XTRAVAGANZA draws on the history of multi-media entertainment, ranging from the film exhibitions of the 1910’s to the Busby Berkeley dance numbers of the 1930’s. XTRAVAGANZA mixes these early forms with current spectacular musical entertainment, including trip-hop music and video. XTRAVAGANZA “samples” fragments of the theatrical past through the language of contemporary DJ and VJ culture.

Many early musical revues and stage extravaganzas can be seen as the multi-media spectacles of their own time, combining technological devices, music, stage design, text, and movement in a spectacular event intended to transport its audience. The pioneering artists featured in XTRAVANGANZA, Loie Fuller, Steele McKaye, Busby Berkeley, and Florence Zigfeld are quoted, explored, and celebrated for their fantastic, futuristic, and sometimes failed visions of a new era.