For many, the steady drumbeat of political and social issues — abortion, homelessness, addiction, mass incarceration — needs to be countered with more positive news. The arts can offer temporary escape, but, more importantly, they can also deliver glimmers of hope through looking at our present condition in alternative ways.
Jo Kreiter is one artist with a knack for seeing things in a unique fashion. The choreographer and director of Flyaway Productions, an aerial dance company, is staging her latest aerial dance work — “Ode to Jane” — on the exterior of the Cadillac Hotel, in the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The setting and staging of this site-specific work could be seen a reinforcing just how precarious our lives are.
The “Jane” in the title isn’t a specific woman; it refers to the Jane Collective, aka Jane, an underground group of women who were also known as Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation. They were trained to perform safe but illegal abortions from 1969 until Roe v. Wade became law in 1973. Kreiter has broadened the reference to include women who are part of other resistance movements.
With a background in political science and aerial dance performance, Kreiter has created a body of work over some 30 years that grapples with many of the most dire of social problems, including women in prison and the impact it has on their families.
Her latest piece grew out of her work with Nina “Peaches” Foster. A former addict and inmate, Foster was determined to rebuild her life. She was a case manager at Code Tenderloin specializing in permanent and transitional housing placements for individuals and families.
“It became apparent to me,” says Kreiter, “that she is a Jane. The whole connection in the piece between housing and reproductive justice is that in this moment of crisis, we need our Janes.”
Kreiter says she met Foster at Code Tenderloin, “And for about a year I attended her women’s group there and introduced them to very simple spiritual uplifting movement and they were open enough to share with me. Most of them spoke about how they were just out of addiction, sometimes just days, or sometimes they relapsed and were just back. So I felt this is where movement heals. This is just one little thing that I can bring.”
Kreiter says Foster helped strengthen her ties to the Tenderloin and its unique problems and challenges. “When you’re sleeping on the street, you’re not in an autonomous body,” she explained. “You’re in a constant state of fear and violation. Peaches finds women housing, and she understands how the housing and drug crises are inextricably connected to a woman’s bodily Autonomy.”
“Ode to Jane” consists of three sections which are performed on the exterior of the hotel, with dancers as high as 60 feet off the ground in some scenes. In the first section, Kreiter explains, “I wanted to acknowledge that Black women are at the center of the resistance against the Dobbs decision because laws like that impact women of color more. I asked the dancers, how is your body an autonomous country? Each of the three dancers in that section created a solo from that question. Then those got integrated into the piece as a whole.”
The second section is Peaches’ life story. Kreiter says that “she came out and decided that drugs were no longer for her,” and did everything she could to put that life behind her.
“The most important thing is that she created this women’s group and really led other women,” Kreiter adds. “She’s uniquely positioned because she was in the life. She carries an authority and a respect.
“Peaches said when we interviewed her, ‘It’s not enough to just tell someone to go over there and you’ll get some help. You (have to) walk with them.’”
The third section ties together the themes of leadership, reproductive justice and housing, Kreiter says. These themes are further emphasized through the costumes and props.
“I thought about using coats as a metaphor for shelter,” she says. “We chose a coat that stitched together many fabrics. So the scraps become a quilt, become a shelter. The rocking chair is a metaphor for home.”
An original sound score by Xoa Asa incorporates words from interviews with Peaches.
Being realistic about the performance location — one of the city’s more notorious neighborhoods, Kreiter notes that the Tenderloin “can be a challenging neighborhood and for the project we have hired the safety ambassadors of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District. The audience will know that their safety is being considered in a huge way.”
‘ODE TO JANE’
Created and directed by Jo Kreiter, presented by Flyaway Productions
When: Oct. 4-12
Where: Cadillac Hotel, 380 Eddy St., San Francisco
Admission: Free, no reservations required; more information is at flyawayproductions.com