Artistic Co-Director, Tracie Jensen will premiere the full length work titled, America, after premiering excerpts for Dance in the Park 2021. “America” is an intimate portrait of the female experience in the United States and how those roles in society have been shaped by men, religion, politics and the American dream. Artistic Co-Director, Marisa Callaway will be presenting, Virtuosi. “A Woman’s Honor or Virtue” as a euphemism for virginity. Artistic Co-Director, Joanna Des Marteau, will present, Who Am I Now? A solo danced by Jordan Wilson to “Nocturn No. 7” by VNV Nation. Reverie by Bobbi Foudree, Guest Choreographer, focuses on memories and the overall ephemeral nature of life. Guest choreographer, Hunter Jones’ piece, N’Flux is about encountering your lowest low whether it be an event, a feeling, or an emotion and your choice within the fight/flight response that kicks in. Her piece is about choosing to fight, to stay hungry, to conquer and to persevere. Guest choreographer, Crystal Robbins, Dusk premiered at Open Stage at the J on March 1, 2020.
In the show’s namesake, The Aftermath by Kyle Mullins, we find seven women moments after an unknown, and seemingly horrific, event has occurred. In the minutes that follow, we see these women deal with the event (and the role they played within it) through fear, distrust, and paranoia. Exploring the complex web of relationships and how trauma stretches the ties that bind us, The Aftermath shines a light on the complicity of human connection. Humor allows the audience to laugh at (and with) these women as they work through their individual and collective reverberations.
Special guest performance by the Youth Dance Theater will present their set-for-stage piece from National Water Dance- Dancing Out of Time’, under the direction of Persi Mey.
Financial support for this performance will be provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; ArtsKC,; the Estelle S. and Robert A. Long Ellis Foundation; and the Torosian Foundation, Louis & Elizabeth Nave Flarsheim Foundation.