Daredevil dance company, STREB, defy physics at CSB

The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University's Fine Arts Series presents STREB in "Forces" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, in Escher Auditorium, Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict.

Once called the Evel Knievel of dance, MacArthur genius grant recipient Elizabeth Streb's choreography, which she calls "PopAction," intertwines the disciplines of dance, athletics, boxing, rodeo, the circus and Hollywood stunt-work. The result is a bristling, muscle-and-motion vocabulary that combines daring with strict precision in pursuit of the public display of "pure movement."

Writer Clive Barnes of the New York Post newspaper says of STREB, "It's not like choreography you have ever seen before... It's all high impact stuff - people throwing themselves against walls with bone-crushing abandon, hurtling down ropes and bouncing on trampolines...with oohs and aahs from the audience, and an effect at its best rather like a firework display."

The program includes "Fly," in which a dancer is harnessed into a giant spinning claw, and "Slice," where dancers perform remarkable moves to avoid a spinning steel beam that descends from the ceiling. "Turn" features a spinning floor, "Bound" forces the performers to navigate a wall that turns into a steep hill for "Tumult," causing the cast to scramble, surf and ski across its surface. The finale, "Whizzing Gizmo," features a giant, two-ton hamster wheel.

STREB has been seen on "ABC Nightly News with Peter Jennings," "The David Letterman Show," Nickelodeon and MTV. STREB has performed in traditional and non-traditional spaces throughout New York and across the country, including New York's Grand Central Terminal, on the mall outside the Smithsonian Institution and during a Minnesota Twins' game at the Metrodome.  The company presented a series of audacious spectacles, unveiled at some of London's most iconic landmarks during the 2012 Olympics.

Tickets prices for STREB are:

• Tier 1 (Chairs-Row M) $29, Senior $26, Faculty/Staff $19, Student/Youth $10
• Tier 2 (Rows N-W) $24, Senior $21, Faculty/Staff $14, Student/Youth $10
• Tier 3 (Balconies) $20, Senior $17, Faculty/Staff $10, Student/Youth $10

For more information, contact the Box Office at 320-363-5777 or visit www.csbsju.edu/fine-arts.

STREB is sponsored in part by Bernick's and Plaza Park Bank.

These activities are made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

The presentation of STREB was made possible by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project. Major support for NDP is also provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.