Two troupes reflect on the concept of home

Two dance companies—BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance and Bryn Cohn + Artists (BC+A)—will soon present Home in a collaborative evening at Gibney Dance Center in NYC from June 16-18. Home draws upon ritualistic and traditional processes to elucidate the concept of home through interpersonal encounters, environments and the pursuit of self and collective understanding.

In these two NYC premieres, the companies incorporate interactive set pieces in a pre-show exhibition and mid-show interlude as well as in two distinct works, enabling the image of home to become amorphous while also serving as a thematic thread upon which community is established. Scenic design elements, such as commonly seen furniture, supported frames, and micro-sanctuaries, are interwoven into kinetic movement languages to portray the loss, challenge and celebration that occur within individuals and family.

Through continuously evolving structures that transform the space and the complex relationships developed amongst the performers, viewers come to understand that their concept of home is constantly shifting as they move through life. By examining utopian models of the “picture perfect” family in contrast to human realities, the work provides a lens into a universal concept that everyone can access to reimagine and define their own notion of what it means to find home.

“An apartment, an island, a hospital, a subway station, a prison, a freshly mowed lawn with a stack of bricks, and anything and everything in between. Home is not solely a place to call your own, it is universally binding regardless of its form – it is the intimate place where life, in all its beauty, pain and messiness, happens,” said Bryn Cohn. “In crafting this world with my BC+A family, we have mirrored, reimagined and morphed our personal narratives to build an experience that encapsulates the avid desire of belonging that binds us all together.”

Teresa Fellion stated, “I have found home in people, places and chosen families in a one-stoplight, rural Massachusetts town, Cameroon, New York City and several points along the way. My longest journey, however, has been a quest towards self-actualization. I am continually searching for home within myself: asking questions, navigating boundaries, finding freedom, hoping to feel at peace. Realizing home, freedom and peace is found by BodyStories dancers in this work, and deserved by all individuals.”

Home will feature dancers Iman Barnes, Zachary Bergfelt, Mia DeWeese, Alex Jenkins and Audrey Rachelle of BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, and Rachel Abrahams, Nicholas Grubbs, Jessica Malat, Yuliya Romanskaya and Will Tomaskovic of BC+A. Lighting design is by Timothy Cryan and original compositions are by John Yannelli and Kevin Keller, with live music by John Yannelli and Trilogy (featuring Dominic Boyle and Emily Cardwell.) Costuming is by Nina Katan and Sebastian Arango.

Tickets for Home are $15 online and $20 at the door. Book at www.gibneydance.org/calendar or by calling the Gibney Dance Center Box Office at 646-837-6809. Learn more about Bryn Cohn + Artists in this article from Dance Informa’s February 2014 edition.

Photos courtesy of BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance and Bryn Cohn + Artists.