To think of Elizabeth Streb's dancers as heroes on a suicide mission is not incorrect. Subjected to unspeakable ordeals by the choreographer, forced into weightlessness, into free-fall flights from several metres in the air, Streb's dancers are placed in situations of constant danger, so much so that someone wrote: "they dance, but you, watching them, sweat". Sweat dictated by the thrill, by the strong visual impact, by the 'kamikaze' spirit that seems to accompany every performance of the group. After all, it is the choreographer herself who declares: "In my work I seek the extreme because I like the public to have a physical reaction to what they see". It may sound like madness, but it is in fact intelligent and unique art. Everything is in fact the result of great preparation, of extremely hard work based on the scientific study of the human body, on a careful investigation of the themes of the aesthetics of grace and spectacle, of the negation of physical laws, of the mixing of genres and disciplines, of the search for a gestural vocabulary open to all possible nuances. Active since 1979, Elizabeth Streb's company has distinguished itself on the international dance scene precisely because of this singularity and because of the 'democratic' approach of the enterprising American who calls her choreographies Popaction, revealing her fascination for popular culture and for the general public to whom she wants to reach by all means: by performing her shows in large urban spaces and constantly being filmed on TV. For Streb Go!, Elizabeth Streb thought of mobile metal structures that, moved by the staff or the dancers themselves, regulate and determine the actions that follow one after the other, constantly modifying the stage space. Divided into two parts and made up of short numbers, the show, animated by six dancer-acrobats, enacts a renewed challenge of physicality, a renewed attempt to overcome the limit. The pieces are titled Bounce, Impact, Swing, Squirm, BiLevel (Bounce, Impact, Swing, Squirm, BiLevel) and constitute a progressive and pressing succession of tension and spectacularity: the dancers hurl themselves against transparent walls, throw themselves in free fall from various parts of the structure, transform themselves into tightrope walkers, risk being crushed by the weight of the mobile architecture, play with mirrors. All of this is enveloped by special effects that throw dazzling and irregular images at the audience, and supported by a soundtrack conceived by Miles Green that mixes popular compositions with newly composed material and sounds produced live. A brutal and athletic work that 'mocks' the chaotic and reckless progress of the modern world.
