experience something else, it's the teamwork, the possibility to invent moves.'

Streb, a past Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient, says it often takes a year just for dancers to get used to the extreme physical nature of the work.

'It's easy to see someone walk into a wall, but people are like, 'Oh my God, I can't do this for four minutes straight',' she says. 'But I think physical encounters change the body.'

So why not choose stunt artists or gymnasts instead of dancers? 'I like the dance training system. It teaches you to put one movement after another. My efforts have always been to find out how to time movements.'

She counts calculus and philosophy, choreographers Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown, the circus and rodeo, as her inspirations.

'My approach is actually quite mathematical,' she says. But dance ballet in front of her and Streb says she will 'freak out'.

As a young girl growing up in the New York suburbs, she pursued a degree in dance because she liked action and art, and 'thought dancing was the way to go'. She became interested in action work in 1979 and founded STREB in 1985.

The company has toured extensively in Europe and the United States, and recently staged their first show in Chile.

'We don't always have to perform in a theatre, we have done it underneath the Brooklyn Bridge,' she says. She also hopes to perform in more Asian cities, including Hong Kong.

What will be in store for her next piece? 'I am exploring lateral action, perhaps having the dancers perform on a frictionless surface,' she says. 'Then there is the idea of setting myself on fire and being shot into the air. The turbulence should put out the fire on my body.'

Visit STREB at www.streb.org



First lady of slam