Contraband (performance group)

Members include director Sara Shelton Mann with Lauren Elder, Keith Hennessy (Circo Zero Performance), Jess Curtis (Jess Curtis/Gravity), Norman Rutherford, Rinde Eckert, Kim Epifano (Epiphany Productions), Jules Beckman (libertivore, Collectif AOC), Elaine Buckholtz, Nina Hart, Brenda Munnell, Kathleen Hermesdorf (La Alternativa), Brook Klehm, Julie Kane, Shannon McMurchy (McGuire), and Peter Kadyk.

Evol (love spelled backwards) began as a performance research project, developing into a show that attained a cult-like following amongst audience members.

Religare mixed installation and live art with dance and music to create a ritualized performance for renewal of a site traumatized by arsonry and neglect.

[9] It received unprecedented support from the community, inspiring participation by audience members (in music-making, site maintenance, crowd safety, publicity, as well as a mural).

Featured a set of "junkyard" objects, including electrified barbed wire and a refrigerator swung as if a pendulum, inducing a hypnotic effect to the dancing.

It was performed by male company members Jess Curtis, Keith Hennessy, and Jules Beckman; directed by Remy Charlip and Sara Shelton Mann.

Though the title was originally used for pieces made in Canada by Mann, the company that came to be known as Contraband did not begin until the 1985 San Francisco group, starting as a research project for Evol.