selected performances

Kevin Beasley

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Sound of Morning

Performa Biennial 2021

Kevin Beasley will present his first outdoor live performance staged at a downtown Manhattan intersection where two distinct neighborhoods meet marking the contrasts inherent to the architecture, inhabitants, and histories that have evolved over the past several decades. Taking place in the Lower East Side—on streets demarcated for closure in NYC’s Open Spaces initiative—Beasley will insert a series of his sculptures, comprised of industrial and utilitarian materials, into the existing infrastructure, creating objects that appear to be interchangeable with existing street furniture. A group of performers will adapt and alter everyday gestures and movements, shifting these actions from the familiar to the foreign. With microphones, that faint sounds that usually disappear into the white noise of the city will be enhanced, creating a sonic sculpture live mixed by the artist.

PERFORMERS:
Dwayne Brown, Ley Gambucci, Wendell Gray II, Paul Hamilton, Raymond Pinto, Angie Pittman, jess pretty, Katrina Reid, Gabriela Silva, and Amadi Washington

PRODUCTION:
Sound Designer and Technical Producer: Daniel Neumann
Choreographer: Paul Hamilton
Kevin Beasley Studio: Barbara Elting, Dante Migone-Ojeda
Stage Manager: Caitlin Adams
Audio Technician: Jade Guterman
Production Assistants: Austin Brown, Mitchell Cheng, Justin Germek Costume Prep: Maggie Beutner
Volunteers: Kelvin Ponder, P.J. Verhoest, Aliza Russell
Security: Elite Security

Kevin Beasley and Paul Hamilton
Photo by Tony Turner



Anna Sperber

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Again the Wolves

Again the Wolves is an evening-length dance work by Anna Sperber that readily embraces the dualistic convictions of its four female performers. Indeed, it’s a work concerned with female power, while completely staring into the eye of how such a thing often siloes or subjugates the strength of a body moving, or existing, in space. These are very real bodies, with very real concerns, attempting to both display their outer limits of agility while knowing the stakes of what it means to be too vulnerable, or too grotesque, for a public (in this body, at this time). We carry the strong belief that our bodies and senses carry the weight of our emotional lives. The site of performance can be a space where these vibrations can be more readily accessed - where socio-emotional walls can come down to lay bare a rawness of expression. Again the Wolves is created and performed by Anna Sperber with Emma Judkins and Angie Pittman.

Anna-Sperber-Again-The-Wolves
Photo by Maria Baranova

annasperber.com

Cynthia Oliver

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Tether

Performed at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 2019

A sextet exploring the life-worlds of super-natural girls. Double-dutch rhythms drive their survival strategies as these Afro-futurists navigate new worlds. They are literally and figuratively “tied” to one another. Tethers are connectors, weapons, instruments. The women speak in sonic codes and count on bright, high energy color as a part of their life force/aesthetic.

Tether-by-Cynthia-Oliver-image-by-Natalie-Fiol
Photo by Natalie Fiol

cynthiaoliver.com

Ralph Lemon

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Saturnalia

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, part of ‘Kevin Beasley: A view of a landscape’, 2019

Press: Ralph Lemon on Coming Apart, and Piecing Himself Back Together



Lily Baldwin

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Quick Slice

The cinematic story begins with nine portraits of solitude. This crew of strangers converge over a quick slice inside a pizza shop -- a casual, no bullshit, non-committal NYC community hub. When a “contaigent” enters, dance turns inconsequential moments into idiosyncratic gestures, toggling between task and choreography. A subtle, disorientating use of editing techniques and photographic devices manipulating time craft a visceral dreamscape.

Inspired by Netta Yerushalmy’s PARAMODERNITIES
Directed by Lily Baldwin
Produced by Brighid Greene
Edited by Lily Baldwin, Sara Sowell
Video Installation Design by Joseph Seamans
Sound Mix by Mark degli Antoni
Cinematography by Ben Wolf
Assistant Camera Sanjay Singh
Stills by Courtney Denk
Hair by Takeo Suzuki
Makeup by Hiro Yonemoto
Makeup Assistant Ken Suzuki
Featuring designs by Pavon
Production Assistants Rishauna Zumberg, Jaanelle Yee Fiscally Sponsored by Los Angeles Performance Practice & Starring Lily Baldwin, Henry Chesley, Geneva Frazier, Dean Melaas, Amy Meisner, Toni Melaas, Katharine Padulo, Wally Padulo, Angie Pittman, Peggy Schneider, and Gus Solomons Jr.

Quickslice-by-Lily-Baldwin
Still from film

lilybaldwin.com

Leslie Parker Dance Project

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crystals, smoke, n spirits

Incites memories of (self) love, feminist theory, and worlds derived of individual inner/outer realities, encouraging healing from past trauma(s). Dramaturgy by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Press: Celebrating Black Feminist Divinity in Leslie Parker Dance Project’s crystal, smoke n’ spirit(s)...

leslie-parker-dance-project-image-by-alice-gebura
Photo by Alice Gebura

leslieparkerdance.com

Jasmine Hearn

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shook

shook is a work consisting of three duets with Hearn and collaborators Maria Bauman, Kayla Farrish, Dominica Greene, Catherine Kirk, Angie Pittman, and Alisha Wormsley. This “collaborative calling” is paired with an original soundscape created by Hearn.

Press: The New York Times

Jasmine-Hearn-by-Ian-Douglas
Photo by Ian Douglas

jasminehearn.com