Donna Costello presents "almost," an Interactive Performance & Installation
Company:
Donna Costello, Larry Jackson, Jennifer Paar, Stacy Lynn Smith and C. TaiTai
almost, exploring perspectives in how we see ourselves and each other through interactive performance and design, premieres at CPR – Center for Performance Research, June 24-26, 2022.
Dance artist Donna Costello presents the premiere of almost, an interactive performance and installation co-created with designers Larry Jackson and Jennifer Paar, and performers Stacy Lynn Smith and C. Tai Tai. almost begins on Friday June 24, 2022 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 26, 2022. Performances are at CPR – Center for Performance Research as part of the @CPR Performance Series at 361 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211. The performances are all at 7:30pm and the ticket price is a sliding scale $15-$25. For tickets visit https://almost.eventbrite.com. For more information, visit donnacostello.org | cprnyc.org.
almost reframes the performance space to welcome and get to know who we are together within a shared exchange. Viewers are invited to create a visual artifact uplifting their identity, considering how they want to be seen and simultaneously the performance begins. This project aims to elevate feminist ideas while embracing, negotiating and transforming the complexities of one’s identity. Lead artist Donna Costello states, “When we know ourselves and see one another in our complete humanity, we can be fully expressive in the world.”
Inside an ever-changing environment of frames, paper, mylar and movement three performers (Donna Costello, Stacy Lynn Smith and C. Tai Tai) steer separate narratives unraveling internally imposed and outwardly enforced identities as their bodies contort, adapt, destroy, and transform over time. Costumes of layered paper, tulle and mylar (by Jennifer Paar) cage, cover and reveal the performers. Visual designer Larry Jackson responds in real-time, framing the performers with large rectangles and asks the audience “to look.” His framing offers an opportunity to confront personal perspectives, societal constraints, and the shimmering possibilities of revolution.
Development of almost was supported by a Park Avenue Armory Education Space Grant, For the Artists! Residency Program at MOtiVE Brooklyn, North American Cultural Lab Deep Space Residency, BAX, and Donna Costello is a 2021-2022 Women-In-Motion Commissioned Artist.
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