An aerial dance performance begins this evening in a small dead-end alley off of Golden Gate Avenue. Needles to Thread, put on by Flyaway Productions and the Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, will hold its first public performance tonight at 8pm. The show will run through October 10th.
Needles is the third aerial performance in a trilogy from choreographer Jo Kreiter. All three have taken place in the Tenderloin and explored issues of urban poverty. The initial installment, Niagara Falling, covered on urban decay and renewal; the second, Multiple Mary and Invisible Jane, was about SF's growing population of older homeless women. Needles to Thread focuses on the vulnerability of women in low-paying jobs, using the garment industry as a framework.
In a press release about the performance, Kreiter said that she chose to perform in Continuum Alley, located on Golden Gate Avenue between Hyde and Leavenworth streets, because of its proximity to a sweatshop and to Local 2, a nonprofit that focuses on fair labor issues.
Multiple Mary and Invisible Jane explored the experiences of older homeless women in San Francisco. (Flyaway Productions, 2014)
For over two decades, Flyaway Productions has been choreographing and performing "off-the-ground dances." Each piece explores issue of female physicality. "We offer performance as a medium for social commentary, and choose projects that advance female empowerment in the public realm," Flyaway's website states.
Needles to Thread has a special emphasis on the International Ladies Garment Workers Union's Chinese Ladies Garment Workers Division, which gained momentum after SF's 1934 General Strike. The group fought to ensure fair and equitable labor standards for Chinese women working in garment factories.
Dancers Marina Fukushima, Marystarr Hope, Yayoi Kambara, Megan Lowe, Karla Quintera, Quilet Rarang and Alayna Stroud will all perform on heavy-duty clotheslines, strung from the rooftops above the alley.
To underscore the visual acrobatics, Tina Chen, a former garment worker and a leading organizer in Local 2, will provide an oral history of the movement. The performance will also feature original music from composer Theresa Wong, who integrates the sounds of sewing machines with cello, vocals, and traditional Chinese reed pipe in her score.
Dancer Alayna Stroud. (Photo: RJ Muna/YBCA)
On Saturday, October 3rd and Saturday, October 10th, the show will offer a 45-minute walking tour of the Tenderloin at 7pm, prior to the first performance of the evening. The tour will cover "a citywide strike led by women workers in 1974; turn-of-the-century organizing by waiters, dishwashers and cooks; a nationally recognized school for workers that taught dance, painting and music in addition to classes on how to run a union meeting; and lost labor murals and other hidden history." The tour, which will conclude with the performance itself, is free.
Aerial performances of Needles to Thread will take place at 8pm and 9pm for the next two Thursdays through Saturdays (October 1st-3rd and October 8th-10th). Admission is free, but seating is limited, so it's recommended that visitors arrive early.
