Touch is one of the most basic of human experiences, the physical foundation of human interaction and a ripe metaphor for human society. In Touched: Symptoms of Being Human, the performers of Jess Curtis/Gravity virtuosically explore the physical and theatrical possibilities of touch; it's ability to extend the body into new dimensions, it's ability to heal and it's potential to destroy.

As with Curtis's award-winning fallen, which explored the physical and metaphorical properties of falling (falling in love, falling asleep, the fall from grace) Touched uses the languages of contemporary dance, theater, acrobatics, live music and performance to trace the literal, cultural, personal and political ramifications of our contact with each other and the world around us.

performances

Photos by Andy Mogg

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• Choreography/Direction: Jess Curtis
• Composer/Musician: Matthias Herrmann
• Dramaturge: Gabi Beier
• Performers/Collaborators: Andrew Wass, Ulrike Bodammer, Maria Francesca Scaroni, Mark Stuver, Lea Martini
• Technical Director: Rainer Grönhagen

Matthias Herrmann studied cello with Rudolf Mandalka at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Düsseldorf, Germany. He has created numerous award-winning scores for the productions of international dance theater companies including Do Theater (St. Petersburg), Fabrik Company (Potsdam, Germany), Howard Katz (Berlin/New York) and Jess Curtis/Gravity (San Francisco/Berlin). As a founding member of PostHolocaustPop, a collaborative Art-Band with Howard Katz and Ansgar Tappert, he is touring internationally and released numerous CDs. Most recently he created soundscapes for Video-installations, music for short film and also composed the score for a theatrical reading of the LiteraturWERKstatt Berlin in 2004. He is also involved in other artistic collaborations with Paul Beiersdorf, Stephanie Maher and Kathleen Hermesdorf, FormVollEndeT, Mangrove Kipling and different musical formations, among others Die Krassnajas and MoarkoVentent.

Gabi Beier first studied mathematics and did post-graduate work in astronomy. Since 1996 she has worked as a dramaturge for both contemporary and classical choreographers in a variety of projects. In 2002/03 she was one of the editors of the first "Dictionary of Theatre Pedagogy" which was published in summer 2003 (Schibri Verlag Milow). Her work has also been published in "Zeitschrift für Theaterpädagogik", the German journal for theatre pedagogy and she contributes dance criticism regularly to numerous newspapers.

Andrew Wass began dancing at U.C. San Diego, studying under Jean Isaacs. Upon graduation he began studying with Eveoke Dance Theater and Lower Left. Influential teachers have included Kirstie Simson, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung, Martin Keogh, Nina Martin, Shelley Senter and Mary Overlie. Andrew has performed with Lower Left since 1999. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2002 he has performed in work by Scott Wells, Jess Curtis and Shelley Senter.

Ulrike Bodammer (Berlin, Germany) graduated in 2002 from L'Ecole Supérieur des Arts du Cirque in Brussels where she specialized in partner acrobatics. She has worked with the Belgian nouveau cirque company Feria Musika, Wire Monkey Dance Company, from Massachusetts, and has performed her own work at venues such as the "Half Machine Festival" in Copenhagen. She is also a Reiki master and teacher.

Maria Francesca Scaroni (Brescia, Italy) studied modern jazz, contemporary dance, and contact improvisation with teachers such as Daniel Tinazzi, David Zambrano, Andrew Harwood, and Daniel Lepkoff. She has been a member of the company Manuela Bondavalli Danza and danced in television productions for Canale 5 and Rai 2 in Italy. She is currently enjoying cross training with Aikido and Tango.

Mark Stuver began his career in dance at Middlebury College. There he worked with Peter Schmitz and the Middlebury College Dance Company under Andrea Olsen, collaborated with Paul Matteson and studied improvisation with Penny Campbell. In San Francisco Mark has danced for Kathleen Hermesdorf, Leslie Seiters, Sara Mann, and Lizz Roman. In New York he has worked with Lisa Race and Ezra Caldwell. Performances have taken him from 42nd and Broadway, NYC to Soweto, South Africa, San Francisco's Mission District, The Kennedy Center, Macau, China, Northern Italy, and across the US. While on tour, Mark teaches master classes in partnering and release technique, repertoire and vertical dance. Mark recently developed a solo, Taken, that was shown in San Francisco and Jackson, Wyoming. He continues now in his rewarding collaborations with Rachael Lincoln and in his travels and adventures with Project Bandaloop. This is his first time working with Jess Curtis.

Lea Martini lives in Berlin, where she completed an advanced training in contemporary dance at the Etage. Further dance and performance studies led her to the Netherlands at the European Dance Development Center (EDDC) in Arnhem and the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. Her work has a trans-disciplinary focus, most recently including a movement study of schizophrenia in collaboration with psychologist Philip Jonasch. As a dancer she has appeared in the work of Berlin choreographers Christoph Winkler and Yvonne Hardt. Her own solo work Identity Sucks was presented this year at the Berliner Tanztage (Dance Days) at the Sophiensaele Theater in Berlin.

Rainer Grönhagen lives in Berlin and has worked for the last 20 years as a lighting designer and technical director at home and abroad. He has collaborated with a number of international artists including Cocoro-Dance/Vancouver, Shinichi Momo Koga/SF/Berlin, Degenerate Art Ensemble/Seattle, Do-Theatre/St.Petersburg , Fabrik/Potsdam, Staatsbank Berlin and Industrietempel e.V./Mannheim. He is currently at work on a new project called "light-Visions" which is based upon Plato's cave allegory.

- San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday, May 22, 2005)
- wcities
- Danceviewtimes (Friday, June 3, 2005)
- San Francisco Chronicle (Saturday, June 4, 2005)