An Ornate Hiding Place

Photos by Ian Douglas

Collaborators and Performers: Ada Fujita, Maddy Mikami, Joy Giuffre, Sabrina Canas, Olivia Rousey, AJ Wilmore, O Fernandes, Miah Lapeyrolerie, Ella Brockway

Facilitated by: Katherine Desimine

Live music created and performed by: Colin Kupson and Brian Gianelos

Presented: December 2018 as part of the University of the Arts School of Dance Senior Thesis Showcase

Description*: This work is an exploration of how being a woman* relates to vulnerability and visibility, and how contradiction, negotiation, and dissonance are implicit in those ideas. Through these broad topics, we’re exploring the rejection of identity binaries, and trying to come to a more nuanced view of what it means to be vulnerable and seen, as a woman. How do we negotiate the multiple realities within ourselves? How do we negotiate the multiple selves expected of us? How do we negotiate the multiple realities of a complex and dynamic performance score? How do we embody contradiction and dissonance, and learn to breathe and live within it?

Read about the process.

Performance documentation:

Photos by Ian Douglas

Excerpt

2 minutes

Full Piece

13 minutes

*Note written 1/17/2021 about the process & original description

Reflecting back on this process, I'm curious about how I engaged words like 'woman', 'femininity', and other gendered language. I think throughout the process I generally used 'woman' and 'femininity' interchangeably. Does this possibly reinforce the reductiveness of gender that we were trying to explor(d)e during this process? I don't know if during this process I as the facilitator ever brought into the space the idea of gender fluidity, or any explicit discussion about non-binary gender identities... even though in the description I wrote at the time, I explicitly wrote about rejecting identity binaries...