Elbows Akimbo

Who is Elbows Akimbo?

Elbows Akimbo was an Avant Garde performance art ensemble that emerged from San Francisco's underground scene of the late 1980s and stopped producing work in the mid 1990s.

Originally an outgrowth of San Francisco State University's progressive department: the Center for Experimental and Interdisciplinary Arts, it was founded by director Thomas Schulz, who selected members who excelled in a range of disciplines including dance, music, design, and writing.

The original group had eleven members, including certain key performers who have gone on to have interesting careers. These include Diana Rosalind Trimble, vocalist, composer, writer, and actor; Alisa Froman, dancer, choregorapher and actor; Michael Calvello, writer and actor; Kalonica McQuesten, vocalist and musician; Kevin McKereghan, sound engineer; Nancy Beckman, musician.

Later additions to the group who have also continued in the performing arts include movement artists Mark Steger and Hannah Sim, dancer/choreographer Ellie Herman, actor/writer/director Michael Edo Keane, harpist/composer Barbara Imhoff, vocalist, actor and educator Susan Volkan, illustrator/designer Barron Storey, actor/writer Johnna Schmidt, actor/director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, director Mark Waters, actor Rebecca Klingler, actor John Flanagan, actor/director Ricky Camus of New Orleans, actor/director Diane Jackson, actor/playwright Tanya Shaffer, author Carol Lloyd, Hungarian poet, translator, performance artist Gabor G. Gyukics, actor Salim Abdul-Jelani, actor Lewis Sims and actor/dancer Jody Ellsworth among others.