At Home on the Edge

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

SF Weekly By Bonner Odel "Experimental" is a favorite term in the dance world, one too many dance-goers have learned to equate with "amateur" So when KUNSTâ??STOFF, a company of highly trained dancers founded by two former members of the stunning LINES Ballet, readily describes its work this way, we've got to applaud the risk. Not content to dazzle audiences with the sheer technical merits of the eight members (which, trust us, they could), choreographers Yannis Adoniou and Tomi Paasonen layer the dancing into multitiered, multisensory art experience. In past shows, photographic imagery, video design, and sculpture by Paasonen (among the most memorable being a translucent tube resembling a birth canal from which dancers emerged naked) have frequently studded the stage. We don't know if the three premieres that make up KUNSTâ??STOFF's 10th Anniversary Season will feature such curiosities, but what we can promise are characteristically conceptual ditties ranging in topic from an abandoned Cold War spying compound in Paasonen's hometown of Berlin to the physical rituals used to transport souls to nirvana. Oh, yes, and the likelihood that you'll leave with renewed faith that "experimental" really can mean brave. Download a PDF version of this article.