Shawl-Anderson Dance Center's series, Dance Up Close/East Bay, presents Oakland choreographer Andrew Merrell and his evening length piece, Sympathy for a Slacker. Sympathy for a Slacker is a post-post-modern wild ride that takes a stab at cathartic betterment by pairing modern dance partnering, ensemble and solo work with song, megaphones, glitter curtains, denim, and the Sound of Music.
Sympathy for a Slacker playfully and somberly explores some of the less appealing aspects of human nature including self-sabotage, depression, fear of failure, and denial. Merrell birthed the idea for the work after the passing of his father. Merrell explains, "I wanted to explore the ways in which my father's life, with his own slacker tendencies, has affected mine. I wanted to know how those compelled to carry the extra weight around him coped with that and where their strength came from." These deeply personal and difficult questions led to bigger, relatable questions about survival instinct, the disillusionment of life's promises, human suffering, attachment and love. The result is an hour long work that uses movement, voice and story to play with mixed message and oxymoronic outcomes. Sympathy for a Slacker aims to take the audience on a journey through Merrell's mind, where he finds himself trapped by the kinds of circular conversations that can delay acting on our hopes and dreams.
The three-night run of this next installment in Shawl-Anderson Dance Center's Dance Up Close/East Bay series takes place at Berkeley's Finnish Hall. The show will be presented as the inaugural event in Shawl-Anderson's effort to develop new offsite programming to serve East Bay dance audiences and artists alike. Sympathy for a Slacker is choreographed by Merrell along with four dancers/collaborators: Sarah Chenoweth, Rebecca Johnson, Rogelio Lopez, and Mechelle Tunstall who all are integral artists in the East Bay dance scene.
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