Show raises awareness on World AIDS Day
In the 1980s, AIDS was something to fear, an unknown type of incurable pneumonia and cancer that seemed to largely target the gay community. It was a death sentence for anyone who contracted the disease.
Cal State Long Beach dance professor Keith Johnson said he remembers how AIDS hit the arts world hard during the early days when the disease began to spread. There were 3,064 cases reported worldwide and a death toll of 1,292 by the end of 1983, according to the World Health Organization.
It is the memory of his friends who died from the pandemic that moved Johnson to stage “Bodies Matter: World AIDS Day”, an eight-hour dance performance held Thursday. Johnson said he lost about 30 friends to the once-deadly disease.
“I just wanted to have them remembered,” he said. “A lot of us went through the ‘80s together, and if you lived in the ‘80s, you lost friends to AIDS, especially in the Arts. It was terrible. It was a terrible time.”
December 1 is widely recognized as World AIDS Day, serving as a reminder to the commitment to end HIV/AIDS as a public threat.
On Thursday, eight red-clad performers, friends of Johnson’s, performed various solo routines continuously for eight hours in a stark gallery setting at the school's Dance Center. Johnson said the show was his brainchild after receiving the Djerassi Resident Artists Program opportunity in 2015.
“I wanted to make a commitment to those we lost or who are currently living with HIV-positive status,” he said.
The 30-minute solo dances were performed by Gerald Casel, Roz LeBlanc, Andrew W. Palomares, Adriane Fang, Eddie Taketa, Brad Beakes, Tara McArthur and Colleen Thomas – hand-picked by Johnson because of their experience as either university dance professors or freelance dancers.
“I picked them because they were friends and I could trust them and they were different,” Johnson said.
Johnson has set up a GoFundMe account to off-set the cost of the event that will help raise awareness for AIDS/HIV, for which there still is no cure. He has raised $5,465 so far.
Although the percentage of new diagnosed cases have declined over the past three years and the death rate dropped 30 percent, still approximately 37 million people around the world are affected by HIV/AIDS.
