Arts On Site Presents Drastic Action in DIS PLACE; PAPER AND WORD

Arts on Site presents Drastic Action in DIS PLACE; PAPER AND WORD, January 19th and 20th, 2024.

 

Drastic Action will present Dis Place; Paper and Word, artistic director, Aviva Geismar's multi-media exploration of the American legacy of displacement. The seed of Dis Place, was a deep dive into the history of “urban renewal” in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area in Manhattan's Lower East Side which branched out to encompass multiple related concepts and histories including: the human right to a home, the experience of being unhoused, New York's current housing crisis, and the multiple ways we create and define home. The program will include two works: one a video, and the other an interactive, live performance piece. The work makes palpable the experience of displaced individuals and surfaces the absurdity of housing policies as well as solutions for affordable, sustainable housing. Audience members are evicted, led in an “emotional distancing meditation” and invited to participate in a carnival-like demolition game. This production has been supported by the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation.

 

Aviva Geismar's Drastic Action is a NYC-based contemporary dance company that uses dance to create connections across lines of difference. Through performance and community engagement programs, the company offers individuals opportunities for serious reflection, self-expression, and empowerment. Geismar collaborates with performers to create thought-provoking dances, often around issues of social justice. This focus is rooted in her family history. Her father escaped Nazi Germany, but unfortunately most of his family did not. 

 

Drastic Action's 2016 project, Dis/Location (Fort Tryon), explored the immigrant experience in the largely immigrant neighborhood of Washington Heights. From 2006-2010, the company implemented a series of cultural exchange programs in Germany which focused on tolerance within the context and legacy of the Holocaust.

 

Geismar's dances have been performed at prominent venues including: “Inside/Out” (Jacob's Pillow), “Fresh Tracks” (DTW), the West End Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, The Millennium Stage (Kennedy Center) and Green Space. Drastic Action has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the NYC-Department of Cultural Affairs, Bay and Paul Foundations, Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold Foundation and others. She is an Associate Professor in the Dance Program at Queensborough Community College. 

 

In 2020, Cecly Placenti (Six Degrees Dance) wrote, “Watching Aviva Geismar move is like witnessing the unfettering of a soul…. Physical, emotional and mental tension transform Geismar's body and the bodies of her dancers into conduits between the redemptive world of spirit and the human condition struggling against obstacles and oppression.”

 

The company includes collaborating performers: Kendra J Bostock, Kelsey Burns, Joshua Gonzalez, Clement Mensah, Nadia Simmons and Diana Worby, Videographer, Peter Richards, Co-directors: Kirk German, Heather Huggins, and Jodi Van der Horn-Gibson and Costume Designer: Emily Hsieh. 

  

Arts on Site is a women-run not for profit arts organization dedicated to providing artists space to create and perform.

  

Arts on Site is located at 12 St. Marks Place, Studio 3R, NYC 10003. Closest subways stations are N/R/W to 8th St-NYU, 6 to Astor Place. Studio is accessible.