Our narrow hearts is a short dance film (currently in post production) expressing an arduous journey through the disorientation of falling, catching, and sliding within a shifting group architecture. The tactile encounters with the earth (rain, mud, rocks, and trees) heighten the sense of the fragility of the individuals, contrasted with the relentless, determined, and weighted force of the group. This film is created as part of the acknowledgement of the 150th anniversary of Isadora Duncan's birth (2027) and is based on her 1921 work which is an embodiment of migration as a group of people move through textures of uncertainty amid unspecified danger.
Over 100 years have passed since Duncan was moved to create this work and the mass migration of populations urgently continues today. The work explores the current connections to the migration of people around the globe and how so many will risk bodily safety and even death for a chance at a new life. We want audiences to question the dominant narrative around social justice and truth in our society. What does it mean to be a caring human? How do our hearts harden and narrow in order to protect ourselves from the deep responsibility of sustaining others on our troubled planet?
In 2024 we reimagined Duncan's 1921 Polonaise Op. 40 No. 2 connecting to the stories and images of migrants crossing dangerous terrain. We explored a related gestural language that expanded the existing vocabulary to include movement material from the dance artists participating. Together we created a new version of Duncan's original using a mix of the original Chopin score as well as excerpts from Gloria Coates' Symphony No.1, Music on Open Strings. The title takes inspiration from the poem En Route
By Adam Zagajewski. The work was performed in June 2024 at Gibney's Agnes Vara Theater on a Moving Visions program produced by Loretta Thomas. In August 2024 we took the work out of the theater to a location at a state park site in Putnam County, NY and explored the possibilities for it becoming a short dance for the camera. The film was shot and will be edited by dancer, choreographer and videographer, Erica Lessner.
Look for a final cut of the film in 2026.(a few stills below).
Our teacher, Julia Levien, performed in this dance with Irma Duncan in 1932 and sixty years later, in 1992, reconstructed the dance for the next generation. We are honored to keep this dance alive in a way that questions both the past and the present.
Over 100 years have passed since Duncan was moved to create this work and the mass migration of populations urgently continues today. The work explores the current connections to the migration of people around the globe and how so many will risk bodily safety and even death for a chance at a new life. We want audiences to question the dominant narrative around social justice and truth in our society. What does it mean to be a caring human? How do our hearts harden and narrow in order to protect ourselves from the deep responsibility of sustaining others on our troubled planet?
In 2024 we reimagined Duncan's 1921 Polonaise Op. 40 No. 2 connecting to the stories and images of migrants crossing dangerous terrain. We explored a related gestural language that expanded the existing vocabulary to include movement material from the dance artists participating. Together we created a new version of Duncan's original using a mix of the original Chopin score as well as excerpts from Gloria Coates' Symphony No.1, Music on Open Strings. The title takes inspiration from the poem En Route
By Adam Zagajewski. The work was performed in June 2024 at Gibney's Agnes Vara Theater on a Moving Visions program produced by Loretta Thomas. In August 2024 we took the work out of the theater to a location at a state park site in Putnam County, NY and explored the possibilities for it becoming a short dance for the camera. The film was shot and will be edited by dancer, choreographer and videographer, Erica Lessner.
Look for a final cut of the film in 2026.(a few stills below).
Our teacher, Julia Levien, performed in this dance with Irma Duncan in 1932 and sixty years later, in 1992, reconstructed the dance for the next generation. We are honored to keep this dance alive in a way that questions both the past and the present.
