1. Superposition choreographed by Angela Hill

Superposition will start off the show in the round, referencing the observer effect on waves and particles in response to Richard Jolley’s Cycles of Life with a nod to Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring, Gregory Barsamian’s kinetic sculptures, Busby Berkeley’s kaleidoscopic dances and the many layers of art and dance that will unfold throughout Shadows and Light. The audience are invited to be engaged observers, noticing their effect on the dancers and how the dancers affect them, inspiring them to move out of their seats on the way to the experiences that await in the upper levels of the KMA.

2. P(art)(take) choreographed by Nate Barrett with the dancers

P(art)(take) is a structured improvisation. The dancers have been given themes and a rough sketch map for the several components that make up the dance, but no set choreography or blocking has specifically been given. It is up to the dancers to establish the patterns, flows, and shapes that will connect the dancers to one another, the performance space, the motif of the piece, and most importantly, an audience.

This is about being a human with humans in a museum.

3A. Lucid choreographed by Angela Hill and Jill Frere

“Birds dip their wings in the lucid flow of air.” The dancers follow their attention, raising sensations to the upper realms of the body and space. A counterpiece to Soft Sleep, Lucid is an investigation into what happens when we slow the body down in order to heighten awareness.  The mind becomes calm and the senses become Luminous.

3B. Soft Sleep choreographed by Jill Frere

Rest and touch cost us nothing. So how do our granaries get so low? Soft Sleep is a dance of aspirational connectivity and an ode to the nervous system. In his book Dream Yoga, Andrew Holecek writes, “Hypnagogic states may seem like a mishmash of experiences, but researchers have distinguished at least four main stages: 1) bursts of color and light, 2) drifting nature scenes and faces, 3) thought-image amalgamations, and 4) hypnagogic dreamlets.” KMA’s “Higher Ground” is an ideal space to house this love affair with the nap. Frere’s structured improvisation draws upon the dreamy paintings of the collection to create a physical vocabulary and then put it to use in a playful exploration of the four stages of dream.

3C. Warp and Weft choreographed by Angela Hill with the dancers

Warp and Weft explores chaos, control, and repair in response to the shadows and light of Cajon Desastre (or Disaster Drawer). Looking at the rug as a metaphor for divergent perspectives in a system where biases are woven in and patterns are generated, manipulated, repeated and unraveled while opening and closing Pandora’s Box of progress in response to Electricity for All.

3D. Rhetorical Fallacies Paralyze the Aching Heart, or ChatGPT Prompts to Chill to on a Summer Evening choreographed by Kimberly Matibag

This piece incorporates ideas from the Electricity for All exhibit with the videos by Trevor Paglan’s Behold These Glorious Times and Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Logic Paralyzes the Heart and using ChatGPT to marry rhetorical fallacies with supportive movements, figuratively and literally.

4. Electric Field Theory choreographed by Heather Coker Hawkins

Electricity courses through every living being—an invisible, volatile force that powers our existence, from the smallest primordial cell to the complexity of human behavior. This site-specific dance, inspired by the Electricity for All exhibit and Richard Jolley’s Cycles of Life sculpture, explores the tension between chaos and control, energy and order, as it unfolds through movement. Rooted in the evolution of life, the piece draws from both the physical properties of electricity and its social implications, illuminating the spark that unites, disrupts, and transforms us.

5. things you lose and find to minimize when you put stuff in a box choreographed by Kimberly Matibag with the dancers

I am responding to a piece in the Currents exhibition Sarah Greenberger Rafferty’s Failures, Mimi Onuoha’s The Library of Missing Datasets and the Thorne Rooms. I am exploring what is lost when we try to make ourselves smaller to fit into a box, and also what crystallizes for ourselves when we refine our intention.

6. Free Admission choreographed by Jill Frere

Public art stages a coup to liberate the undervalued inner life! Inspired by a giant museum advertisement, “Free Admission” celebrates this liberty with dancers weaving verbal and kinesthetic responses to the current exhibits at the KMA. This experience is happening outside in the southern sculpture garden, envisaging a nurturing dialogue between the landscapes we carry and the landscapes we create.

1. Superposition choreographed by Angela Hill

Superposition will start off the show in the round, referencing the observer effect on waves and particles in response to Richard Jolley’s Cycles of Life with a nod to Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring, Gregory Barsamian’s kinetic sculptures, Busby Berkeley’s kaleidoscopic dances and the many layers of art and dance that will unfold throughout Shadows and Light. The audience are invited to be engaged observers, noticing their effect on the dancers and how the dancers affect them, inspiring them to move out of their seats on the way to the experiences that await in the upper levels of the KMA.

2. P(art)(take) choreographed by Nate Barrett with the dancers

P(art)(take) is a structured improvisation. The dancers have been given themes and a rough sketch map for the several components that make up the dance, but no set choreography or blocking has specifically been given. It is up to the dancers to establish the patterns, flows, and shapes that will connect the dancers to one another, the performance space, the motif of the piece, and most importantly, an audience.

This is about being a human with humans in a museum.

3A. Lucid choreographed by Angela Hill and Jill Frere

“Birds dip their wings in the lucid flow of air.” The dancers follow their attention, raising sensations to the upper realms of the body and space. A counterpiece to Soft Sleep, Lucid is an investigation into what happens when we slow the body down in order to heighten awareness.  The mind becomes calm and the senses become Luminous.

3B. Soft Sleep choreographed by Jill Frere

Rest and touch cost us nothing. So how do our granaries get so low? Soft Sleep is a dance of aspirational connectivity and an ode to the nervous system. In his book Dream Yoga, Andrew Holecek writes, “Hypnagogic states may seem like a mishmash of experiences, but researchers have distinguished at least four main stages: 1) bursts of color and light, 2) drifting nature scenes and faces, 3) thought-image amalgamations, and 4) hypnagogic dreamlets.” KMA’s “Higher Ground” is an ideal space to house this love affair with the nap. Frere’s structured improvisation draws upon the dreamy paintings of the collection to create a physical vocabulary and then put it to use in a playful exploration of the four stages of dream.

3C. Warp and Weft choreographed by Angela Hill with the dancers

Warp and Weft explores chaos, control, and repair in response to the shadows and light of Cajon Desastre (or Disaster Drawer). Looking at the rug as a metaphor for divergent perspectives in a system where biases are woven in and patterns are generated, manipulated, repeated and unraveled while opening and closing Pandora’s Box of progress in response to Electricity for All.

3D. Rhetorical Fallacies Paralyze the Aching Heart, or ChatGPT Prompts to Chill to on a Summer Evening choreographed by Kimberly Matibag

This piece incorporates ideas from the Electricity for All exhibit with the videos by Trevor Paglan’s Behold These Glorious Times and Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Logic Paralyzes the Heart and using ChatGPT to marry rhetorical fallacies with supportive movements, figuratively and literally.

4. Electric Field Theory choreographed by Heather Coker Hawkins

Electricity courses through every living being—an invisible, volatile force that powers our existence, from the smallest primordial cell to the complexity of human behavior. This site-specific dance, inspired by the Electricity for All exhibit and Richard Jolley’s Cycles of Life sculpture, explores the tension between chaos and control, energy and order, as it unfolds through movement. Rooted in the evolution of life, the piece draws from both the physical properties of electricity and its social implications, illuminating the spark that unites, disrupts, and transforms us.

5. things you lose and find to minimize when you put stuff in a box choreographed by Kimberly Matibag with the dancers

I am responding to a piece in the Currents exhibition Sarah Greenberger Rafferty’s Failures, Mimi Onuoha’s The Library of Missing Datasets and the Thorne Rooms. I am exploring what is lost when we try to make ourselves smaller to fit into a box, and also what crystallizes for ourselves when we refine our intention.

6. Free Admission choreographed by Jill Frere

Public art stages a coup to liberate the undervalued inner life! Inspired by a giant museum advertisement, “Free Admission” celebrates this liberty with dancers weaving verbal and kinesthetic responses to the current exhibits at the KMA. This experience is happening outside in the southern sculpture garden, envisaging a nurturing dialogue between the landscapes we carry and the landscapes we create.