Adjusted for Inflation (2018 - 2020)
Footage above is from the GO! Emerging Artist Commissioning Program showing at the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics, June 2019
performed by Kailey McCrudden and Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone
Adjusted for Inflation was inspired in part by Douglas Hofstadter’s book, Gödel Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, in which Hofstadter proposes “strange loops” in formal mathematical systems – loops which allow the systems in which they exist to “perceive themselves” – as a metaphor for consciousness. These strange loops, in the language of formal mathematics, are called recursive loops.
In Adjusted for Inflation, two dancers are sealed inside of inflatable vinyl balls. Over time, the repeated gestures of this dance decay and germinate in correlation with the fatigue and exertion of the dancers, the momentum of the balls, and the rate at which an action affects the next of its kind in a chain.
The development of this work was supported by the GO! Emerging Artist Commission at the Elizabeth STREB Lab for Action Mechanics (January-June 2019), by a residency at Mount Tremper Arts (April 2019), and by the Artist-in-Residence program at the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation / Chez Bushwick (September-December 2019). It was scheduled to be performed in a DraftWork showing at Danspace Project in February 2020, but this performance was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Adjusted for Inflation Rehearsal Footage (April 2019)
April 2019 rehearsal at Mount Tremper Arts for a DraftWork performance at Danspace Project, scheduled for February 2020 but canceled due to COVID-19
Dancers: Kailey McCrudden and Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone
Sound (live) by Ashur Rayis
This iteration of Adjusted for Inflation would have combined the use of the inflatable balls (pictured in the video above this one, at the GO! showing at the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics) with the in-process material in this video
The Bramblewatlz (2018)
Work-in-progress residency showing at Mount Tremper Arts, April 2019
performed by: Kailey McCrudden, Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone, Dorothy Chen, Krissy Harris, and Thryn Saxon
Sound (live) by Ashur Rayis
(This footage, most unfortunately, is not shot from the front, but rather, from an upstage-left corner, and, ridiculously, from above.)
InThe Bramblewaltz, six dancers explore softness and power within accumulating patterns. Dancers use effort and ease dialectically as the choreography, like an atmosphere, presses in on them from all sides. A set of rules is an invisible architecture that comes to life as the dancers fatigue.
The Bramblewaltz is a continuation of research started during the second half of the Fresh Tracks program at New York Live Arts, presented in an early iteration at the Fresh Tracks spring studio showing as The Tumblewreath, pictured below.
The Tumblewreath (2017 - 2018)
Fresh Tracks at New York Live Arts — studio showing, June 2017
performed by Sophie Sotsky, Dorothy Chen, and Krissy Harris
sound by Ashur Rayis
In The Tumblewreath, three dancers explore softness and power within accumulating circular patterns. The movement’s languid style is thrown into tension by the dance’s formal, rule-bound score — which features punishing repetition.
structure monster | joy machine (2015 - 2017)
An accumulating circular movement pattern gradually wears out its dancers. The choreography is a windmill, a formal structure that generates power. As the choreography's patterns pick up speed and the dancers fatigue, they must, paradoxically, relax, softening into momentum, into the arms of the dance itself. Then they fly.
The dance churns softness into power.
Fresh Tracks at New York Live Arts, January 2017
performed by Sophie Sotsky and Dorothy Chen
Movement Research at the Judson Church, May 2016
performed by Sophie Sotsky, Greta Hartenstein, Dorothy Chen and Samantha Sherman
Food for Thought at Danspace Project, January 2016
performed by Greta Hartenstein, Dorothy Chen and Samantha Sherman
curated by Adrienne Rooney
Under Exposed at Dixon Place Theater, September 2015
performed by Sophie Sotsky, Dorothy Chen, Samantha Sherman and Chafin Seymour
curated by Doug Post
Motor
a duet: dancer and camera (together and separately) explore cyclical momentum propelled by internal motors.
film by Lindsay Keys
performance by Sophie Sotsky
sound by Ashur Rayis
made in collaboration with Greta Hartenstein and WooJae Chung
this work was made during an Independant Artist Residency at Salem Art Works
i am an empath
This movement study investigates softness, weight, fatigue, and failure.
Gibney Dance
Work Up 1.1
April 2015
performance by Sophie Sotsky
sound by Ashur Rayis
photo by Paula Court, courtesy of Gibney Dance
albatross (2014)
Collective exhaustion produces ‘energetic unison’ despite radically different movement styles of nine performers — many of whom are not "dancers," per se.
performed at:
SprINCUBATE at Soundance Studio Theater, May 2014
Center for Performance Research, New Voices in Live Performance, June 2014
Check iT! Dance Festival: A Celebration of Female Choreographers, June 2014
The CURRENT SESSIONS presents: Issue IV, Volume II, at The Wild Project, August 2014
performance by Dorothy Chen, Ben Demarest, Greta Hartenstein, Allison Hurd, Tavish Miller, Samantha Sherman, Sophie Sotsky
sound by Ashur Rayis
video courtesy of Stephen Speliotos
reHATCHED (2013)
Using the circus as a metaphor for the economy of dance, reHATCHED investigates the progressive, 'freakish' nature of virtuosity.
performed by Dorothy Chen, Greta Hartenstein, Nik Owens and Samantha Sherman
performed at:
Soundance Studio Theater, June 2013
NYC10 Dance Initiative at Dixon Place, June 2013
photo by Peter Yesley
and below are...
Three Works On Effort, on the ridiculous nature of experimental dance, on the whole... Tilting-at-Windmills-ness ... of the whole thing — dance, that is.
Or whatever else the viewer cares to project onto it.
Nostos (2013/2014)
On the heroic/quixotic nature of trying to do something impossible
performed at:
Soundance Studio Theater
Triskelion Arts (Split Bill)
Movement Research at the Judson Church
performance by Dorothy Chen, Greta Hartenstein, Allison Hurd, Samantha Sherman, Sophie Sotsky
sound by Erik T. Lawson
The Bloodgates (2013)
On the psychotic nature of trying to do something impossible
performed at:
The Panoply Performance Laboratory (Post-Dance 3x3)
AUNTS: Chain Curation at St. Nick's Alliance
performance by Greta Hartenstein,and Sophie Sotsky
sound by Erik T. Lawson
The Bloodgates
photo by AUNTS
The Hard Way (2012/2013)
On the comedic/tragicomic/quixotic nature of trying to do something impossible
performed at:
Movement Research, Open Performance, December 2012
WAXworks at Triskelion Arts, January 2013
The Hard Way at Triskelion Arts, January 2013
photo by Eric Bandiero