Carrie Ahern Dance Presents SEX STATUS 2.0

"Sex Status 2.0" takes Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 feminist masterpiece The Second Sex as a jumping off point for a different take on dance performance. Created by choreographer Carrie Ahern in collaboration with performers Carolyn Hall, Kelly Hayes, Donna Costello, Elke Rindfleisch, Anne Parichon, Jennifer Chin, composer and vocalist Starr Busby, lighting designer Jay Ryan, and costume consultant Naoko Nagata; Sex Status 2.0 explores our conditioning as women and what still needs to be uncovered, or shifted. What is authentic femininity? Where does our power lie? What are our deepest desires?

This diverse group of female performers partners with door jambs, end tables, window sills and the audience in dutiful, wild, uncomfortable, funny and surprising explorations through the 'Female Gaze', 'Touch Preferences/Consent' and the 'Audience Sex/Cleaning Survey'. Sex Status 2.0 has a porous relationship with 'public' and 'private', 'performance' and 'experience'. Sex Status 2.0 will be performed in private homes throughout NYC Oct 24-Nov 10, 2018.

Show Dates and Locations:

10/24-10/27 : Bushwick Brooklyn

10/31-11/3: Bedstuy, Brooklyn

11/7-11/10: Upper East Side, Manhattan

* Exact addresses will be given at time of reservation

Website and tickets: http://bit.ly/sexstatus20

Tickets sliding scale $25-$100

"Sex Status 2.0" is sponsored, 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).

Since 2005, choreographer Carrie Ahern, Artistic Director, has used the medium of the body to investigate spaces of taboo. She has a reputation for extensive research combined with an ability to make viewers deeply uncomfortable and comfortable simultaneously.

For her multi year project about modern death (2011-2016) Ahern learned to hunt, butcher and slaughter animals to learn more about the animals we consume and worked as a hospice volunteer. Public projects stemming from that research include: Borrowed Prey -the two part performance, Part I performed in a butcher shop; The Art of Burial -the fantasy burial experience performed throughout the US which she also developed into a TED Talk; Swaddling -the interactive installation swaddling adults; Composing Decay-the workshop taking participants through the process of their own body's decay; and Pig to Human anatomy comparison-the hands on workshop with a butcher, butchering a pig and comparing the parts to human anatomy. http://borrowedprey.nationbuilder.com/

Ahern spent 2014-2017 developing work around currency, value and alternative economies with catalyst and producer Andrea Haenggi, co-producer Rob Neuwirth for 1067 PacificPeople in Crown Heights, BK. She created "gestures" or mini-performances for Pop-Up Gesture Store (2014-2016) -a store that sells experiences not objects and accepts as payment only an experience in return-including As American as Apple Pie, Composing Decay, Swaddling, Xenia Redux, Free Beach, OBJECT FLESH, and Government Avatar. Pickpocket Dance Party (2015) was created in collaboration with Andrea Haenggi; Holiday Revolt (2014) and Ur-Love Letter (2015) video projects in collaboration with catalyst Andrea Haenggi and others, available to view online. In 2017 she was part of the EPA- Environmental Performance Agency (2017) collective with artists Ellie Irons, Christopher Kennedy, Catherine Grau and Andrea Haenggi. Her "weedy scores" were exhibited at the Schuylkill Center, Philadelphia (Sept 2017) and Transformer Gallery, DC (May/June 2018) https://1067pacificpeople.nyc/

Other projects include SeNSATE (2009)--3 hour, multi-floored performance installation;-Covers (2009) -a durational window performance open to Lexington Ave passerby, collaboration with crochet sculptress Olek; and two evening length commissions from Danspace Project -The Unity of Skin (2008) and Red (2006) www.carrieahern.com

Ahern is a 2018 BAC/ Brooklyn Arts Fund grantee. She was a resident artist for Project: Space Available, Seattle in 2011, 2011 NYFA BUILD grant recipient, recipient of an LMCC Swing Space grant in 2009/10, BAX space grant artist in 2007/08, 2007 recipient of a Fractured Atlas' Creative Development Grant. Danspace Project commissioned Ahern's evening length works 'The Unity of Skin' (2008) and 'Red' (2006). 'Red' was also commissioned in 2005 for the Guggenheim Works and Process Series. Ahern was an invited artist for the interdisciplinary Resonance project (2012) and received two commissions from Alwan for the Arts; Turath (2012) for ADC with composer Amir-El Saffar; Fashion in Performance (2011) with fashion designer Hana Sadiq and band New Prosthetics. Two solo commissions: From Bessie award winning dancer Carolyn Hall (2003) and actor/director Jeffrey Frace (2013)

Ahern has taught as a Guest Artist at University of Washington/Seattle, University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, NYU, Ponderosa outside Berlin, School for Film and Television. She has taught dance in the NYC public schools and currently teaches pilates, yoga, yoga mythology and meditation.