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Austin firefighters and choreographer present unique look at dangerous job |
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Byline: Dick Stanley American-Statesman Staff She and 13 city firefighters teamed up to present In Case of Fire: An Afternoon of Dance to more than 400 adults and children in the parking lot of the department's East Austin training tower on Pleasant Valley Road. It was a unique ending to Fire Prevention Week. It was poetic, said Anne Jordan, who came from South Austin to watch the 20-minute performance featuring semi-synchronized walkthroughs of firefighter routines set to music, sirens and recorded voices, with a finale of arching streams of pressurized water from five fire hoses. Orr, an Austin dance teacher best known for performance art such as Dances for Dogs and People Who Walk Them, presented in Zilker Park in 1999, directed Saturday's dance over a portable radio while standing on a table behind the audience. To recorded excerpts of In The Upper Room, American composer Philip Glass' classical composition for piano and strings, nine men and four women from Engines 11 and 17 and Ladder 17 performed in front of their parked fire trucks. They suited up in rubber boots, heavy coats and helmets, used fire extinguishers to put out a chemical blaze in a large pan, climbed ladders and hooked fire hoses to a hydrant for the watery finale. The idea, said Orr, who also has created dances with maintenance men and college grounds crews, is to teach the community about work in a fun, uplifting, positive event. Or, as Fire Department Lt. Palmer Buck put it: What we do every day, in a never-before-seen way. It began with a moment of silence for the New York City firefighters who gave their lives in the World Trade Center tragedy, to whom the dance also was dedicated. The poignant detail wiped the smiles off many faces in the audience but also prompted them to applaud the beginning of the dance as well as the end. After the general suiting-up and the extinguishing of the pan fire with lots of white smoke by three of the men, the four women firefighters moved slowly through a routine with two extension ladders while the pre-recorded voice of one of them, Julie Huser, a driver with Engine 17, played from loudspeakers. Of course you're afraid to risk your life, she said over the music. You just go and do your job. Then the fire trucks rolled out to an imaginary fire, leaving behind only a haunting recording of Don Murdock, a driver with Engine 11, reciting the names of Austin streets: Lamar, Bouldin, Post Oak... After the finale, the performers presented Orr with a bouquet of red flowers and hoisted her on their shoulders. The audience crowded around them to ask questions about the equipment. Kids wearing Fire Inspector stickers posed for pictures with Lt. Mike Sullivan of Engine 11 and other performers. Jana Bockman was one of many who went away entertained and impressed. It was innovative, with a sense of everyone's patriotism, she said. A fun example of what Austin does bes |
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