(In)Visible

Gravity’s “(in)Visible” explores how non-sighted audiences can experience dance.

Making dance performances accessible to the non-sighted is an endeavor many ballet companies have begun to embrace by offering live narration and preshow touch tours.

For Jess Curtis, thinking about dance for the non-sighted is not just a challenge but also an opportunity to de-center sighted existence and open up new experiences of reality. That’s what he’s done in “(in)Visible,” developed in consultation with UC Berkeley professor of disability studies Georgina Kleege; philosopher Alva Noë; and blind art critic, essayist, artist and photographer Gerald Pirner.

Performed by an international cast of six dancers — some blind, some visually impaired and some sighted — “(in)Visible” guides the audience into new modes of consciousness through singing, dancing, whispering and feeling. Saturday’s show will also include American Sign Language interpretation. Developed in both San Francisco and Berlin, “(in)Visible” won a competitive MAP Fund grant for new work, no surprise to those who have long appreciated Curtis’ thoughtful and vulnerable boundary-pushing.

“(IN)VISIBLE”: Jess Curtis/Gravity. 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 10-13. $10-$30. CounterPulse, 80 Turk St., S.F. 415-626-2060. www.jesscurtisgravity.org/invisible

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