MORIAH EVANS
REPOSE
AUGUST 29 | 1PM - 7PM
Sunday, August 29
1pm - 6pm: Begins on the sand at Beach 86 street
6pm - 7pm: Ends on the sand at Beach 110 street with live sound performance by experimental musician/composer David Watson
Free and open to the public
Performers: Toni Carlson, Maggie Cloud, Marc Crousillat, Brittany Engel-Adams, Moriah Evans, Daria Faïn, Lizzie Feidelson, Melanie Greene, Iréne Hultman, John Hoobyar, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Burr Johnson, Niall Jones, Sarah Beth Percival, jess pretty, Antonio Ramos, Alex Rodabaugh, Carlo Villanueva, Anh Vo, Kota Yamazaki, Andros Zins-Browne
Music: David Watson (composition, live sound & bagpipes) with Sam Kulik (tuba) and Ian Douglas-Moore (live sound)
Dramaturgy: Josh Lubin Levy
Choreographic Assistance and Studio Management: Lydia Okrent
Costumes: The Bureau for the Future of Choreography and Amber Evans
Curation and Production: Sasha Okshteyn
On Sunday, August 29th from 1pm-7pm, Evans’s REPOSE travels the 1.4 mile shoreline between Beach 86th Street and Beach 110th Street. REPOSE borrows from the social and physical choreographies inherent to the beach—from the sun-bathing bodies lying in repose, to the posturing of the self in forms of commercialized leisure sanctioned by the Parks Department that police and maintain the shoreline. By mirroring these actions, REPOSE both imposes on, and blends into, the beach’s elemental composition, landscape, and communities. As the work travels with an evolving cohort of 21 (or more!) dancers, the public is invited, wittingly and unwittingly, to participate. Various instructions and scores for participation will be released online www.beachsessionsdanceseries.com and in print prior to and available on August 29th. At 6pm at Beach 110th Street, experimental musician/composer David Watson will create a new composition activating the beach through sound including live performance and processed field recordings. The beach-as-stage that REPOSE has made use of throughout the day will conclude with a sonic sunset.
The project is supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, with additional support from Black & White Project Space, City Parks Department, NYPopsUp, The Rockaway Retreat House, The Castle, Rockaway, and private donors.
About Moriah Evans
Moriah Evans is an artist working in and on the form of dance. Her choreography employs a speculative relationship to the dancing body and choreography itself. Her works explore the physical interiority of the human body in order to re-script how bodies occupy themselves and the stages that present them. Notable works include BASTARDS: We are All Illegitimate Children (NYU Skirball, Νew York, 2019); Configure (The Kitchen, Νew York, 2018); Figuring (SculptureCenter, Νew York, 2018); Be my Muse (Villa Empain, Brussels, 2016; FD13, Minneapolis, 2017; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, 2018 and permanent collection); Social Dance 9-12: Encounter (Danspace Project, Νew York, 2015); Social Dance 1-8: Index (ISSUE Project Room, Νew York, 2015); Another Performance (Danspace Project, Νew York, 2013); and Out of and Into (8/8): STUFF (Theatre de l’Usine, Geneva, 2012). Her choreographies have been commissioned throughout Νew York and internationally at Kampnagel (Hamburg); Theatre de l’Usine (Geneva); Villa Empain (Brussels); Atelier de Paris (Paris); and Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai).
Evans was Editor-in-Chief of the Movement Research Performance Journal 2013-2020 and continues on as Editorial Director. In 2019 she worked as Curatorial Advisor for Tanzkongress and simultaneously was Co-Artistic Director and Editor of Goethe’s Institut’s Tanzsalons project and the accompanying online publication http://2019.tanzkongress.de/salons/introduction. In 2011 she initiated The Bureau for the Future of Choreography—a collective that explores choreographic systems. She is a co-curator of the Kitchen's Dance and Process series.
She has been a visiting professor in the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at the University of Giessen, Germany and teaches dance and choreographic workshops internationally. Evans has been an artist-in-residence at Movement Research, The New Museum, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Issue Project Room, Studio Series at Νew York Live Arts, ImPulsTanz, MoMA/PS1, MANA Contemporary, Onassis AiR. She was awarded the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award to Artists (2017) and a Bessie Award nomination for Emerging Choreographer (2015). Originally from Ohio, Evans received B.A. in Art History & English from Wellesley College and M.A. in Art History, Theory & Criticism (20thC. Art) from UCSD’s Visual Arts Department. She lives in New York.
About David Watson
David Watson is an experimental musician. He has been an integral figure in NYC’s downtown scene since the 1980s—originally as a guitarist and then as a maker of experimental music for bagpipes. He has created public works for brass and pipe bands, taking them outside their standard contexts including using the outdoors. In New Zealand, he founded Braille Records (1984). He has curated international festivals of experimental music and recently started the New York experimental performance series WoRK. https://davidwatsonmusic.net
On August 29th, REPOSE between Beach 86 to Beach 110 Street. Walk near the boardwalk or at the shore. Run towards the water. Jog. Find someone to walk with, alongside or behind. Look for something far away and watch it until it disappears into the horizon. Make an arch in the sand with your footsteps. When a bird flies overhead, follow it and move at a corresponding pace. Stay close to the person in front of you. Stop mid-step. If you see a shell in the sand, pick it up. Take your time. Swim. Surf. Crouch. Play within group arrangements. Six hours, 1 pm to 7 pm, to be a “Voyeur to the Beach.”
Animation by Lydia Okrent and Moriah Evans
On August 29th, REPOSE along the shoreline between Beach 86 and Beach 110. Sit in the waves and face the horizon. Use your hands to support you. Look over your left shoulder and then your right. Shift your posture with every wave. Watch the figures in the ocean. Sit until you have acclimated to the temperature of the water. See how long you stay in one place. “Touching Water” from 1pm to 7pm.
Animation by Lydia Okrent and Moriah Evans
On August 29TH, REPOSE with a friend from Beach 86 to Beach 110. Stay together from 1pm to 7pm and make attempts to synchronize your movement. Take turns proposing and copying movements. Allow for spontaneity. Pick up handfuls of sand. Before the sand spills out of your hands, throw it towards the water in a “Twin Duet.”
Animation by Lydia Okrent and Moriah Evans
On August 29th, REPOSE in the sand. At 2:13, duet with the tide as it reaches its peak. Once at the edge of the water, hop side to side with each wave. Jump as high as you can and land sitting on the sand without using your hands. Lie down in the surf and let the waves toss you from one position to the next. Crawl to a new location and lie down parallel to the crashing waves. Roll into the ocean. Get out of the water. Walk to a new location in the midst of a crowd, stand parallel to the horizon. Create different postures as you go from standing to lying down. Roll into the ocean again and again. “Jump Lounge Crawl” between Beach 86 to Beach 110 Street.
Animation by Lydia Okrent and Moriah Evans
