“Running off to join the circus” gets complicated if you were actually born into a circus family. Fortunately, choreographer Gypsy Snider was happy to stick with her birthright profession. Raised by parents who were more than comfortable under the big top, Snider became one of the seven co-creators of the cirque nouveau (new circus) plus the Les 7 doigts de la main (7 Fingers) from Montreal, and is the brains behind the production Dear San Francisco, which is currently at Club Fugazi.
And now, artistic director of ODC/Dance Brenda Way has recruited Snider to create a new work, Caught in the Act, which premieres as part of ODC/Dance’s Dance Downtown program (Thu/5 through Sun/8 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF), for which ASL interpretation will be provided.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Snider is the daughter of Peggy Snider and step-daughter of Larry Pisoni, who were members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe before leaving to start the Pickle Family Circus. “My exposure to music and dance really came through that,” says Snider. “There’s also influences of theater, physical theater, and commedia dell’arte. My connection with ODC really started many, many years ago because Kimi [Okada, co-artistic director of ODC Dance] was my first tap teacher and did choreography for the Pickle Family Circus when I was a child.”
Between interviewing Snider, and watching two rehearsals, it becomes clear that she isn’t just setting circus moves on the dancers. Both circus and dance are about shaping movement.
“Principally, when I’m directing and choreographing, it’s for acrobats. I really need to have an expansion of my mind and my thinking toward theater, movement, and music,” she says. “I think very quickly with circus, but in any discipline, you can get into patterns, even though that’s always been evolving for me. I need to put myself in uncomfortable situations in order to expand my way of thinking about how bodies move.”
So Snider is very fortunate to be working with some of the best dancers in the city. They aren’t just contemporary dancers—many of them have performed outside that genre and have worked for companies like San Francisco Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Boston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Hispanico, Ailey II, and MOMIX.
“This is such a crucial time in the arts to not just be afraid to think differently but to approach work in subversive ways. I haven’t done other work with dancers but this was just such an opportunity,” says Snider. “When Kimi and Brenda asked, ‘Would you like to do this’, how could I say no?
“You can ask any of the dancers here, I came in very much with imposter syndrome and I have so much respect for the dedication to their art form. I really want them to know that even though I’m coming from a different world, I really respect the path that they’ve taken,” she continues.
“I didn’t come here to make circus with the dancers. I came here to make bodies move in space and I think that there are some of the audience who will recognize that in this piece. But I also need for people to not come with an expectation of circus,” she says.
The other works on the Dance Downtown program are the world premiere of After the Deluge from founding artistic director Brenda Way, and Theories of Time by co-artistic director Mia J. Chong, as well as the celebrated return of Investigating Grace by Way. On Sat/7, they can join ODC and Fauxnique in raising a glass to the LGBTQIA+ community at a post-show reception.
Snider explains that, “For me, most people who go to see a dance show don’t ever experience that kind of physicality in their own bodies, and they don’t experience it with other people. So what I need for them to do is be flawed and vulnerable as a door of entry to, ‘I’m not a perfect body and soul up here.’ We’re here together, so even if I can dance beautifully, I am also I’m doing it for you.”
DANCE DOWNTOWN runs Thu/5 through Sun/8. Yerba Buena Center of the Arts, SF. More info here.
