Despair sometimes overwhelms choreographer Krissy Keefer, but that doesn’t mean the founder of the Mission’s Dance Brigade is losing her creative mojo.
Even before the presidential election left her devastated, she was organizing a major production and tour to buoy fellow citizens seeking an end to war. Now, that production only carries heavier resonance: As part of Dance Brigade’s ongoing 50th anniversary season, Keefer presents “A Woman’s Song for Peace” on Jan. 19 at Herbst Theater. The performance features vocalist and longtime peace activist Holly Near, Canadian women’s music pioneer Ferron, and an all-star instrumental combo led by multilingual jazz vocalist Christelle Durandy.
While hundreds of thousands responded to Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017 with the Women’s March in Washington D.C. and cities around the country, the despair feels different this time around, Keefer said on a recent video call from Eugene, Oregon, where the tour was getting set to start.
“No one’s talking about what we lost by losing the hope of Kamala Harris. I’m thinking, should I move to Portugal or Costa Rica? But this show is tapping into joy and celebration and mobilization, reminding each other what we can do together.”
The seven-city tour is a cri de cœur against war and oppression in the Middle East, Sudan, Ukraine, “and at our borders and inner cities of the United States,” Keefer said. It includes stops at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center For the Arts Jan. 17 and Cabrillo College’s Crocker Theater in Aptos Jan. 18 before concluding in San Francisco.
The Herbst show includes individual sets by Dance Brigade, Near, Ferron, and an all-hands-on-deck conclusion. Led by Durandy, the lead vocalist for the Grammy-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra, the jazz-steeped band features pianist Tammy Hall, percussionist Michaelle Goerlitz, bassist Jan Martinelli, guitarist Shelley Jennings, and special guest Woody Simmons, a multi-instrumentalist best known for her harmonically lithe style on banjo.
“They’re not playing music for the dancers,” Ferron explained. “For me, they’ve elevated my songs to a brand-new high. I want to walk on stage and be peace. The thought that’s moving me is: If you’re not at peace, you’re at war.”
The subtitle of the production, “A Tribute to the Past, A Vision for the Future” might sound anodyne, but there was resonant symbolism in the production’s Jan. 11 date in Eugene. A sold-out fundraiser at WOW Hall brought Keefer brought to the venue where she co-founded and launched Wallflower Dance Order Collective in 1975, a feminist troupe deeply engaged in the politics of the era, from women’s rights to protesting U.S. involvement in Latin America.
When Wallflower imploded in 1984, Keefer lit out for San Francisco and founded Dance Brigade. At the time, the creative ferment of the 1970s women’s movement was still in full bloom, “and every city had a women-led production company,” Keefer said.
From headliners Near and Ferron to accompanists Tammy Hall and Jan Martinelli, who anchored the early Bay Area all-women world jazz combo Wild Mango, the artists “played folk and women’s music festivals,” she said. “We got to be friends, exchanged ideas, and our work rubbed off on each other. Holly was very supportive of Wallflower and Dance Brigade. Ferron is the poet extraordinaire, and Holly is the peace troubadour.”
For Ferron, stepping back into WOW Hall served as a potent reminder of the power of solidarity. During her formative years on the Vancouver scene in the early 1970s, “the women’s movement was not separate,” she recalled. “We were together with unions and leftists, often in rooms like WOW for meetings, arguments, dances to raise money. We’d work together, and it all happened in those plain rooms with wooden floors.”
‘A Woman’s Song For Peace’ plays Jan. 19 at the Herbst Theater (401 Van Ness Ave.). Tickets and more info here.
How did I miss this? Dang – just checked it out, and event is Sold Out! Sad for me, but glad for all who get to attend!
Krissy Keefer ran against Nancy Pelosi before Cindy Sheehan did. I recall being thunderstruck by her bravery, eloquence, and intelligence.
It was later that I discovered how truly phenomenal her Dance Brigade is and what she accomplished for it– fighting for it all the way.
It is encouraging to hear artists speak of “solidarity” and the need not to despair, as far as it goes.
We are living at a crossroads of history. Although things appear dire, as they often can before the dawn, the opportunity to end war and inequality for all time has never been better.