Streb Go! Action Heroes will defy conventions, gravity at Schwartz Center

The action-packed Streb Go! Action Heroes takes the stage at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts March 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. Courtesy of the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance

Bounce, catapult, tumble and smash aren't words usually associated with dance, but Elizabeth Streb is no ordinary choreographer. In her newest work, Streb Go! Action Heroes, eight dancers leap off walls, launch from trampolines, suspend from ladders and pile and roll onto each other.

This original American art form will be on view when Streb Go! Action Heroes takes the stage at the Cornell Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts March 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for students/seniors and $30 for the general public in advance. For information or tickets, call or visit the box office in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430 College Ave., between 12:30-5:30 p.m., weekdays. Call 254-ARTS for tickets and further information.

"We're constantly trying to go to new places in space," said Streb, a Bessie Award winner and Guggenheim fellow. Streb Go! Actions Heroes was inspired by the antics of stunt cyclist Evel Knievel, funambulist Philippe Petit, magician Harry Houdini and barrel rider Annie Taylor. Streb sees her dancers' athletic pyrotechnics as rhythmic variations on the theme of gravity. "The point is about life, action, humanity, belief, flying," she said. This multimedia performance includes a score by Miles Green that features triphop, ambient, surf instruments and pop classics.

Streb's professional dance company was founded in 1985, and its touring schedule has included sold-out engagements at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Joyce Theatre, halftime shows for the NBA's Seattle Sonics, Grand Central Terminal, Madison Square Garden and Central Park.

Streb is a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award winner and is working toward her master's degree at New York University studying physics, philosophy and architecture. Her choreography, which she has dubbed "popaction," intertwines the disciplines of dance, athletics, extreme sports and Hollywood stunt work, while attempting to display publicly the deep effect of "pure movement."