pre-show VIM VIGOR instant creation
Dancer: Shannon Gillen

HORIZON HIGH
Choreography: Shannon Gillen
Dancers: Jason Cianciulli and Lavinia Vago

post show VIM VIGOR instant creation
Dancers: Shannon Gillen, Jason Cianciulli, and Lavinia Vago

The enigmatic mover and insatiable creator Shannon Gillen brings her innovative language, heightened imagination and cinematic imagery to the beach, with the debut of "Horizon High." The piece explores how different the brain operates when exposed to the intoxicating heat one can't escape on the beach. It references the sense of isolation and the internal thought process - that blinding clarity - that occurs when you sit on the beach, blanketed by the sun. Horizon High showcases the seduction of inner life and the disrupting of that space with the interference of another person.

Shannon Gillen is the founder, artistic director and choreographer of New York's visionary new dance company VIM VIGOR, which is currently being launched. In a 2013 Brooklyn Magazine article that named her as one of city's top twenty artists, Gillen was championed for her 'emotionally compelling' work that 'transcends the things it references and achieves a sort of platonic ideal of intelligent and elevated movement'. And L Magazine later wrote that Gillen's dancers 'force you to the edge of your seat, breath held, hands clenched.' 

Photo series by Samantha Casolari