There Above The Ache

The University of the Arts - Fall 2023

CHOREOGRAPHER: Abigail Mosier (in collaboration with the dancers)

PERFORMERS: Alexis Stus, Dae Shivers, Darrell Spearman, Eleanor Redgrave, Megan Matthieu

COLLABORATORS: Musicians: Alex Bowser (Guitarist) & Jimmy Butterfield (Sound Design)

MUSIC: “Song To The Siren” by Amen Dunes, “18th Floor Balcony” by Blue October, “Femenine: No. 1, Prime” by Julius Eastman, Wild Up, and Christopher Rountree. Field recordings taken from Fattoria Poggio di Dante in Tuscany, Italy - July 2023.

Spoken word excerpts: from Citizen: “Some years there exists a wanting to escape” by Claudia Rankine.

COSTUME DESIGN: Olivia Best, Hayley Newell, Dae Shivers, JeMia “JT” Terry

MAKEUP DESIGN: Abigail Mosier

Photo Credit: Christopher Gimmillaro

What remains after the dust settles? Is anything ever really lost? Does something become less physical when it can’t be touched? Does it become more physical if it can only be felt? When you feel its absence when it used to take up a lot of space, does it expand or shrink in size? Do you feel the memory of it? Do you pick it back up and put it where it was? Do you allow it to matter, allow it to be significant, allow yourself to be affected? How do you let go of something that made you feel really alive? What is the weight of losing this thing that once meant nothing? Does it want to be found again? Does it stay special because not a lot of time is spent with it? Does it stay special because it’s always just a little out of reach? Does the sacred ever wilt? Is the sacred meant to be a phoenix? What does it feel like to freefall? Why do we let go best when we feel held? Can you be still in a freefall? Maybe being held feels like a freefall. Is the physicalization invisible? What is dance beyond the physical? An externalization of internal and sensorial experiences? Is the body just the medium? Is the internal the same as the external? Are we always in a call for connection on a molecular level? What does the echo of yourself sound like? How long can it be heard before it’s only a memory?

Photo Credit: Christopher Gimmillaro

some years there exists a wanting to escape

- claudia rankine

Sacred

“All I wanted was to be closer”
When time becomes immeasurable
When silence and awe are your first instincts
Invokes contemplation of something bigger than yourself

Freedom

Overcoming external and internal inhibitions
Joy that has overcome fear
Unrestrained, uninhibited
The ability to live by your own choices

Relationality

Modes of connection between people in space

Transcendence

A cross-fade into the immaterial
Moving above or beyond a former state for an undetermined amount of time

Intimacy

A closeness that has no bounds
A mutual, vulnerable sharing and receiving
What happens when you get to the bottom of your intimacy? (Earth’s core)
Infinity in all directions (x & y axis with z & t which includes space & time)

Stillness

Taking all of the essence of the universe and putting it into one molecule
A pause at the edge of possibility
Absolute Zero (We live in a world above absolute zero so stillness is technically never possible)

Touch