The People to Come
2012
“Given the nature of Castro’s call for submission, the attention given to the archival process, and the construction of an articulate, responsive environment—one that is no less systematic than a functional, beast of a machine—it is clear that the spirit of The People to Come is unconfined…: the work is meant to create a sustained universe, one that morphs with us as we experience it, and lingers in us after it finds an ‘end.’”
— Stormy Budwig, Culturebot, “Watching ‘People’ Dance”
The People to Come was a durational performance installation that invited audience members to create inspirational material for the dances unfolding before them. Audiences contributed pictures, text, or video on the project’s website or at the site of performance. Working in consecutive 19-minute intervals—gathering inspiration, rehearsing, and performing—the performers created an original dance, turning words, images, and ideas from the audience into a solo.
The People to Come had its world premiere at Granoff Center for the Creative Arts in Providence, RI. It premiered in New York at The Invisible Dog Art Center and was commissioned and presented by Vermont Performance Lab.
The People to Come‘s online and physical archive of audience-created material was featured in the New Museum’s exhibit, Performance Archiving Performance, which ran November 6, 2013 – January 12, 2014.
Vermont Performance Lab Artist Video: R+D for The People To Come
Team
Director, Choreographer: Yanira Castro
Performers, Co-choreographers: Simon Courchel, Luke Miller, Peter Musante, Peter Schmitz, Darrin Wright
Installation/Lighting/Costume Designer: Kathy Couch
Web Director: Sam Lerner
Composer: Stephan Moore
Musicians: Peter Bussigel, Stephan Moore, Caroline Park, Suzanne Thorpe, Tim Rovinelli
Archivists: Tess Dworman, Kirsten Michelle Schnittker, Kimberly Young
Work-in-Progress
The Yard, Sep 12, 2012
Presentations
Vermont Performance Lab, Sep 29, 2012 (Preview)
Granoff Center for the Creative Arts at Brown University, Providence, RI, October 2–26, 2012 (World Premiere)
SPACE Gallery, April 5–6, 2013
The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY, June 22–29, 2013 (NY Premiere)
New Museum, Performance Archiving Performance, New York, NY, November 6, 2013–January 12, 2014
Video
Press
Stormy Budwig for Culturebot, “Watching ‘People’ Dance”
Brian Seibert for The New York Times, “A Game of Chance (Audience Spins First)”
Brian McCormick for Gay City News, “A Creative Crowd-Sourcing Marathon”
Funding
The People to Come was made possible in part with co-production support by Vermont Performance Lab and funding from The Jerome Foundation. Support and composer commission funds were provided by New Music USA’s Live Music for Dance program.
People was developed through a 2013 Choreography Fellowship and a 2012 Media Residency Fellowship at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and development residencies at The Yard, Vermont Performance Lab, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program through a real estate donation from Savanna.
The performances of People at The Yard, Vermont Performance Lab, Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and Space Gallery were funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies. The performances at Granoff were made possible by the Creative Arts Council at Brown University and at SPACE Gallery by a Maine Arts Commission grant.
The New York Premiere of The People to Come was sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (BAC), and was made possible, in part, by The Invisible Dog’s Kickstarter donors, and by a canary torsi‘s Kickstarter donors.
