COLOR Studies

A transdisciplinary, multi-installment study of color, ecology + choreography. The experience and sensorium of Color - what it elicits, conjures, and conveys in, around, and beyond language. Stories and memories hidden in bones and flesh, tucked in the corners of homes long-since lived in. Vibration, frequency, afterimage, ephemeral, spilling surfaces, structure without containment - expansive, expressive, limitless, and pulsing.

 

red dirt glitter (in-process)

red dirt glitter (working title) is a vitality-based inquiry– an indulgence in color and other intangiable yet profound exchanges of our everyday existence. Gritty off-kilter movement that arrests inside quiet, tender moments. Colorful, sweeping, quicksilver action, haunting triumphant sound, and a searing solo that simultaneously empties and embodies space.

Simultaneously, the project delves into the formation of an aesthetic, metabolizing a diverse array of creative lineages, information inundation, and notions of creative property into a singular composition. It is an extensive project, with many teachers and voices present within our own.

Currently, red dirt glitter is in development with Kaitlin Fox and Christina Robson with significant contributions from Bree Breeden and MK Ford. Sound: Adam Crawley. Thinking partners: Jasmine Hearn, Meredith Fages, Rebecca Steinberg. A full project bibliography will be available soon.

Support: UMD-ARHU Junior Faculty Summer Research Award and the Maya Brin Endowment in Dance.Presentation: (early process) Fall 2024 at Connecticut College

Media: Rehearsal footage (2023-2024) dueting, solo matters, 4-5 of us

untitled vital glacier (Cyan #02)

A response to living in dangerous consequences of progress and individualism, untitled vital glacier (2021) explores the colossal beauty and profundity of the natural world. From calving glaciers to geologic time, the work seeks kinship from Nature’s structures, intelligence, and ability to change.

Candace Scarborough (Marielis Garcia in performance), Kaitlin Fox, Christina Robson, and Sydney Lemelin. Original live sound by Adam Crawley aka DJ Plié.

Media: Overview, Kaleidoscope (experiment): Video footage courtesy Jonathan Hsu. Photo by Jay Williams.

Elegy for Mary (Cyan #01)

Conceived and performed by Kendra Portier

"I am six years younger than my mother's death." Shadow, chorus, haunting, reckoning. Using movement, text, and simple lighting, this study recounts a familial event - embodied, reshaped, and felt over time. It is a study of dis/re/orientation and how one relates to the present and future because of the past.

This work contributes to BAND's "Color Studies" - a multi-installment, transdisciplinary study of color and choreography. This footage is the first public sharing of this work-in-process, presented by Lion's Jaw Festival 2019 at Green Street Theater, Boston MA.

Media: Overview, footage courtesy of Lions Jaw Festival + The Fleet

Burnish (Magenta #03, #08-1, #08-2, #08-3)

Burnish sources the phenomenon of magenta into choreographic study. With driving, elliptical rhythm, six performers yield to the experience of Color.

“Building, climactic, flirtatious, ecstatic, melancholic phrases, all set to a swirling electronic soundscape…”

Burnish #08: Kaitlin Fox, Laurel Snyder, Sarah Beth Oppenheim/Marion Spencer, Candace Scarborough, Anna Adams Stark, Jasmine Hearn/Kendra Portier. Supported by the Dorothy Madden Dance Research Project and an ARHU Seed Grant. Media: Rehearsal VIDEO (Tisch, Gibney)

  • #08-3/ Dance Theater, Clarice Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. Media: Excerpts 1, Excerpts 2. Photo (top left) by Jonathan Hsu

  • #08-2/ Alumni Gym, Bates Dance Festival. Media: Video available upon request.

  • #08-1/ Jack Crystal Theater, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Summer Dance Residency. Media: Preview.

Burnish #03: MK Ford, Leah Wilks, Kaitlin Fox, Lindsey Jennings, Alexis Miller, Natalie Stehly, Phoebe Ballard

  • #03/ Studio One Theater, Krannert Center, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Media: Video available upon request. Photo (bottom left) by Natalie Fiol

Glorious Discoloration (Magenta #01)

Commission and collaboration with Zenon Dance Company.

Presented at the Cowles Center (MN)

Media: Video courtesy of Zenon Dance Company

 

Color Studies + Educational Works

COLOSSAL with The Wooden Floor

Commissioned by The Wooden Floor (Santa Ana, CA, ages 14-17): COLOSSAL explores the energy, texture, color, and poeticism of geologic mechanizations - the majestic and cataclysmic. Arriving like a movement painting, the dancers move through vibrant swells of action that cascade, careen, and skitter into quicksilver rhythms and simmering pools of patience and care. Complex patterns unearthed like hills shaped by time, rivers, and wind, the performers are the architects, the painters, the creators of a world built together.

goldfinch at UMD

A ballet-based study of color created with and performed by graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park. Performed aspart of Faculty Dance Concert at the Clarice Performing Arts Center and ACDA at Slippery Rock University. Photo (left): Thai Nguyen

High Violet (Magenta #06) at UMD

Created with and performed by graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park. Performed as part of Faculty Dance Concert at the Clarice Performing Arts Center, Millennium Stage at Lincoln Center, ACDA at Seton Hill College (PA). Photo (left): Jonathan Hsu

Double Chroma (Magenta #05) at Emory University

Created with and performed by Emory Dance Company. Performed at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts (GA).