Super-human feats at Streb

By Meredith Deliso

Elizabeth Streb has a knack for testing the limits of the human body.

In her company’s newest show, “Falling Sideways,” her daring dancers defy gravity by propelling 30 feet sideways and creating a human fountain (above) a la Las Vegas’s Bellagio Fountain, descending like raindrops from as high as 30 feet in the air.

It helps, of course, to have super cool stunt equipment, and Streb got her hands on some nifty tools to make her unique vision possible in the show, which opens this Friday at her Williamsburg space. That includes air rams, which can eject people as far as 70 feet sideways at incredible speeds, as well as a jerk vest, a harness that can rapidly move its wearer in different directions at breakneck speed.

“I’ve been coveting this equipment that films get to use and we don’t, so I figured, why not use it?” said Streb. “A lot of artists who are pegged with the stunt name are really doing some of the most phenomenal things. I’m trying to grab methods from other parts of action specialties and intersect them with modern dance.”

As far as that human fountain goes? That just takes some serious skill.

“Falling Sideways” at the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics [51 N. First St. between Kent and Wythe avenues in Williamsburg, (718) 384-6491], Nov. 26-Dec. 19 on Fridays at 7 pm, Saturdays at 3 pm and 7 pm, and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets $20 (adults), $10 (kids). For info, visit www.streb.org.

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Elizabeth Streb has a dance show for all of you who don’t like dance

You can’t compete with extreme action.

That’s the ethos by which Elizabeth Streb built an entire studio in Williamsburg — the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics, or SLAM — where on a daily basis dancers fly through the air on trapezes, trampolines and other invented gizmos.

The choreographer continues to test the limits of gravity with her company’s latest show, “Run Up Walls,” where a hodgepodge of items including bowling balls, coke cans and cinder blocks are incorporated into the show, alongside the Olympian feats from her dancers (the company was just up in Vancouver for the Cultural Olympiad, you know).

Then there’s Streb’s invented contraptions, such as a 25-square-foot wall, where dancers’ movements are based on weights; a giant turning floor that spins in two opposing directions, threatening to fling the dancers off at any moment; and the Whizzing Gizmo, a hamster wheel-like machine that does propel the dancers into the air, like real-life superheroes.

It’s not all about running up walls in this show.

“Run Up Walls” is at the Streb Lab [51 N. First St. between Wythe and Kent avenues in Williamsburg, (718-384-6491)] from April 16-May 23. Showtimes are Fridays at 7 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm and 7 pm; and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets are $20 (adults), $10 (kids). For info, visit www.streb.com.

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