A Unique Handling of the Apollo 11 Story

When Andrew Dawson brings his one-man show to the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater on Saturday, he wants theatergoers to know that they'll be in excellent hands. In more ways than one.

"I do have very nice hands, it seems," says the 47-year-old Brit, creator and performer behind "Space Panorama," a theatrical retelling of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing -- along with what Dawson calls a "pocket history of space exploration" -- that uses little other than his two hands. While sitting at a table wearing all black, Dawson will use his hands (and, from time to time, his upper body) to portray not only the lunar module and the astronauts inside, but the following: The bus that ferried the astronauts across the launching pad. The Saturn V rocket that sent them into space, complete with plume of white smoke. Various switches, dials and fuel indicators in the capsule. Weightless shaving cream. The moon itself. The parachute that brought the capsule to splashdown. The helicopter that picked the astronauts up. Even the flukes of a passing whale's tale.

That last one, Dawson says by phone from London, always gets a good reaction.

There are, in short, no limits to what can be created with one's hands, according to Dawson, whose background is in mime and dance. Provided, of course, the hands are as nice -- and as talented -- as his.

And by nice, he means completely and utterly . . . ordinary. Dawson, who also moonlights as a hand model for television and print advertising, insists that his hands are nothing special to look at. Which is, when it comes to that line of work, exactly what you want. Most people's hands, you see, aren't ordinary, but rather "knobbly," lopsided things. Dawson's hands? He describes them as "balanced and neutral," with clean nails and even lunulas (those whitish, half-moons at the base of the nail).

Not that Dawson pampers them unduly. Although he will indulge in the occasional manicure or massage to keep his hands healthy and looking "smart," he's not a freak about it. "I don't wear gloves all day or anything like that," he says, adding that he has a simple secret for protecting his assets. "Avoiding things," he says with a laugh. "Paper cuts are an absolute nightmare. The oven is my biggest curse."

Early on, Dawson also realized that his hands weren't just pretty, but pretty mobile. "They can wave," he says, "and wiggle around." Most of the modeling jobs he gets take advantage of that. "I'm usually called in to do the tricky things that involve manipulating objects in a slightly difficult way. You might be throwing a teabag into a cup for a teabag commercial. Or fingers being characters running around, or pretending to play football."

With most hand modeling, you're not meant to pay attention to the hand, says Dawson. He takes something you wouldn't otherwise look twice at and puts it center stage.

And so it is with "Space Panorama," a tale that is by turns funny and touching, according to Dawson, who first developed it for the 20th anniversary of the moon landing. Since then, he has created another hands-only theater piece, "Quatre Mains" (French for "Four Hands"), which he's performing around the world with German dancer Sven Till and hopes to bring to New York this year.

Like "Space Panorama," Dawson says it's another "massive story done in a miniature way." Focusing on human evolution, its story jumps "from monkeys to the opposable thumb, to people rushing around in cars, to hands that meet across a cafe table, to war."

If you're worried about being able to see everything, Dawson says the intimate Terrace Theater "is a perfect size. It's amazing how even with a little bit of distance you get a sense of the vastness of space and the space around me through the way I move my fingers and the way you really focus."

But what Dawson's really trying to convey isn't objects, but emotions.

"Space Panorama" takes us to the moon and back. But in addition to the thrill of the ride, it's also intended to make us think about the big picture: our place in the universe. Similarly, "Quatre Mains" starts with the creation of man and ends with men killing one another.

"It's fantastic," he says, "to create these images that people go, 'God that's like watching "Platoon." ' But actually it's only hands."

Space Panorama Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. http://www.kennedy-center.org. Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Free.