embodiment | object | site

Five years in the making, [ ] premieres in Brooklyn this fall.

An intimate and image-rich work by choreographer Adrienne Westwood and composer Angélica Negrón, [ ] combines dance, music, live camera, and projection within an interactive sonic sculpture.  Eight femme performers move through a mirage-like environment of hanging golden objects, sound, shadow, and shifting images, weaving together personal and ancestral memory. Through sweat, breath, and repetition, [ ] physically reclaims stories of invisible labor and asks:

What is long ago, but still right now?

ABOUT [ ]

Developed over five years, [ ] is co-created by Westwood and Negrón and brought to life by a powerhouse cast of eight femme performers and a visionary design team.

The title itself is an act of physical resistance. Rather than a written word, [ ] is announced through the body—by framing one’s head with deeply curved arms—or spoken as “the empty space between brackets.” Refusing to be neatly captured by the English language, the title embodies the gaping, felt absence of femme labor within dominant historical narratives.

The creation and development of [ ] was supported, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC); New York State Council on the Arts Support for Artists; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant; the Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center through the Artist-In-Residence Program; and The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation who provided commissioning funds for the musical score by Angélica Negrón. 

[ ] was also made possible by residencies and space grants at Brooklyn Academy of Music, MOtiVE Brooklyn, Lincoln Center, BRIC Brooklyn, Movement Lab in the Milstein Center of Barnard College, SLIPPAGE Lab at Northwestern University, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center on Governors Island, Groundworks, and Mercury Store.