Here. Them. Now.
A new dance-theater work for Interact Center
In June 2018, Beth began working with Interact Center in Minneapolis, MN teaching a movement workshop to ~40 Interact performing artists. Since then, she has been asked to build a dance-theater piece with the LGBTQIA-identified artists, and started the process in December 2018. The first full residency for building the work occurred in March 2019, which culminated in an informal showing at TU Dance. This project was just awarded the 2020 MN State Arts Board Arts Touring Grant and will tour to Mayo Clinic in July 2020.
Project Description
NY-based choreographer Beth Graczyk will create a new radically-inclusive dance-theater work called Here. Them. Now. with Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Minneapolis, MN to offer an avenue of making visible the stories and perspectives of LGBTQIA-identified artists with and without disabilities. Utilizing practices derived from her choreographic project Desire Motor, Beth will facilitate an exchange between the artists’ inner and outer worlds - the longings, desires and expressions of sexuality of disabled LGBTQIA persons frequently ignored or silenced by typical society. Featuring 10 Interact company members who self-identify as LGBTQIA, the ensemble will generate movement, text and music that unveils the artists’ multi-dimensional stories and connects the audience to visible expressions of their sexuality, gender and queerness. The piece will then be crafted into a larger choreographic framework and will include non-verbal communication as well as active dialogue and song. An underlying thread in the work will be how society typically fails to acknowledge and/or engage disabled LGBTQIA people through isolation, denial, erasure and the general assumption that disabled people are non-sexual - all under the guise of “protection”. This piece aims to break open this paradigm and spark dialogue on how to better facilitate conversations regarding sexual identities for diversely-abled bodies.
Project Description
NY-based choreographer Beth Graczyk will create a new radically-inclusive dance-theater work called Here. Them. Now. with Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Minneapolis, MN to offer an avenue of making visible the stories and perspectives of LGBTQIA-identified artists with and without disabilities. Utilizing practices derived from her choreographic project Desire Motor, Beth will facilitate an exchange between the artists’ inner and outer worlds - the longings, desires and expressions of sexuality of disabled LGBTQIA persons frequently ignored or silenced by typical society. Featuring 10 Interact company members who self-identify as LGBTQIA, the ensemble will generate movement, text and music that unveils the artists’ multi-dimensional stories and connects the audience to visible expressions of their sexuality, gender and queerness. The piece will then be crafted into a larger choreographic framework and will include non-verbal communication as well as active dialogue and song. An underlying thread in the work will be how society typically fails to acknowledge and/or engage disabled LGBTQIA people through isolation, denial, erasure and the general assumption that disabled people are non-sexual - all under the guise of “protection”. This piece aims to break open this paradigm and spark dialogue on how to better facilitate conversations regarding sexual identities for diversely-abled bodies.
Photos: James LeKatz
Collaborators:
Aaron Gabriel (composer/performer) is a Minneapolis-based composer who has written music and lyrics for nearly 20 productions over the past decade. Recent collaborations include, Hot Funky Butt Jazz with Interact Theater at the Guthrie, Owl Moon at Stages Theater, Sunrise at Midnight with Taous Khazem, In My Heart: The Adoption Play Project with Wonderlust Productions and Petroleum at Hamline University. They have worked at theaters throughout the Twin Cities including Theater Latte Da, Guthrie Theater, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, Illusion Theater, Children's Theatre Company, Minnesota Opera, Nautilus Music Theater and Chicago Avenue Project and in 2010 he received an Ivey Award for Original Score. They regularly collaborate nationally and internationally in New York, New Orleans, Algeria, Congo, India, Thailand, England and France. Aaron holds degrees from Augsburg College in Minneapolis and Kings College in London. Their album LISTEN is available on iTunes and amazon.com. www.aarongabrielcomposer.com
Paris-based visual and movement artist Alejandro Komori (visual elements) will work with the visual artists at Interact Center in Minneapolis, MN to create radically inclusive 2-D form drawing collages that capture and reflect the diverse physical bodies of Interact artists who identify as LGBTQIA. Komori will use his experience as a queer Mexican-Japanese visual artist and dancer to help guide and inspire the visual artists express their identities through collage. Also, he will continue to explore the themes and techniques expressed in his most recent movement/art installation Night Distance in Goa, India and Landart as part of the KYTA Institute in the Himalayas. Komori’s recent works explore the imagination’s power to transform into any element that represents the spirit. His installations are highly interactive and involve he and the audience interactive physically with 2-D drawing by suspending them from passage ways, placing them in functional features like chairs or beds or by printing them on glass so one can move on either side of them. Once the collages and other art pieces are created, the artwork will be incorporated into the dance-theater piece Here. Them. Now. [described in full above] - a piece that offers an under-represented sexual identities of diversely-abled LGBTQIA community.
Kymani Kahlil Queen (assistant choreographer/performer)
Heather Bunch (performer)
Aaron Gabriel (composer/performer) is a Minneapolis-based composer who has written music and lyrics for nearly 20 productions over the past decade. Recent collaborations include, Hot Funky Butt Jazz with Interact Theater at the Guthrie, Owl Moon at Stages Theater, Sunrise at Midnight with Taous Khazem, In My Heart: The Adoption Play Project with Wonderlust Productions and Petroleum at Hamline University. They have worked at theaters throughout the Twin Cities including Theater Latte Da, Guthrie Theater, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, Illusion Theater, Children's Theatre Company, Minnesota Opera, Nautilus Music Theater and Chicago Avenue Project and in 2010 he received an Ivey Award for Original Score. They regularly collaborate nationally and internationally in New York, New Orleans, Algeria, Congo, India, Thailand, England and France. Aaron holds degrees from Augsburg College in Minneapolis and Kings College in London. Their album LISTEN is available on iTunes and amazon.com. www.aarongabrielcomposer.com
Paris-based visual and movement artist Alejandro Komori (visual elements) will work with the visual artists at Interact Center in Minneapolis, MN to create radically inclusive 2-D form drawing collages that capture and reflect the diverse physical bodies of Interact artists who identify as LGBTQIA. Komori will use his experience as a queer Mexican-Japanese visual artist and dancer to help guide and inspire the visual artists express their identities through collage. Also, he will continue to explore the themes and techniques expressed in his most recent movement/art installation Night Distance in Goa, India and Landart as part of the KYTA Institute in the Himalayas. Komori’s recent works explore the imagination’s power to transform into any element that represents the spirit. His installations are highly interactive and involve he and the audience interactive physically with 2-D drawing by suspending them from passage ways, placing them in functional features like chairs or beds or by printing them on glass so one can move on either side of them. Once the collages and other art pieces are created, the artwork will be incorporated into the dance-theater piece Here. Them. Now. [described in full above] - a piece that offers an under-represented sexual identities of diversely-abled LGBTQIA community.
Kymani Kahlil Queen (assistant choreographer/performer)
Heather Bunch (performer)