It's a bird, it's a plane!

Cleveland "Take the most dangerous event you've ever witnessed, double the speed, cut the distance in half, multiply it by four-and then don't look away!"

That is how lesbian choreographer and performer Elizabeth Streb's dance troupe, named after its creator, has been described by those who have experienced them in motion.

Formed in 1985, Streb consists of nine individuals, five women and four men. Taking an equal amount from the world of sports, the circus and science, the work involves stunning athleticism and split-second timing. Flying, bouncing and crashing off surfaces like giant atomic particles in a supercollider, the dancers, including 49-yearold Streb herself, are catapulting audiences into a new, technologically advanced millenium of dance.

Streb will be appearing in Cleveland at the Ohio Theater on Saturday, April 17.

Equal parts quantum physicist, strength coach and air traffic controller, Elizabeth Streb's work includes nail-biting mid-air suspension and glorious 20-foot swan dives. She doesn't just test the boundaries of physical motion, she redefines them, seemingly defying the laws of gravity along the way.

"Streb is a platform for the investigation of movement, an attempt to expose movement's true nature by harnessing, without debilitating it, within a confined space," Elizabeth Streb said.

A daredevil as long as she can remember, Streb was involved in all types of athletics, including gymnastics. At 15, she bought her first motorcycle, and began testing the boundaries of speed.

"I wanted to see how fast I could go before the wheels left the ground," she nonchalantly told a reporter from Time Out New York in 1997. “I think that happened at about 90 miles per hour."

"Everything I've done, on some level, has been an attempt to fly," she told The New York Times, also in 1997.

Streb's dancers, the show's creator says, have contributed to "the development of methods which prepare the body to execute the moves required by the dances." These include, she adds, "the development of specific muscles, the exploration of timing and space, the unusual placement of body parts, air aim, and the continued use of felttiming."

The dancers involved in Streb must be in peak physical condition. Weight training is a must, and there is always risk involved in a production that has dancers hurtling over walls, each other and executing moves with names like a "clump drop," (in which a group of dancers fall to the ground in a clump, usually from a wall or a ledge), and "head skudges" (that's when the dancers drag or "skudge" themselves across the ground on their head.

The company's most serious accident took place in 1994 at the Wexner Center in Columbus when two dancers' heads collided in midair during a trampoline dance. Luckily, only one of the dancers suffered a mild concussion. Streb performs several pieces which showcase Elizabeth Streb's choreography, or "PopAction" as she prefers to call it, from 1985 to the present.

Fly, a 1997 work, is described as "a duel with centrifugal force," and "a combination thrill ride and physics lesson.” In it, a dancer is harnessed into a giant lever balanced by 400 pounds of counter weight which render her almost weightless.

h All/Wall (1997), a blend of several classic Streb wall pieces, including Wall, Line, Spacehold and Impact, five dancers occupy and "deoccupy" an upright wall in any number of unlikely combinations. Another piece that uses a wall as the dancers' base is Look Up (1993). In this piece, three harnessed dancers descend a 20 foot square wall and are caught in the inevitability of the arc and the pendulum. Little Ease (1985) is Streb's signature solo in which a dancer inhabits a horizontal box just big enough to contain her Within its boundaries, the dancer tests the limits and idea of available space.

Seven dancers converge on an eight foot square sprung floor and attempt to occupy every particle of its surface simultaneously by hurtling over, under, around and through each other in Bounce(1994). Using an Olym-

pic Australian "hot bed" trampoline, six dancers hurl themselves onto its surface from tall scaffold towers in Up (1995). The force of the trampoline allows the dancers to spend extravagant amounts of time in mid-air, using the trampoline below and two parallel bars above as their launch points in pursuit of isolating Streb's favorite direction—-up.

The breathtaking Breakthrough (1996) will be performed during select performances, in which a dancer completes a perfect line dive through a piece of glass to demonstrate the effect of action on substance. Q/ Action (1995) consists of Streb and the rest of the company interacting with the audience.

Even without music, Streb is not what you'd call a quiet night out at the theater. Along with the "oohs,” “ahhs” and gasps from the audience (one critic compared it to the crowd noises at a Fourth of July fireworks display) the grunts, shouted cues, and heavy breathing of the flying, crashing and spinning dancers provide the background noise.

Streb's work is of particular interest to children from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Young people, she says, are continually testing the limits of their physical universe in their play, so naturally, they respond enthusiastically to her work.

And even though her dancers could compete physically with top athletes, Streb says anyone can benefit from learning her techniques. During a residency at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, Streb developed Special Action, a unique outreach program created to teach disabled children Streb technique.

Students from Lakewood's McKinley School will be featured in KidAction, one of the works on Saturday evening's performance. This follows the company's half-week residency at the school.

"When you're younger, you're really only as strong as you think you're strong," Streb said. "That's because strength is mostly emotional, psychological and spiritual and just a little bit physical."

Elizabeth Streb and her dancers

Elizabeth Streb and her innovative company will perform for Cleveland audiences on Saturday, April 17 at 8 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre.

Streb is a part of the "Move it out!" series presented jointly by DanceCleveland and Cuyahoga Community College. Streb will perform a

April 9 1999 GAY PEOPLESC

shorter program on Friday, April 16 at noon, which is free. Tickets for the Saturday evening program are available by calling Advantix at 216-241-6000. ✔

Compiled by Doreen Cudnik from press materials.

"Everything I've done, on some level, has been an attempt to fly,”