Join us for an evening of in-process sharing of a new dance-theater work, featuring sculptures made from bio-based materials.
This is a slow, evolving process, built on shifting states—unstable and under constant experimentation. In this moment, dancers Rachel Sigrid Freeburg, Beth Graczyk, and Leah Wilks navigate the dynamics of autonomy and togetherness in performance. They calibrate to states of heightened attention, engaging with bio-based materials in unusual phases of transformation. What does it mean to attempt to prolong the life of things on the verge of decay—pressing into matter and feeling its resistance? How does a visceral exchange with forgotten or discarded materials, like eggshells—a potent symbol of transformation—prompt reflection on origins and unfolding journeys, where body and material might converge and evoke their own cycles of disintegration and renewal?
Directed by Beth Graczyk
Sound by Aaron Gabriel
Performed by Rachel Sigrid Freeburg, Beth Graczyk & Leah Wilks
This is a slow, evolving process, built on shifting states—unstable and under constant experimentation. In this moment, dancers Rachel Sigrid Freeburg, Beth Graczyk, and Leah Wilks navigate the dynamics of autonomy and togetherness in performance. They calibrate to states of heightened attention, engaging with bio-based materials in unusual phases of transformation. What does it mean to attempt to prolong the life of things on the verge of decay—pressing into matter and feeling its resistance? How does a visceral exchange with forgotten or discarded materials, like eggshells—a potent symbol of transformation—prompt reflection on origins and unfolding journeys, where body and material might converge and evoke their own cycles of disintegration and renewal?
Directed by Beth Graczyk
Sound by Aaron Gabriel
Performed by Rachel Sigrid Freeburg, Beth Graczyk & Leah Wilks
Beth Graczyk is an independent performance artist and Artistic Director of Beth Graczyk Productions.
Beth Graczyk is a choreographer, performer, biochemist, and educator who explores the alignments and incongruencies of what appear to be concrete facts with what is felt and observed within the human experience. At the core of her work are intersectional dialogues that focus on expressing unseen or ignored perspectives, including femme-identifying, neurodiverse, LGBTQIA2+, and non-human forms in nature. Her practice centers around forming structures from visceral impulses that examine the interplay between uncertainty and materiality, particularly in relation to perception, vulnerability and connection.
Beth Graczyk is a choreographer, performer, biochemist, and educator who explores the alignments and incongruencies of what appear to be concrete facts with what is felt and observed within the human experience. At the core of her work are intersectional dialogues that focus on expressing unseen or ignored perspectives, including femme-identifying, neurodiverse, LGBTQIA2+, and non-human forms in nature. Her practice centers around forming structures from visceral impulses that examine the interplay between uncertainty and materiality, particularly in relation to perception, vulnerability and connection.
Desire Motor
Thresholds
Other Collaborations
Biography
Beth Graczyk is a choreographer, director, performer, educator, and scientist based in Brooklyn/Lenapehoking. Her 22-year career blending creative practice and scientific inquiry offers a unique perspective on art and science. Her work is deeply rooted in improvisation and integrates postmodern, modern, somatic, and physical theater modalities. As the Artistic Director of Beth Graczyk Productions, Inc. (BGP), a national nonprofit based in NYC, she creates contemporary dance projects that celebrate LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse communities. Since 2002, Graczyk has performed and choreographed across the US and internationally, including in Japan, Ecuador, France, China, and India. Her work has been presented by Velocity Dance Center, Gibney, La MaMa, JACK, CPR, and Movement Research, among others. Her company’s recent dance documentary film, "Waiting for the Bus," explores self-expression, movement, and identity through the lens of autism and has been selected for the 2024 NY Global Lift-Off and Sans Souci Dance Film Festivals.
Since 2019, Graczyk has been a faculty member at the NYC Peridance Certification Program, teaching improvisation. She also works part-time as a Research Specialist at The Rockefeller University in the lab of MacArthur Fellow Dr. Vanessa Ruta, studying olfaction in insects. Graczyk is an author on ten science publications and received a 2020 Pilot Award from Rockefeller University with collaborator and neuroscientist Guadalupe Astorga for research on visual perception and neurodiversity. From 2008 to 2016, she co-directed the performance company Salt Horse in Seattle, receiving funding from 4Culture, Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission, NEA, and commissions from the City of Seattle, Northwest Film Forum, and Cornish College. She has collaborated with artists such as John Maria Gutierrez (G^2), Aaron Gabriel, Amy Chavasse, and Torben Ulrich, and has danced for Sara Shelton Mann, Mark Haim, Raja Kelly, and Molly Scott, among others.
@bethgraczyk
Since 2019, Graczyk has been a faculty member at the NYC Peridance Certification Program, teaching improvisation. She also works part-time as a Research Specialist at The Rockefeller University in the lab of MacArthur Fellow Dr. Vanessa Ruta, studying olfaction in insects. Graczyk is an author on ten science publications and received a 2020 Pilot Award from Rockefeller University with collaborator and neuroscientist Guadalupe Astorga for research on visual perception and neurodiversity. From 2008 to 2016, she co-directed the performance company Salt Horse in Seattle, receiving funding from 4Culture, Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission, NEA, and commissions from the City of Seattle, Northwest Film Forum, and Cornish College. She has collaborated with artists such as John Maria Gutierrez (G^2), Aaron Gabriel, Amy Chavasse, and Torben Ulrich, and has danced for Sara Shelton Mann, Mark Haim, Raja Kelly, and Molly Scott, among others.
@bethgraczyk
Beth Graczyk Productions, Inc is a 501(c)(3) based in NYC
Beth Graczyk Productions, Inc is committed to anti-racism and de-colonization practices through self-education, community engagement, and sustaining connections and support with individuals and organizations engaging in the work.
Video & edit: Rooftop, Beth Graczyk
Photos: Effy Grey
Photos: Effy Grey