Studies

Nancy

2013

A performer in black shorts steps forward (arms pointed straight in front of her) lit by a column of fluorescent light. Photo by Simon Courchel.

Overlapping, translucent performers wearing black and white in dark space.

NANCY operated as a site-adaptable portrait of performer Nancy Ellis. Framed by a 12’ x 12’ platform and surrounded by fluorescents, four performers took on the challenge of representation through the performance of simultaneous solos. Composed of movement that made neither logical or somatic sense, NANCY placed the performers in a situation where flow was nearly impossible. As they worked to simultaneously remember and perform, there was little to hold onto but the body trust that comes from repetition.

NANCY was commissioned by the BEAT Festival and premiered at the Brooklyn Museum.

Team

Director, Choreographer: Yanira Castro

Performers: Toni Carlson, Tess Dworman, Kirsten Michelle Schnittker, Anna Marie Shogren, and Pamela Vail

Installation, Lighting Designer: Kathy Couch

Sound Designer: Stephan Moore

Presentations

The BEAT Festival, Brooklyn, NY, September 12–20, 2013 (World Premiere)

CATCH, Knockdown Center, Queens, NY, May 30, 2016

The 92nd Street Y, Fridays at Noon, New York, NY, January 22, 2016

Island Moving Company Open for Dancing Festival, Newport, RI, September 21–22, 2013

Funding

The creation of NANCY was made possible by a commission from The BEAT Festival.

Five Performers Demonstrate a Field

2012

Two performers stand in front of a hemisphere speaker backlit by an umbrella light. A keyboardist sits nearby in a narrow hall. Photo by John Preston Gomez.

A performer arches her neck back and uses both arms to affect the tones emanating from the hemisphere speaker she is standing in front of. Photo by John Preston Gomez.

Five Performers Demonstrate a Field was an investigation of how movement affects aural tones emanating from an environment of hemisphere speakers in the sanctum of the Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn.

Five Performers Demonstrate a Field was created for ISSUE Project Room’s Floating Point Residency.

Team

Directors: Benjamin Bernstein and Yanira Castro

Sound Designer, Composer: Benjamin Bernstein

Choreographer: Yanira Castro

Performers: Anna Garcia (trumpet), Amity Jones (dancer), Peter Lanctot (violin),

Marina Libel (dancer) and Sam Silver (keyboard)

Installation Designer: Charles Merritt Houghton

Lighting Designers: Yanira Castro & Charles Merritt Houghton

Funding

The creation of Five Performers Demonstrate a Field was made possible by an ISSUE Project Room Floating Points Residency.

HEATHER O

2011

Four images of a performer in a white leotard stepping in each of the four cardinal directions on a square platform stage.

The video of Heather O playing on a small box TV on a pedestal during a performance of The People To Come at the Invisible Dog.

Heather O was a solo for dancer Kimberly Young that explored portraiture, projection, and presence through movement Castro created with and for longstanding collaborator and performer Heather Olson from 2002 to 2008. It was created as the foundational movement material for the performers of The People to Come as a choreographic vocabulary that they could use before an audience in their improvisational and choreographic practice. The solo was displayed in the Archive Station of the The People to Come as a video for the performers and audience to reference.

Team

Director, Choreographer: Yanira Castro

Performer: Kimberly Young

Visual Environment Designer: Kathy Couch

Sound & Video Designer: Stephan Moore

Costume Designer: Albert Sakhai

Works