Constructed long-distance while interrupted by natural disasters, The Dance Animals’ duet, As the Crow Flies, catalogues the performers’ upturned worlds and enduring friendship as they shelter in place. Wielding bags of props, Artistic Director, Jessica Fudim, and collaborating artist, blue buddha, accompany each other with toy piano and live vocals. Socially-distanced, in the round, they pay homage to ancient trees, their healing bodies and Black Lives Matter. Nostalgia for the sweaty proximity of club dancing merges with theater, pedestrian antics and contemporary movement in this short and sweet piece that is at once devotional, playful and desperate for a revolution.

Bay Area choreographer Jessica Fudim formed The Dance Animals in 2008 as a platform for creative collaboration with artists of wide-ranging disciplines and backgrounds. Performers have ranged in age from 8 years old to septuagenarian, and much of the work is created for audiences of all ages. Charging across the boundaries of dance, theater, music and visual design, Jessica Fudim and the Dance Animals create original performance works that forage for unlikely splendor and inspire our deepening accountability to each other and the natural world.

Jessica Fudim (artistic director, performer)
Jessica Fudim has been producing and performing in the Bay Area and beyond for over two decades. Her solo, Sheepish, received a 2006 "Best of the SF Fringe" honor and she captained an award-winning SF Gay Pride Parade musical contingent. She was a resident artist of The Voice Factory SF and The Workspace for Choreographers in Virginia, co-founder of The Experimental Performance Institute and original member of the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project. With Dwayne Calizo, she co-produced the multi-media series "Crash Cabaret" at the Roxie Theatre and was half of the band Dreamboat, Where are You? with Carrie Love.

blue buddha (artistic collaborator, performer)
blue buddha is a singer, songwriter, performance artist, Blacktivist and psychotherapist. he earned an MA in Counseling Psychology, with a focus on community, from California Institute of Integral Studies. As a singer, blue is in rich collaborations with Bay Area artists. In his stage work, he weaves the concepts of self, skin color, love, identity, transformation, relationships and healing. blue is working towards becoming a trauma therapist, and is committed to working with communities for their continued healing. The activist, educator in blue, has lead him to facilitate workshops on self-transformation and social justice. blue currently fronts the band, OMB.