Last Tuesday (1/23/01), students of Shinichi Iova-Koga infiltrated the Emeryville Public Marketplace (a sort of indoor culinary mecca) and performed an ensemble dance amid the diners. They wore drab-colored street clothes, unified by orange scarves. Their focus was impressive, as was their group-mind. Equally intriguing to watch were their observers, who ranged from diners with ostrich syndrome to befuddled security officers who could not engage the dancers directly, as they were not breaking any laws. I heard a voice crackle desperately over a handset radio,”They won’t look at me, they’re in some sort of meditation! Get me backup!” And just as the backup force appeared up the corridor, the dancers diffused into the market crowd, came back to earth, bought their dinners, and passed right through the confused muscle, unseen, and unmolested. It was really something to see.
-Wes Fredenburg