Free the Body GROUND SERIES dance + social justice collective
What does it mean to free the body from the personal to social to political settings? How to free the body? Where do you find freedom in the body? What are the sensations and relations to free the body?
'Free the Body' explores liberation through an interactive art and sound installation with live dance, music and Mexica/Aztec drumming performances on Saturdays.
The 'Free the Body' installation and performances will also provide resources for bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, health care and human rights, and will engage extended members of the community as part of GROUND SERIES’ commitment to practice place-based accountability.
Using the text Abolition. Feminism. Now as a framework and inspiration, the exhibition offers a portal for possibility, a refuge for reflection, and a space for sensation.
CONCEIVED AND CHOREOGRAPHED by Brittany Delany SOUND INSTALLATION by Peter DiGennaro and Jordan Lewis LIVE MUSIC by Jordan Lewis and Gabriela Armenta PERFORMANCE by Faisal Alateeg, Claudia Armenta, Lauren Bright, Brittany Delany, Alex Lopez VISUAL ART by Brittany North CREATED for/with Coachella Valley Art Center, Indio, CA COMMUNITY PARTNERS with Danza Azteca Citlaltonac and Wyld Womxn
task uses the platform of the proscenium dance performance to re-map and re-frame the stage's complicity in white supremacy. This dance theater-duet, choreographed and performed by Sarah Ashkin and Brittany Delany, reflects on the problematics of the white cis-female body moving through the foreground and background. Balancing the absurdity, tenderness, violence, and honesty required to engage with racism, gender, and western concert dance, task is a collage of postmodern dance, performance art, satire, and political commentary. Entrenched in themes of failure, listening and accountability, this duet invites the audience to consider their work in the current political moment. Run time: 35 minutes.
task has been performed at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica California (2018), and was part of the guest artist curriculum in the dance departments at Chapman University (2019) and UT Austin (2021).
CHOREOGRAPHED & PERFORMED by Sarah Ashkin and Brittany Delany MUSIC by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs DRAMATURGY by Sue Roginski COSTUME DESIGN / PHOTOGRAPHY by Zoe Koke
STALK - a dance horror film choreographed and danced by Brittany Delany. Co-directed by Brittany Delany and Letxia Cordova, the film features original music by Jordan Lewis and editing by Asher Emmanuel. She developed the work in the Brockus Project Studios’ Winter 2021 SHIFT/ west residency among a dozen women choreographers who were granted this creative opportunity, supported in part by a grant from the California Arts Council. In addition to free studio time and professional development, artists learned about dance film from Kelly Hargraves of Dance Camera West. Premiered June 2021.
Rewilding
Rewilding - Brittany Delany choreographed and performed a live dance 'Rewilding' in response to the Los Angeles State Historic Park environment, as part of Heidi Duckler Dance's Ebb & Flow : Chinatown Festival. She created a duet with violinist Emer Kinsella. Delany has developed site-specific work for a variety of spaces including a church, a basketball gymnasium, a foundry warehouse and national parks. After over a year of staying safer-at-home due to the pandemic, Brittany was thrilled to be among the artists who helped kick off a healthy arts season in Los Angeles, June 2021. Photo by Rush Varela Photography, Courtesy of Heidi Duckler Dance. View video at MEDIA.