The Desire Line - Deborah Slater Dance Theater

“The Desire Line” is a “quietly atmospheric and rambunctiously explosive…full-bodied and visceral” journey through the murky territory of human connections. (SF Bay Guardian)

What do you desire?

When Deborah Slater Dance Theater's "The Desire Line" premiered at Dance Mission Theater last spring, audiences gave the show standing ovations and critics sang its praises.

Described as "...quietly atmospheric and rambunctiously explosive...full-bodied and visceral" by the SF Bay Guardian, "The Desire Line" is a powerful work about the murky territory of human connection.

Choreographer, Deborah Slater, took her inspiration for "The Desire Line" from the moody paintings of Alan Feltus. His classic compositions and aloof characters form a complex emotional structure open to interpretation and endless meanings.

Slater has turned the paintings into a three-dimensional, visceral world whereupon the dancers reveal the heat, and the heart that simmers below the surface.

At the heart of "The Desire Line" is that moment in a person's life when something is about to happen, or has just happened - a revelation, a lie, a choice, or an inaction that leads to critical junctures in one's life. In the dance, a letter, a suitcase, and a glance are the triggers for everything to change.

"The Desire Line" collaborators are Jonathan Segel (composer and founding member of Camper Van Beethoven); poet Jaime Jacinto; dramaturg Kristin Yawitz; video artist Charles Woodman; and the award-winning lighting designer Allan Willner. A sound installation designed by Thom Blum will be featured in the long corridor leading to the Cowell Theater.

"Together, the art, the music, and the poetry create a highly charged world of passion that inspires the dancers to express themselves at the highest level of intensity." - SF Examiner