Suzanne Beahrs Dance premieres ‘Amid’

Suzanne Beahrs Dance will present a full evening of dance on March 27-29 at 8 p.m. at Danspace Project in New York City. Amid, a new hour-long dance piece by the company, is a vigorous representation of how a personal trial can take audiences on convoluted journeys through pain, love, fear, loss, joy and resilience. The work for five women expresses how we understand and shape our own stories and is a celebration of the exquisite power in our broken, impermanent selves.

Choreographer Suzanne Beahrs said, “I love suddenly finding myself alone in an elevator, with no one around to bump into or wonder what the heck I’m doing. When the elevator doors close, I may have only a few moments, but my arms swipe and curve, my spine arches and folds, and my legs swing and step. This is how I really feel. As a dancemaker, I try to share with others something that is like what I experience in my elevator moments, daring to reach beyond how we thought we should behave.

“In order to share this experience with the audience, first I try to tap into something based on some seed of intuition, feeling whatever my body does if I let go of any holding or resistance to try something out,” Beahrs continued. “Beyond this initial searching, the work of making dances demands a lot of questioning, revising and refining; I want to create dances that connect us with the intricacy of the present moment through movement that is as potent as it is vibrant.”

Beahrs makes dances designed to engage viewers on both small and large scales, drawing the eye to a delicate gesture and then back out to a sweeping group of leaping, twirling dancers, propelling through space along spiraling, intersecting pathways.

For Amid, dancers include Beahrs as well as Sarah Hillmon, Julia Jurgilewicz, Celine Syslo and Madeline Wilcox. Lighting design is by Brittany Spencer and costume design is by Lauren Beirne.

Presented as part of DANCE: Access, a self-production series administered by Danspace Project that serves independent choreographers and dance companies, Amid will be performed Thursday-Saturday, March 27-29 at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, located at 131 East 10th Street, NYC. For more information or to book tickets, visit danspaceproject.org.

Photo: Suzanne Beahrs Dance in performance. Photo by Christopher Duggan.