The 418 Project’s saucy dance show asks ‘What Is Erotic?’
Is it a lingering look, a soft caress, perhaps the tiniest of nibbles? Or maybe a handful of hair, goosebumps, a well-placed spank?
Those are the kinds of questions that the 418 Project’s movement theater show “What Is Erotic?”—which opens Friday, Feb. 6, wants its audience to consider.
The title itself might be more of a tease than a question, since even after 10 years of directing the show, the 418’s Executive Director Laura Bishop can’t answer it definitively, though she has some theories.
“I think sex is an act and erotic is a feeling,” says Bishop.
This year’s 10th anniversary show, which serves as a fundraiser for the 418 nonprofit movement art center, explores the deepest (and sometimes darkest) fantasies within the wide spectrum of human sexual desire.
“It’s about that feeling of surrendering into a dream, or fantasy,” says Bishop. But she’s quick to clarify: “What is erotic is not what is pornography.”
That said, the show will feature pole-dancing, aerial and lyra-hoop acrobatic routines, as well as song, choreographed dance pieces, a dash of BDSM and a “strip rap”—which is exactly what it sounds like: Brynne Flidais, waxing poetic, while taking off her clothes.
“[Flidais] had this idea of the strip rap as a metaphor for her revealing her full spectrum of femininity, and she wanted to create the vocabulary for it, but hadn’t written lyrics,” says Jon Ragel, who DJs the show with original mashups and compositions. “She brought in her poetry and we sat down and tried to get into that space together.”
To Ragel, the show at the core is not so much about sex as it is about the desire for authenticity and connection. The storyline emerged organically out of that.
“A lot of what we’ve done is informed by each person, their life, what they’re bringing, what inspires them, what challenges them, what they want to explore—and that’s seeped into the story and into each scene,” says Ragel.
“Oh, how Santa Cruz,” some people will say, and in fact Bishop agrees. It’s a good thing too, she says—not every community would be open to artists exploring questions about eroticism.
“When something is unnamed, especially something as powerful as sex, there’s a really great risk of distortion,” says Bishop. “I think that the power of the show is that it’s a platform for people to start thinking, feeling, talking about this.”
Whether or not pole-dancing and BDSM seem risqué, putting society’s taboos on display is meant to show audiences that they don’t have to be ashamed of their own desires. After all, everyone has fantasies. In order to get to those fantasies, says Bishop, they asked for a high level of trust and effort from their cast.
The production process has been a safe space for creativity, collaboration and self-expression—with an emphasis on safe, says choreographer and co-director Mitch Lang.
“It’s a space for nonjudgment and support—‘How can I support you?’ That approach really creates this open end and helps you to grow,” says Lang.
“We really encourage you to go to your edge, but we will never push you through it,” says Bishop.
Lang says the choreographed ensemble pieces draw on the nuances of eroticism, and it’s not all pelvic thrusts (though there are plenty of those too, he promises).
“It can be something as simple as”—turning to Bishop, he strokes her cheek. “It’s a sexual fantasy cabaret. It’s intimate, it’s beautiful, it’s gentle, it’s caressing, it’s erotic.”
To those who are leery of a show that explores the sexual and the erotic, Lang says it’s not all about shock value. They intend to ease the audience into the experience.
“We don’t shoot the load all at once,” he says. “We warm you up.”
PHOTO: Kylie Webb on the aerial lyra hoop in this year’s ‘What is Erotic?’ show. KENNETH ADELMAN
