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GHOST ARCHITECTURE

Zaccho Dance Theatre, Ghost Architecture
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts


Joanna Haigood and Zaccho Dance Company's newest installation at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Ghost Architecture, is pure poetry - don't miss it. Penumbral, quiet, and evocative not only of a place but also of the people who might have filled its rooms with memories, pain, and snippets of hope, this haunting work takes its designation as "site-specific" literally. Haigood and set designer Wayne Campbell went to old San Francisco maps and built three-story skeletons on the footprints of the buildings that were destroyed when Yerba Buena Center went up. Dancers take turns calling up and paying tribute to the spirits of the people for whom these dilapidated houses were the only home they knew. A camera obscura on the east side of Yerba Buena Center's Forum provides glimpses of life outside; they're as delicate and ephemeral as what goes on inside this place of memory. If you work downtown, there's no better way to spend the lunch hour. If you don't work downtown, give yourself a break and visit these ghosts. (Felciano)