EVENTS
BEYOND GRAVITY 2024
CounterPulse 80 Turk St. SF
Program A
THU-Fri November 21-22, 8PM
Aiano Nakagawa
Gabriele ChristiaN
Program B
Sat November 23, 8PM
Sun November 24, 2PM
Rachael DichteR
Abby Crain
In the wake of Jess Curtis’ transition, we present Beyond Gravity, new live works developed by artists Jess chose to fiscally sponsor and mentor over the last few years of his life. Beyond Gravity features two programs: Program A, with Aiano Nakagawa and Gabriele Christian and Program B, Abby Crain and Rachael Dichter, all evaluating the fragile terms of our relationships with lovers, family members, and intimate friends through stage. Ephemeral lives call for ephemeral art.
Into the Dark
THU-SUN OCTOBER 26-29, 2023 (THUR - SAT 20:30, SUN 18:00)
WORLD PREMIERE @ TANZFABRIK, BERLIN
► TICKETS €10-€25
▼ ACCESS ▼
• Haptic Access Tour always one hour before the show: 26.-28.10. 19:30 / 29.10. 17h. Duration: approx. 20-30 minutes. Language: German. Haptic Access Tour + Audio Description by Jess Curtis / Gravity Access Service (Speaker: Swantje Henke / Language: German). Registration at anmeldung@tanzfabrik-berlin.de or +49 (0)30 / 200 592 70.
• TanzFabrik is a wheelchair accessible venue and there is a wheelchair accessible bathroom with grab bars.
SAT NOVEMBER 4, 2023, 11 AM - 2 PM
LIGHT PAINTING WORKSHOP @ COUNTERPULSE, SF
► This workshop is taught by Gerald Pirner and hosted by Jess Curtis/Gravity and San Francisco’s LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. To register, please email Maia Scott: MScott@lighthouse-sf.org
THU-SUN NOVEMBER 9-12 & 16-19, 2023 (THUR - SAT 8PM, SUN 2PM)
US PREMIERE @ COUNTERPULSE, SAN FRANCISCO
► TICKETS $0 - $50
▼ ACCESS ▼
• Live Audio Description will be provided every night of the performances. A pre-show haptic access tour will take place before each performance one hour before the show starts. Please register for your headset and/or for the tour: michael@jesscurtisgravity.org
• CounterPulse is a wheelchair accessible venue and there is a wheelchair accessible bathroom.
Photo exhibition: VISIONS OF BLINDNESS: OUT OF THE DARK
OCTOBER 2023 - JANUARY 2024
@ COUNTERPULSE, SF
► A photo exhibition of ‘light painting’ Photographs by Gerald Pirner
State of the Art Panel
Monday June 5, 2023
6:00 - 8:00 PM
LightHouse for the Blind: 1155 Market Street, 10th Floor, SF
Join LightHouse for the Blind and Gravity Access Services as they host a discussion on the evolution of access practices for Blind and Low Vision audiences in the Performing Arts in the Bay Area and beyond.
Panelists include: Maia Scott (Adult Program Coordinator, LightHouse for the Blind), Tiffany Taylor (Blind Dancer, Activist and Access Consultant, Gravity), Anita Aaron (The Blind Posse, former Executive Director of Lighthouse for the Blind), Gabriele Christian (Performer, Audio Describer, Gravity), Liz Lisle (Executive Director, Shotgun Players), Moderator: Jess Curtis, Choreographer, Founder and Artistic Director, Gravity
PPP: KRIMMS DANCE PARTY
Sunday May 14, 2023; 4:00 - 4:30 PM
Union Square
Free, no registration required
PPP: A.B.G.
Sunday May 7, 2023; 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Conservatory of Flowers: 100 John F Kennedy Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118
Free, no registration required
Accessible Dance Improvisation Classes
Saturday May 6, 2023 & Saturday May 6, 2023
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LightHouse for the Blind: 1155 Market Street, 10th Floor, SF
▼ More info
PPP: Xochipilli Dance Company
Wednesday May 3, 2023; 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Conservatory of Flowers: 100 John F Kennedy Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118
Free, no registration required
Gravity and Counterpulse present
dark / lessons / rUpture
FRI-SUN, NOVEMBER 18-20, 2022 :: 8PM
An evening of performance featuring excerpts from new works by Jess Curtis, and Beyond Gravity artists Silk Worm and RUPTURE.
Audio description by Europa Grace.
▼ MORE INFO
Bring Your Own Bubbly Birthday Brunch Benefit
A Belated, Board-sponsored, Brunch Benefit to e-celebrate Gravity's 21st year (and Jess's 60th!!)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2021
12 -2pm PST/ 9 -11pm CET (for our Euro-friends)
Audio Description and ASL interpretation provided
Tickets $1-100
You only turn 21 (or 60) once, and what better way than a fizzy drink on a Sunday afternoon?
We know the success of Gravity's work has been built by the long-term support and collaboration of many people like you. Each and every one of you is an important part of Gravity’s mission of Art, Access, Justice and Equity.
We want you to continue to be part of the journey and come celebrate with us. Bring something bubbly to pop open and toast, while enjoying video offerings by Gravity collaborators and Board Members past, present, and future, including Maria Scaroni, Gabriele Christian, Tiffany Taylor, Sophia Green and dress wedding.
Also, after the toasts and videos you will have the opportunity to take part in the Gravity tradition of 'Paying-The-Bills!' a fun and very practical way to be a real part of Gravity's work.
Can’t wait to see you and thanks for being part of Jess Curtis/Gravity!
Gravity and Counterpulse present
Beyond Gravity 2021
FRI-SAT, JUNE 25-26, 2021 :: 7-8pm
Two evenings of radical, intersectional, body-based online performances and films. Featuring six emerging Bay Area artists, asking us to find our center of Gravity through survival, hope, lineage, resistance, or grief. How can we lean forward, even when in free fall?
:: Featured Artists ::
Europa Grace
Gabriel Christian, jose e. abad and Gabriel Nuñez de Arco
Abby Crain
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Rachael Dichter and Allie Hankins
Audio description by Alisa Rasera-Holden, Closed Captioning, and Moderated discussions (with ASL) with the artists after the show.
▼ MORE INFO
High Tea with Gravity
Sunday, December 8, 2019
@CounterPulse, San Francisco
Do you want to help the Bay Area be a livable and lovable place for artists? Interested in supporting accessibility and inclusion for performing arts? Do you love étagères and delicious tea and drag queens serving scrumptious snacks? Well then we’ve got an exquisite event for you!
Join us for an afternoon of High Tea with Gravity, a fundraiser for Gravity’s Artist Services. Eat, drink, mix, mingle, and donate to support our programs for local artists:
Access Services: audio description services and access consultations for artists
Fiscal Sponsorship & Mentorship: financial infrastructure and intergenerational support
Pop Up Performances: commissioning site-specific performances by emerging artists
International Co-Productions: mobilizing our network to facilitate art across borders
Featuring performances by Europa Grace, Abby Crain, and members of Jess Curtis/Gravity with magical live music by John Link and members of the Brass Liberation Orchestra. This event will include American Sign Language interpretation and live audio description.
Unable to attend the fundraiser by want to donate? Click here.
Beyond Gravity
June 29-30, 2019 :: 8pm @ Uferstudios ST1, BERLIN
June 30, 2019 :: Haptic Access Tour at 7pm & Live Audio
▼ More Info
Witness archetypes deconstructing the whole and experience new ways of being with each other at an imaginary reunion for the unseen past.
An evening of intersectional performances by artists associated with Jess Curtis/Gravity, featuring:
► “Have you seent my teeth?” ◄ A duet between jose e. abad and Gabriel Christian
► From the room beside me ◄ Created and performed by Rachael Dichter and Mira Kautto
► When I think of you you’re naked ◄ Created and performed by Jess Curtis and Rachael Dichter
Beyond Gravity
Thu-Sat October 25-27, 2018 :: 8PM
@ CounterPulse (80 Turk Street, SF)
Witness legends from a future queer revolution and experience new ways of being with each other at a family reunion for a post-human universe.
An evening of intersectional performances by the artists served by Gravity’s new Artist Services Programs featuring:
Alif is for A(n)nals
A collaboration between jose e. abad, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Gabriel Christian
Set in a future past, where eroticism, spirituality and analplay will reign supreme, Alif is for A(n)nals will edify hungry eyes of the successful uprising mounted by queer guerillas Faluda Islam and Black Bussy, who released the world from Western Imperialism, currency, borders, and heteropatriarchy. This is a retrospective of a revolution.
From the room beside me
A collaboration by Rachael Dichter and Mira Kautto
Playing with inside and outside and hiding in plain site Mira (Helsinki, Finland) and Rachael (San Francisco, US) find ways of being near each other and you, ways of being with. In a space from dreams, or maybe a memory, they ask you to come and join them. To stay close. To stay. To see between the trees.
Lindenau (rifle club) party for the other siblings
Created and performed by Abby Crain
Set in Crain's real and imagined ancestral landscape, Crain stages an awkward family reunion for the forgotten and uninvited.
This is a solo performance that happens in a dance hall. This is a a solo performance that happens in a gun club. This is a solo performance that happens in a muddy river that has slowed to a trickle. This is a high stakes dance that you all need to take part in. Someone said that the fish are all gone. We may serve refreshments.
Accessibility:
Friday Oct 26 :: Pre-Show Haptic Access Tour and Live Audio Description by Jess Curtis
Pre-registation required, headsets provided, and pre-show access tour beings at 7pm. To RSVP, call 415-483-5996 or email info@jesscurtisgravity.org.
Saturday Oct 27 :: ASL Interpretation by Churyl Zeviar
CounterPulse is a wheelchair accessible and friendly space. The building and the theater have no stairs. The bathroom is on the basement floor, there is an elevator to travel down, and there is a large bathroom with grab bars.
High Tea With Gravity
A Fundraiser for Gravity's Artist Services Program
Sunday, September 16 :: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
@CounterPulse, SF
A drag queen writing a memoir, a juicy experimental performer, and a legendary dance psychic walk into a theater… what happens next? Come find out.
Join us for High Tea with Gravity, a fundraiser for Gravity’s Artist Services Programs as a group of artists come together to perform and support a historic performing arts organization.
Nosh, drink, chat and donate to fund Gravity’s efforts to serve our communities through Fiscal Sponsorship, Mentorship, Pop Up Performances, and International Co-Productions and our new Access Services programs. Read more about all our programs by clicking the programs tab above.
Featuring performances by: Monique Jenkinson, Gabriel Christian, Sara Shelton Mann, Rachael Dichter, Antoine Hunter’s Urban Jazz Dance Company, and Jose Abad, and two beautiful dance films by AXIS Dance/Alex Ketley and Marc Brew, with American Sign Language interpretation and live audio description.
Unable to attend the fundraiser by want to donate? Click here and make your contribution
Workshops:
July 21 - 22, 2018 :: Making Sense of Each Other at ImpulsTanz in Vienna
Workshop with Jess Curtis and Claire Cunningham
May 18 - 20, 2018 :: Theater Heilbronn - Workshop - Grundlagen der Contact Improvisation