San Francisco choreographer Jesselito Bie, a former member of The High Risk
Group, creates dances examining the ways in which language and mass media shape individual and collective ideas of race, gender, body image, and sexuality. As an openly HIV-positive artist, Bie has danced for a number of companies in the Bay Area and was a founding member of STEAMROLLER, which was established in 1993 specifically to create guerrilla performances addressing the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst under-represented communities. Bie became artistic director of STEAMROLLER in 1996 and, under his leadership, the company has become known for irreverent references to popular culture—as related to issues of ethnicity and sexual identity—as well as an athletic physical vocabulary. Maintaining a connection to its origins in street performance through participation in five consecutive In The Street Festivals (1996-2000), STEAMROLLER has been presented at such venues as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Festival of Bay Area Dance, Asian American Dance Performances, and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California. STEAMROLLER was awarded a Goldie Award in 1999 from the San Francisco Bay Guardian for Outstanding Local Discovery in Dance.

Vong Phrommala (Co-choreographer)
Vong Phrommala was born in Laos.  In 1982, at the age of ten, he and his family relocated to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  Later, he attended Oberlin College and North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied ballet and modern dance.  In 1993, he moved to San Francisco and has since worked with Colleen MuVihil, Remy Charlip, Stephen Pelton, STEAMROLLER, and Margaret Jenkins.  After receiving a scholarship to participate in a performance workshop in 1994, he soon joined the Joe Goode Performance Group, SF's premiere modern theater group that works collaboratively with its members to create evening length works incorporating spoken text, movement and song. During his time with the company, Vong has taught and performed in Egypt, Jordan, Brazil, and throughout the United States.  During a brief sabbatical in New York, he met David White through a Fresh Tracks audition, who later asked him to participate in the Mekong Project. In March of 2001, Vong traveled back to Thailand and Laos for the first time in 20 years, to speak with artists, to collect stories, to remember, and to be inspired.

Photo courtesy of Jesse Bie.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT
STEAMROLLER Dance Company creates physically explosive dances that explore changing definitions of race, gender and sexuality.  By engaging audiences with an irreverent take on popular iconography and use of non-traditional performance venues, STEAMROLLER sees the intersection between artistic and popular culture as a way to make dance more accessible and our messages more palpable.

Steamroller Dance Company will perform on Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 8pm, at Intersection for the Arts.