Krissy Keefer and The Dance Brigade kick off their seven-city tour of A Women’s Song for Peace in Eugene on Jan. 9 at The Hult Center. The modern dance performance features Middle Eastern music, poetry about war and Taiko drumming. “We started thinking about the tour in July when Biden was running against Trump, and I didn’t feel like either of them had a peace agenda,” Keefer says. “When Harris entered the campaign, I figured A Woman’s Song for Peace would either be a celebratory tour or a wake. Now it’s a call for resistance, for peace and is a response to the catastrophe of this election.” Keefer is one of the original members of the Wallflower Order Dance Collective, established in 1975 with a focus on feminist dance. Wallflower Order Dance Collective’s inception took place at Eugene’s own WOW Hall during the December 1975 “WOW-a-thon,” which raised funds to lease the Community Center for the Performing Arts building. “We had a sort of symbiotic relationship with WOW. Leadership was fluid back then and community was always central. Some of our members even lived in the building,” Keefer says. “I cut my teeth at WOW. I learned how to become everything in that space.” Although the Wallflower Order stopped touring in the early 1980s, Keefer went on to establish The Dance Brigade in the Bay Area in 1984 with the same mission of addressing social issues through movement. Following the performance at The Hult Center, Keefer and The Dance Brigade will return to Eugene for a second, slightly smaller performance. On Jan. 11, 50 years after the introduction of feminist dance into Keefer’s life and the establishment of the CCPA, WOW Hall and Keefer are together again. The WOW Hall 50th Anniversary Fundraiser features a cocktail hour, a historic photo gallery walk and a dance created via sign language in 1977. “Our appearance at the WOW fundraiser will be more intimate and a bit more informal,” Keefer says. “Dance Brigade will perform our dance Defiance to a poem written by deaf poet Dorothy Miles, and Holly Near and Ferron will each perform a couple songs.”

Krissy Keefer’s Dance Brigade’s performance of A Woman’s Song for Peace is 7:30 pm Thursday, Jan. 9, at The Hult Center, 1 Eugene Center; purchase tickets at Tickets.HultCenter.org. The WOW Hall 50th Anniversary Fundraiser is 6 pm Saturday, Jan. 11, at WOW Hall, 291 West 8th Avenue; purchase tickets at WOWHall.org.