As the culmination to the Winter 2023 Residency, Studio 210 presented the projects of the two artists-in-residence:

Alyssa Mitchel  (photos 1 & 2) presented a new piece titled “Regard” that focuses on the inherent struggles at the intersection of friendship and art. She is a choreographer and teacher who uses storytelling and mindfulness to foster human connection. Alyssa premiered her outdoor production, Here. Now. (2021) in partnership with the Exploratorium. She’s currently a creative partner with the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Alyssa holds a B.A. in education from Dominican University of CA.

Moscelyne ParkeHarrison & Anthony Pucci (photos 3 & 4), presented a new collaboration titled “not with a bang but with a sigh” which explores truth, ignorance, and entropy inspired by The Cassandra Complex.

Moscelyne ParkeHarrison is an artist from the Berkshires, MA. She graduated from The Juilliard School (’19), Hubbard Street Pro (’20), and Walnut Hill School for the Arts (’15). She is the Associate Artistic Director, Resident Choreographer, and Company Dancer at Post:ballet, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of BODYSONNET, and a bicoastal freelance choreographer and teacher.

Anthony Pucci was born and raised in Iowa. He is a freelance dance artist currently working mainly with Para.Mar Dance Theater, Ballare Carmel, Post:ballet, and Tori Lawrence + Co. He is currently nomadic and enjoys working in many environments and with different voices and missions.

Photos by Kyle Adler

Dancers (clockwise from back L): Fabiana Santiago, Alice Wells, Pakela Newalu-Gomes, Juan Ruiz

Live music by cellist David Goldblatt

Anthony Pucci (top) & Moscelyne ParkeHarrison perform.

Anthony Pucci & Moscelyne ParkeHarrison

As the culmination to the Summer 2022 Residency, Studio 210 presented the projects of the two artists-in-residence:

Xochipilli Dance Company, led by Bay Area performer and choreographer Héctor Jaime, will present Codornices en Pétalos de Rosa, an investigation of love, romance and heartbreak. Codornices en Pétalos de Rosa examines vulnerability, beauty, and the magic of love through the lens of people of color. (Photos 1 & 2)

Surabhi Bharadwaj, a seasoned dancer, choreographer, and teacher who holds an MFA in Bharatanatyam, will present The Maze, a dance exploration of mind and body navigating the inner constraints and societal complexities that we all are constantly negotiating. Linking personal barriers to hegemonic ideals, The Maze hopes to untangle the webs that confine us. (Photos 3 & 4)

Photos by Tim Isom

Studio 210 residents Preethi Ramaprasad & Isabel Umali presented their residency projects, followed by a discussion with the artists led by Deborah Slater.

Preethi Ramaprasad is a seasoned practitioner, choreographer, and scholar of Bharatanatyam and a doctoral candidate of Critical Dance Studies at UC Riverside. She presented A Movement Beyond: In Search of Noon Meem Danish, made in collaboration with composer and vocalist Ananya Ashok. A Movement Beyond uses (trans)national South Asian poetry to explore questions of visibility from the eyes of a Bharatanatyam dancer impacted by the politics of India and the United States.

Brooklyn-based artist Isabel Umali brings years of experience as a contemporary dancer, improviser, and biodynamic craniosacral therapist to her project Shift//Loss, a duet with composer and musician Dustin Carlson. This project explores the internal journey of change and discovery through the lens of archetype and image as a way to access the subconscious. Danced by Isabel Umali with music by Dustin Carlson, Shift//Loss is a work-in-progress exploring the depths of one woman’s internal world and how she integrates her disparate parts.

Residents Angela Arteritano & Alyssandra Katherine Dance (Alyssandra Wu) present work in a virtual showing exploring themes of identity & viewership, migration & belonging. Both residents presented dance films made in collaboration with Clare Schweitzer which explore the perspectives and experiences of historically marginalized communities. Performances were followed by discussions with the artists, moderated by award-winning choreographer Deborah Slater.

Drawing from her background in visual art and Traditional Flamenco, Angela Arteritano utilizes an interdisciplinary choreographic practice to generate a multimedia experience which encapsulates the many layers and dualities experienced by the body in migration in her dance film, “Retratos Migrantes.” Photos by Kyle Adler

In “The Oriental Woman”, Alyssandra Katherine Dance explores the stereotypes and fetishization of Asian women in Western culture and how, historically, Asian women’s identities are strongly defined by the misogynistic white perspective in Occidental countries.

Residents Cynthia Ling Lee & Bahiya Movement (led by duo Afia & Nafi Thomson) explore rituals of grief and healing in response to our current moment of crisis. Exploring forms and presentation models, residents present projects on a virtual platform. The evening concludes with an audience-artist exchange. 

Abacus by Bahiya Movement 

Abacus is a dance video in which “abused feelings reject the calculated process of healing.” Exploring the body’s response to trauma and challenges brought about by recovery, Bahiya Movement seeks to uncover the painful process of healing and the strength one must find to persevere.

Grief Rituals/Somatic Scores for Living During a Pandemic by Cynthia Ling Lee

Cynthia Ling Lee explores participatory structures that create intimacy, invite somatic embodiment, and offer communal rituals for processing grief and trauma. Ranging from audio-based improvisational scores to carefully crafted mourning rituals on Zoom, her work asks questions specific to our current moment: how can you satisfy a hunger for physical touch while in isolation? How can we grieve together during this moment?

Resident artists Evan Johnson and ensemble the Cosmic Elders, and Bhumi B. Patel and pateldanceworks explore creating and presenting a virtual performance, inviting virtual audiences to focus on the intersection of embodied sensation over stagnant forms, and explores how remote technology can forge creative ground within our climate of national crisis. The evening culminates in an audience-artist discussion. 

Voice Over Project by Evan Johnson/Cosmic Elders

Voice Over Project inquires how to subvert traditional systems of power through innovative technological forms. Through various experiments of de-centering and de-constructing how the body and voice are experienced, the intergenerational group will navigate uncharted territories within the context of remote performance making.

the long shadow by Bhumi B. Patel/pateldanceworks

the long shadow, a reimagined virtual performance extending from our work “divisions the empire has sown.” Patel and collaborators look at the questions of resistance and resilience, dominance and dissonance, and the shadows of colonization that we are all part of today.

Resident artists Nol Simonse (in collaboration with Miche Wong) and Emelia Martinez Brumbaugh research socially and culturally urgent practices, exploring eroticism, fluidity, race, and ritual. An evening of experimental exchange, culminating in an audience-artist discussion.

Clown Cage by Nol Simonse & Miche Wong

Sigil1 by Emelia (Jubilee July) Martínez Brumbaugh

SIGIL: A symbolically significant set of pathways charged with desire/intention to re-pattern, make change, and/or power a specific outcome.

What candles have been or should be lit to honor boundaries crossed? 

How do you build a portal made out of walls?

What does consent look like when channeling rage?

What negative space is liberated when you say “no”?

How can you ensure that it is a spiral, not a circle?

What would you say “no” to if your magic power was that each “no” would be heard and respected?

What divine powers do triangles hold?

More photos: 

All photos by Tim Isom

Deborah Slater Dance Theater and Studio 210 present Julie Crothers and Kuan-Hsuan Lee in a double bill evening of research and conversation. Join us for this annual forum that invests in local artists, providing them with space and mentorship over two months.

Secondhand by Julie Crothers

Baby arms, robo arms, swimming arms, old gloves, and broken off fingers – all sitting untouched in a box at the top of my closet. A timeline of the life of a congenital amputee. What can be discovered by circling back, unpacking the box, and repurposing my prosthetics as I examine my current relationship to my extra arms, not as something I rely on for comfort or security, but as something absurd, potentially useful, and still deeply personal. I’m curious about how the brain views a body in motion when it has to fill in the holes versus when the holes are filled by something artificial. I’m curious about gestures that hold space for an invisible arm compared to those that don’t. Specifically, I’m curious about what would happen if the left sleeve in my long sleeve shirt grew to 3 feet, 6 feet, 12 feet, so long that eventually all of me is all tangled up in excess, excess of something that was never necessary in the first place.

a kuan–hsuan & Artificial Nana by Kuan-Hsuan Lee

Looking at the whole piece, the elements of “performing” and “watching” was particularly fascinating to me, different pieces constitute different kinds of performing based on “the functions”, “who is looking”, “how/why they are looking”, etc.

What is my position in this piece as I also watch myself throughout the process while you are looking at me?

I wonder what would my body do and the functions of it doing so.

Moments of underrepresented by my own actions for complicated or confusing reasons (or not even), I drifted away from my body and I observed me “performing”.

The newly developed solo is mainly researching the idea of objectified bodies and manipulated forces. It is a different focus of research which influenced by my previous work, 人工娜娜/Artificial Nana, a piece specifically drawing topics on female stereotypes and gender performances. These two pieces are coming from a highly personal/emotional place, I placed them together, I look at their relationships with each other, my relationships with them, and my relationship with myself.

More photos:

All photos by Tim Isom

DSDT Studio 210 Summer Residency was thrilled to support 13th floor and Sarah Cecilia for DSDT’s 6th Summer Residency Showing. On July 28 & 29, performances were followed by a conversation with the artists and with choreographer Deborah Slater, held at Studio 210 Theater.