NEW CREATION: MARIGRAM
Hyperspace Dance is producing an exciting new collaboration between myself, Cairo-based dance artist Mohamed Yousry Shika, and filmmaker Laura X Moya. We are building an evening length dance work accompanied by original video inspired by my and Shika's respective connections to Tiananmen Square in 1989 and Tahrir Square in 2011. “Marigram” is an exploration of the tidal structure of mass protests: approaching, flooding, receding. In this current moment of #BlackLivesMatter we couldn't help but be reminded of protests past and those feelings of tentative hope, giddy possibilities, fear, tension, disappointment, and constant questioning.
The three of us met during a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) in October 2015. Once Shika and I started sharing stories about our mass protests memories, we recognized similar emotions, patterns, and most interestingly, how those memories were affecting our perception of any protest movement that followed. After further discussion, we came to realize that we needed an intelligent visual context for the piece and brought Laura into the project. She will create a film poem around set narrative pieces, choreography filmed around New York City, personal photographs from Shika and I, and newsreel footage of both events.
Shika will travel from Cairo to New York at the beginning of October 2016 and will be here for about 5 weeks. We will be doing intensive movement research and material building for "Marigram", from filming around the city to working in BRIC's performance space in an exclusive residency. We will be holding showings of work-in-progress at BRIC on October 27th and performing a more polished excerpt at Triskelion Arts on November 6th as part of their CollabFest.
"Marigram" is sponsored by CEC Artslink, and is being built through a generous space grant and development support from BRIC (Brooklyn, NY).
Annie Wang/Hyperspace Dance is a member artist of New York Live Arts, Inc., a non-profit tax-exempt organization. Contributions in support of Annie Wang’s work are greatly appreciated and may be made payable to New York Live Arts, Inc., earmarked for “the New York Live Arts member project of “Marigram”. A description of the work and current project activities for which such contributions will be used are available from Annie Wang or New York Live Arts, upon request. All contributions are fully deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Note: A copy of New York Live Arts’ latest annual financial report filed with the New York State Department of State may be obtained by writing to the N.Y.S. Dept. of State, Charities Registration, 162 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, 12231, or to New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011)
A clip from the duet that I made for Shika and I at ACA, built around an image he gave me of holding a girl that he didn't know in Tahrir Square.
Teaser from Laura X Moya's award-winning documentary: What The Land Gave Us