Pare: Constellation II

This project brought together 5 professional dancers (Kate Martel, Katie Martin, Jenny Bennett, Leah Fournier, and Sarah Elizabeth Lass) and 4 undergraduate dancers (Izzy Kalodner, Felix Bryan, Sienna Jessurun, Olivia Lowe). Using my developing work Pare as a point of departure, we collaboratively “undid” the scores, movements, and relationships that comprised the work at the midpoint of its creation. This constellation was meant to offer a new way for me and my collaborators to encounter familiar material, leading us to imagine other vectors and tones for the work prior to its premiere the following year.

We performed the work in three distinct iterations: proscenium, studio, and gallery. The shifting contexts revealed patterns, possibilities, and relationships that I had not previously explored. Additionally, for the gallery performance, I invited my colleague and collaborator Peter Jones to provide an improvised score that was completely different from the intended score for the work. This, too, offered questions and affective undertones that ultimately changed the contours of certain sections of the final work.