NY Times: Making (and seeing) dance in the politicized world
"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
December 11th: Camille A Brown & Dancers’ (CABD) Mentorship Program, December 31st: BalletX Choreographic Fellowship, December 31st: Dance Ireland Residency, January 19th: artsHERE Initiative, May 1st: South Arts Professional Development & Artistic Planning Grants
×"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
“A woman stands onstage, hunched over in what looks like a bulky snowsuit, the outer shell of many layers soon to be revealed. In a meticulous undressing, she peels away items of clothing, pulling a yellow sweater over her head like taffy, nesting her legs in a stretchy blue shirt on her way to taking it off.
This is the opening of Beth Gill’s exquisite and enigmatic ‘Brand New Sidewalk,’ which I saw in its New York premiere at Abrons Arts Center in September. Wide open to interpretation, the solo, danced by Danielle Goldman, is on one level about nothing more (or less) than color, shape and texture.
Yet in Ms. Goldman’s metamorphosis, I also found a potent, if oblique, political statement — about a woman’s control over her body and her subversion of any expectations we might have for it. At no moment could you say with certainty, ‘This is who she is,’ because she never stopped transforming.
In watching dance this fall, while rounding the corner of the first anniversary of the 2016 presidential election, I’ve been struck by the political resonance not only of Ms. Gill’s work, but of, well, just about everything. Even dances with no obvious agenda have seemed like quiet protests, simply by virtue of staking a claim to space, time and the attention, amid so much urgently vying for it, of the people gathered to watch.”
Reach out to us to learn more about our mission.
"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery