A SYMBOLIC MOVEMENT ENSEMBLE

 A Symbolic Movement ensemble dances an ancient dance and sings an ancient song. This dance is as human as being born or dying, or being in love, everyone can understand it. You enter into a time other than historical, you enter a collective dream, a mythical time. In this theater of societal myth, we perform the first humans deepest desires and greatest fears. We perform celebration and rites of passage. We investigate embodied archetype, myth, memories and imagination while creating collective memories. 

A Symbolic Movement ensemble was co-founded by Fox Conner and Alishanee Chafe-Hearmon in May 2023. They first met at Hunter College in New York while studying dance. After graduating in Spring 2021, they moved to Berlin to pursue their deep interest in German Modern dance. They embark on this endeavor as a step in their development as artists and hope to create community within creation and movement philosophies.

Work in progress: Stock of the grain/rhythms of labor -set to premier in May 2024

Stock of the grain/rhythms of labor is a performance that explores the incongruencies between our morals and contemporary lifestyles, and the disconnection between sustenance, land and labor. Central to this exploration is repetition, a motif which echoes the movement of labor, the nature of devotional practice, characteristics of folk dances and of ecstatic dance. Repetition can be a source of monotony or a vehicle for transcendence; stagnation or growth. This dance explores a rhythm between the two. Meanwhile, these concepts do not form a didactic statement, and this project rejects the idea that performance has to engage with or demonstrate an intellectual concept. Some of the development of this work can be grounded in the aforementioned ideas, but reserves the right to speak for itself, to hold mystery, to be purely expressive, to offer an experience, not please or necessarily withstand academic scrutiny. We balance concept with intuition and reject the over-intellectualization of art. These ideas are a starting point for development but the dance reveals itself, it takes on its own life.

Stock of the grain/rhythms of labor is the first vignette in a dance triptych and in its first iteration will be performed by Alishanee and Fox with minimal set and costume design. The complete triptych is envisioned with similar concepts but includes the use of voice, more dancers and a larger theatrical space. Further lines of inquiry will explore the inclination of the human mind to wander during physical or menial work and the tendency to turn work into art or play. The flamenco Martinetes, songs inspired by the clanging rhythm of a blacksmith's anvil, Scottish work songs for waulking the tweed, the Greek flour dance, all are examples of this phenomena. 

This work is set to premier in May 2024