Choreographer Keith Hennessey once told an interviewer that he initially hitchhiked from his home in Ontario, Canada, to San Francisco for a juggling convention. Luckily for us, he decided to stick around after realizing the city was a hub of radical art and politics. Hennessey went on to have a powerful influence on the local dance scene as a pioneering queer expressionist dancer, choreographer, teacher, writer, and organizer. For instance, Counterpulse, a crucial San Francisco dance space, began in Hennessey’s living room. Much of his work, including his solo performances that comment on the AIDS epidemic, could be described as activism. His pieces also often intersect with anarchism, punk, and queer-feminism. On February 16, Hennessey will speak at Mills College (5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland) as part of its Contemporary Writers Series. He will likely talk about his interdisciplinary research on engaging “improvisation, ritual, and public action as tools for investigating political realities.”
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