Conceived by Jess Curtis and Maria Francesca Scaroni

The Symmetry Project is a journey through perception. Bodies interacting through a highly structured improvisational score, constricted in a specific physical practice; that of moving symmetrically, relative to themselves or to each other. Constrained in a physical practice, a constructed space of temporary “habitus”, bodies continually tune and adjust their frequency, reformulating the perception of the self and of the other. In the sharing of a central axis, spine, mouth, genitals, face, and anus reveal their interconnectedness and centrality in embodied experience, exposing the body’s awkwardness, its monstrosity, its potential failure and finiteness, creating space for the possibility of the unknown, the wondrous, the ecstatic.

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Current OFFICIAL List of Studies (and Disclaimer):
An evolving public documentary archive

DISCLAIMER: Numbers both reduce and articulate our project. Study #5 was one set of material, but performed on a boat, in a gallery and a theater. (We didn’t even really count the quartet in Copenhagen, why not?) Is #15 really just a new version of #8? Regina’s video really stands alone and yet I called it 5A because it was a part of 5 and “6”, ”7” and “8” were already spoken for. It was shown on it’s own at Lincoln Center. Should Kwame’s video (projection for #8) now have its own number? There was one version in the Hof Fest at K77 in Berlin one year. Study #9 with Croi Glan went a totally different direction and has a much different feel, containing very little actual “symmetrical” movement material. Oh well, like the project itself, this archive is an ongoing process—stay tuned.....

25 STUDIES (at least, but life is more complicated than a list)

Study #1 – Duet Performance – San Francisco January 2006 ODC Theater (SF) and CounterPULSE (SF)

Study #2 – Duet, Naked San Francisco June 2006 Eric Kupers Naked Dance Festival, Jon Sims Cultural Center, Ponderosa Tanz Land Festival, Theater Artus Budapest, Hungary.

Study #3 – White Duet- Gallery Artus, Budapest Ponderosa Tanzland Festival Stolzenhagen, Germany

Study #4 – Photographic collaboration with Sven Hagolani, Berlin.

Study #5 – Interactive Live Video/Music/ Installation in collaboration with Regina Teichs and Klaus Janek, Pumpwerk (Berlin), Half Machine Festival, (Copenhagen,); Temporary Home Gallery –Dokumenta Fringe (Kassel)

Study #5A – Video work in collaboration with Regina Teichs, presented on youTube and at the Westwave Dance Film Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

Study #6 – Table Installation in collaboration with visual Artist Ricarda Mieth in Kunsthaus Kreuzberg Bethanien (Berlin 12/07) and tmp. deluxe gallery (06/08, Berlin)

Unnumbered Study – K77 Hoffest

Study #7 – Staged Performance Installation at CounterPULSE, (SF, April 2008) part of ICC4 or 5

Study #8 – 20 Body Group Installation Commission from UC Berkeley Dept. of theater Dance and Performance Studies. Zellerbach Playhouse (Berkeley, CA, April 2008)

Study #9 – Asymmetrical Tendencies – Duet commission for Croi Glan Integrated Dance Company, Cork Ireland

Study #10 – Medi(t)ation - Maria Solo presented by Bridge on a Wall, a live installation project by A.Hurtado e V.Rovisco in the Galerie Tristesse Deluxe (Berlin, 08/08)

Study #11 – Jess Solo in Tube – a collaboration with Performance Artist Jörg Müller commissioned by the Dublin Fringe Festival (Dublin Ireland, 09/08)

Study #12 – Symmetry Transmission Berlin Uferstudios Hof - Large Public Space Installation for Tanznacht (Berlin 12/08) Very Cold. Video Exists

Study #13 – Somewhere in here was an installation at White Rabbit Gallery in Berlin perhaps it is 13

Study #14  – re: Presentation  CounterPULSE (San Francisco 03/09) also played in San Diego, Studio 11 in Köln and Uferstudios, Studio 1 in Berlin in 2010

Study #14A – Tracing Symmetry: 2006 to Present - a documentary exhibition - at CounterPULSE gallery in San Francisco from March 3- April 5. 2009 concurrent with Study #14 shows.

Study #15 – Group Study for 14 Bodies  UC Davis Spring Dance Concert

Study #16 – San Francisco Transmission Large Group Installation Project, Various Sites as part of National Dance Week and the SF International Arts Festival in May 2009

Study #17 – The Perfect Humans  Duet for Tux and Formal  -Dance Ground Keriac, CounterPULSE Spring 2009 (SF)

Study #18 – installation for 5 dancers Spring 2009 at Tanzfabrik Berlin. Maria directed with Freiederike Plafki and crew.

Study #19 – Solo Medi(t)ations/Intersections  4 hour Installation at Intersection for the Arts  (Fall 2009??)

Study #20 – Deceitful is the heart above all things and desperately wicked: who can cure it? - Too Much Festival, Jon Sims Center, San Francisco, January 2010

Study #21 – Haunted by Desire  - Duet with Erika Mark and Kyra Gensa White for a queer performance festival at UC Davis

Study # 23 – Mini-Transmission, Amtrak Station in Davis, CA, a group expansion of the Symmetry score as part of the Dada Festival at UC Davis, May 2009

Study #24 and 24B – 2 years @ Folsom Street Fair Versions in collaboration with Artist Jack Davis video by Mark McBeth and photos from Robbie Sweeny

Study #25 – Maria Solo in Chapel in Brescia Italy