PRELUDE Festival 2023
DANCE
So Brutal It Feels Like Home
Alison Clancy
Dance, Music
English
30 min
8:00PM EST
Friday, October 13, 2023
Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center, 5th Avenue, New York, NY, USA
Is it possible for a room to be empty when your memories keep breaking through the walls?
Alison Clancy’s drone-pop-psych-Americana piece So Brutal It Feels Like Home puts you in a liminal space where ghosts ricochet off every surface. This is about the same thing that makes wild dogs howl. Three dancers, Clancy’s live ethereal vocals and electric guitar, and multi-spectrum lighting and shadows transport us from ecstatic vistas to the bottom of the well. Landing somewhere between a rock show / dance concert / performance installation the work is haunting in its simple brutality, emotional intimacy and physical virtuosity.
This piece was created with support from Susannah Lee Griffee and the NY State Dance Force Choreogrpaher's Initiative Award
Content / Trigger Description:
Dreaming of beauty and collective catharsis, Alison Clancy designs projects bridging between worlds...
Haunting solo music performances weave tapestries of electric guitar into expansive, brooding drone-psyche Americana. Incantatory vocals reveal delicate vulnerability and gritty volatility. Alison summons ghosts from machines. Performances often incorporate expressionistic choreography in collaboration with virtuosic dancers.
Alison's choreographic work is informed by a deep relationship with classical ballet, but subverts technique in exploration of primordial sensuality. Illuminating the authority of each body's authentic story, the essence of performers are invited to burn and melt the form. Alison's approach is equal parts visceral and visual, often incorporating cinematic custom lighting and video installations. 2022 recipient of the New York State Dance Force Choreographer's Initiative Award.