Earlier this summer, Bay Area-based Liss Fain Dance gracefully leapt its way through Warsaw, Minsk, and St. Petersburg on a mini-Eastern European tour. Now home and well rested, the company will present its evocative 2009 season this coming weekend at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The evening’s program includes the US premiere of Out of the Silence, Unknown Land (2005), and Resolved (2008/2009), and a special appearance by Poland’s contemporary Lublin Dance Theatre.

Liss Fain, a mover and shaker on the San Francisco dance scene, is known for seamlessly melding balletic beauty with the earthiness of powerful modern dance while focusing on intimate aspects of everyday connections. Her new work does no less, and Out of the Silence hovers around the aftereffects of a dream: stillness, pause, falling, and the rush of fleeting images. Resolved, an eight-minute collage accompanied by the music of everyone’s favorite modern minimalist, Steve Reich, reflects upon individuals and choice in romantic relationships. And Unknown Land, created after Fain read Edward Jones’ book The Known World, speaks to personal and interpersonal tensions during times of upheaval.

When vacationing, everyone searches for that perfect memento to remind them of their journeys abroad. Lucky for us, Fain brought back one of Poland’s best known contemporary dance theater companies and not an extra-large t-shirt featuring a portrait of Pope John Paul II. Lublin Dance Theatre puts all on display in Towards the Good Silence, “based on the personality and work of the Polish writer, graphic artist, and literary critic Bruno Schulz, known for both his extraordinary imagination and his penchant for solitude.” Yes, it sounds heavy, but choreographer Ryszard Kalinowski and dancer Anna ?ak combine twisted shapes and theatrics to artfully tell a delicate story about a man and woman, and their Mad Men-like relationship.

What: Liss Fain Dance with guest appearance by Lublin Dance Theatre.
Where: YBCA’s Novellus Theater, 700 Howard Street at Third Street, San Francisco
When: August 27, 28 & 29 at 8PM
Tickets: $30/$35 general; $27/$32 seniors, students; Buy online here or by phone: 415.978.ARTS

the author

Becca Klarin writes about dance. Her first stage role was at the age of four, where she dressed in a brightly colored bumble bee tutu and black patent leather taps shoes. She remembers bright lights and spinning in circles with her eleven other bees, but nothing more. Becca also has an affinity for things beginning with the letter "P", including Pizzetta 211, Fort Point, pilates, parsvakonasana, and plies.

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