Premiere of Fear in Porcelain, a new dance by Sam Kim that radicalizes the solo, November 9-19 at The Chocolate Factory Theater in NYC.
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Fear in Porcelain, the new dance I’ve been developing since 2014, will premiere at The Chocolate Factory Theater, NYC, for a two-week run, November 9-19. Please come!
I’m asking for your help to pay the exceptional artists who are integral to this work which includes performers Tess Dworman, Amanda Hunt and Katie Dean, sound artist Steve Roden and lighting designer Madeline Best. I am so grateful to all of them for saying YES to the peculiar ride that is my process, and for infusing their work with so much curiosity, sensitivity and commitment. I humbly ask for your help in compensating them for their talent and hard work––all Kickstarter funds will go directly to paying artists fees. We cannot do it without your support!
I am deeply excited for the premiere. And frightened. In equal measure. But it’s good fear—the kind that stabs you lovingly in the heart and lets you know that you are DOING SOMETHING IMPORTANT AND WORTHWHILE. I’ve been making dances for a long time and I have to say the confluence of this work, these artists and this theater feels momentous.
Please consider making a contribution! No amount is too small (or too large) and would be deeply appreciated! No matter what you give, you will play a pivotal part in making Fear in Porcelain happen.
We are so excited to share this work with you! We hope you are excited, too. Please help spread the word far and wide by sharing, tweeting, or talking about Fear in Porcelain with any kindred spirits.
I look forward to seeing you at Fear in Porcelain at The Chocolate Factory in November!Tickets are available now and seating is limited!
With love and gratitude,
Sam
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When I was making a group work, Sister to a Fiend (2015), I perversely began to wonder about the solo form, and as these things go, I began a solo practice precisely because I think solos are…gross.
What does it mean to ask viewers to scrutinize one person for a sustained period of time? I couldn’t escape the narcissism of the solo––a quality I find repulsive––but embedded in my repulsion was the seed of subversion. What if the solo becomes the antithesis of ego, in fact, destroys it?
Fear in Porcelain is a live experience that incorporates fierce sexual restraint to obliterate the ego and willfully eradicates the self through the solo dance form. Performed by many, Fear in Porcelain pushes a radical new sensibility and meaning for the solo by heightening the voyeuristic relationship between soloists and viewers, and celebrates self-destruction in order to arrive at that place where ‘it’ is doing the performers, rather than the performers doing ‘it.’
Fear in Porcelain was developed in part during residencies at Mt Tremper Arts, Yaddo, The Bogliasco Foundation, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Movement Research, New York Live Arts Studio Series and Djerassi Resident Artists Program.
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All Kickstarter funds will go directly to paying the artist fees. There are countless expenses for this project including set construction, installation and transportation, equipment rental, studio rental, costumes and fees for additional technical staff, etc etc. Where does it end?! But my priority is to ensure that I can cover fees for Tess, Amanda, Katie, Steve and Madeline. All of whom I treasure for their talent and dedication.
I’m asking for $5,000 in support of their fees, and that is the bare minimum to cover them.
HOWEVER, with your help, if we EXCEED the goal, here’s what we can do:
$6,000 will cover the cost of studio rental.
$7,000 will cover lighting equipment rental and costumes.
$8,000 will begin to offset the cost of set construction, installation and strike.
$10,000 would cover all costs associated with the set including fees for technical staff!
$10,000+ we can get to the next level of Fear in Porcelain––support and development for potential touring of this work!
Tess Dworman
Katie Dean
Amanda Hunt photo by Nina Isabelle
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I am a choreographer and performer based in Brooklyn who has been making work since the mid ‘90s. My work has been presented and commissioned by The Kitchen, New York Live Arts, Barnard College, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Mulberry St Theater, Performance Space 122 and Gibney Dance in NYC, as well as by national venues. My work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, the Lucky Star Foundation, MAP Fund, the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, Yaddo, Mt Tremper Arts, the Bogliasco Foundation, Movement Research, New York Live Arts Studio Series, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the MacDowell Colony, Dance Theater Workshop and Brooklyn Arts Exchange among many others.
My mandate is to challenge assumptions about what dance is, what is valued about it, and the lens through which we see it. My body of work investigates and locates value at the margins of culture and behavior while courting the danger inherent in rejecting dance’s heavy legacies––in other words, my choreographic practice is a means of deeply engaging in a personal game of brinkmanship.
Working in the field of post-post postmodern dance has made me nothing if not resilient! Juggling all of the artistic, administrative and development demands of making dances in NYC for the past 20 years has made me flex muscles I didn’t know I had––literal and metaphorical. As a result, I am adept at meeting challenges of all kinds.
With your support, I can bring Fear in Porcelain to complete fruition, ensuring that I make the work the way it was intended to be seen. Better yet, if I exceed my goal, I can plant the seeds for the next phase of Fear in Porcelain, including potential touring, and beyond!