forgive me (2018)

for six performers

forgive me was created at the Choreography Across Disciplines Residency at the Banff Centre in Fall 2018. The piece seeks to exist just at the edge of the sacred, at the point where materialism becomes its own religion and vice versa. In this piece, which employs the structure of a Kyrie, “gatekeepers” vocalize elegies of forgiveness written by the members of the ensemble. Two performers act only as movers, and the last, hidden under a sheet, manipulates a sonic underpinning for the rest of the characters. Moments of pop culture in the performers and surrounding installation (in costume and video) undermine, invade, and takeover the remaining scape of the work.

Though the piece can be performed on its own, I see it as the beginning of a larger work, the beginnings of an idea that is still to be fleshed out further.

Masks in the original performance were created by Ruth Howard; the below recording (attached to the video used in the original installation) is by Tyler Cunningham, Claire Fleitz, Jasminn Johnson, and Ayesha Jordan.