July 27, 2006

[Originally published in the 2005 Expo newspaper]

[Read other venue profiles in the Expo DIY Library.]

On its opening weekend, CounterPulse--a lovely, revitalized gallery and performance space at Mission and 9th Streets--was host to a Radical Queer Cabaret, classical Indian dance performance, a Fred Newman video lecture, and an eclectic May Day Celebration including spoken word, a capella, modern ritual and dancing.

Sound like a lot to cram into one weekend?

It is. But that's how CounterPulse does it.

CounterPulse is the new home of the art crew and community that was 848 Community Space. 848, "The Little Space That Could," stood for14 years as a functioning avant-garde art space, which acted as home for contact-improvisation movement classes, transgender awareness projects, anti-displacement protests, fat lady strip-revues and great heaping spoonfuls of far-left activism, among myriad other events and endeavors.

"We were selling out every performance at 848, and we knew we needed a bigger space for audiences and for aerial dance," says Jessica Robinson, executive director of CounterPulse. "It was hard leaving 848. But we got to say goodbye in a way that felt good."

Housed in the former ICAN Gallery, with a spanking new dance floor, vaulted ceilings, ample risers for larger audiences and generous acoustics, the space allows for great diversity while also giving an intense sense of intimacy. Let's call it DIY glamorous. Whatever you call it, it's a charmer.

With a 10-year lease including a five-year option, CounterPulse is in the best possible position to continue their work as an experimental "incubator space."

"CounterPulse is a great place to self-produce," says Robinson. "Technically, we co-produce everything, but we are here as a resource for beginning artists, to help them produce and promote their own show.

"And it's not like we give rehearsal space and then steal the artist's box office," says Robinson with a wry grin. "Our artists make money."

In addition to edgy, emerging artists (and patrons), CounterPulse is also looking for additional volunteers.

"We need 30 to 40 volunteers a week to make the place run like it should," says Robinson. According to her, currently everyone is doing double duty, so now is the best time to get involved, to get in on the ground level of something new.

"We want people to come dream with us," says Robinson, and starts laughing. "That's so cheesy. You really don't have to write that down."

Whoops.

For more information, visit www.counterpulse.org.