THEATRE PREVIEW

EVEOKE DANCE THEATER

Published in KPBS On Air Magazine November 2001

It isn't lost on feminist choreographer Gina Angelique that the Greek origin of hysteria means 'suffering in the womb.'

"Women," she says, " have twice the rate of depression and twice the frequency of electro-shock therapy treatments, though men have more suicides. Women are over-diagnosed, and once they're packed away to institutions, they're invisible and forgotten."

Angelique, 28, is a veritable force of nature, a dynamo who's focused her activism, and six years of directing Eveoke Dance Theater, on "giving thought, attention and care to the invisible of our society."

Her latest endeavor is House of Hysteria, another "fusion" production combining a sense-around (audience-involving) space, music, spoken text, dance and "utter surprise." Her aim, as always, is "to cultivate compassionate social action -- not thought or behavior, but action."

Though it was fueled by Angelique's own family experience with "the nightmare of the mental health system," the choreographer promises that the piece has "all the usual fun and excitement of Eveoke."

[House of Hysteria previews October 25 with a Pay What You Can performance, and runs Oct. 26-Nov. 18 at Sushi Performance Space, as part of Sushi's "Altered States" series]

©2001 Patté Productions Inc.