One cold day on a Port Townsend beach, while taking a moment away from a vigil for a dying family member, choreographer Beth Graczyk came upon a tall man by the water'ês edge who was carrying a huge framed photograph of a woman. He was gesturing and interacting with the large image for a long stretch of time, never breaking his attention to the photograph, never noticing another soul around him. 'êThere was beauty that was unexplainable there,'ê said Graczyk, co-founder of Salt Horse, a Seattle dance/music performance company. 'êI never forgot it.'ê
Last spring, with Salt Horse co-founders Corrie Befort (choreographer/scenic artist) and Angelina Baldoz (composer/musician), Graczyk presented the first 'êdraft'ê of 'êMan on the Beach'ê to great acclaim at On the Boards'ê Northwest New Works Festival. With unforgettable performances by Gracyz and Befort and their astounding performers (Serge Gubelman, Michael Rioux, and Jens Wazel), the 20-minute dance-music-art essay unfolded with all the mesmerizing mystery and beauty one envisions in Graczyk'ês lightening-bolt moment of inspiration.
This weekend and next, Salt Horse unveils a full-evening version of 'êMan on the Beach'ê that takes all the initial poetic images from the first draft and builds them out with deeper character and physical exploration and magical effects. The shows will be among the first events to inaugurate Capitol Hill'ês newly renovated Erickson Theater, a 130-seat black-box space on Harvard (between Pike and Pine) on Capitol Hill. Music at all shows is played live by Baldoz.
If you go: "Man on the Beach," Feb. 26-27 and March 5-6, 8 pm, Erickson Theater, 1524 Harvard Ave. Tickets $15, or $12 for students/seniors/military, available through Brown Paper Tickets.
