PLACEHOLDER By Kayla Hamilton and Kate Speer Will Be Performed as Part of River To River Festival

As part of the 2024 River to River Festival, dance artists Kayla Hamilton and Kate Speer share an installation in dialogue with their performance project PlaceHolder, exposing how perception actualizes and strips identities. The installation opens with a performance activation June 14 and continues through June 23 at The Arts Center at Governors Island, Cafe.

Kayla Hamilton shares: "How do you make work alongside frustration, irritation, or discomfort? We are asking how can we use that discomfort as a tool for learning and as a way of building capacity for how to be with others."

The PlaceHolder installation is a visual set featuring audio description and a soundscape. The artists recreate a communal dinner table, where the feast is a performance, but the focus is on each utensil, representing the multiple layers through which it is perceived, engaged with, and decoded. Tangible access practices (from audio description to sight aids) are mixed with sociocultural associations of different bodies and societal expectations of them when they "perform". The installation, in part, asks: How do we perceive a dance show? Why do we interpret it the way we do?

The June 14 4pm activation will include movement by Kate Speer and Kayla Hamilton, in addition to a movement invitation for attendees, and guided conversations. Participation is encouraged.

Image Description: The five cast members of PlaceHolder (including audio describers) stand along a wall with relaxed and casual positions. They look like they are joking with each other and having a good time. The person on the end is holding a banana. 

Photo by Whitney Browne