World Premiere of Annie Rigney's …SHE WAS BECOMING UNTETHERED is Coming to 92NY

The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center’s 2022/23 Studio Series will present …she was becoming untethered., a world premiere from choreographer Annie Rigney, who was first introduced to 92NY as a finalist in the 2021  Future Dance Festival. Performances are in person on June 23 and 24 in Buttenwieser Hall at The Arnhold Center and the June 23 performance is also available online for 72 hours beginning at noon on June 24.

Annie Rigney's…she was becoming untethered. paints a surrealistic portrait of a woman torn between ecstasy and constraint, and explores points along a continuum of beauty and the grotesque; the mundane and the absurd. The dance asks the questions: What supports us? What uplifts us? And what holds us back?

The process began by questioning if the overwhelming emotion of opera and the expressive capacity of the human voice could be matched and explored through extreme sustained movements and at what point does heightened emotion tip over the edge from expression to absurdity, and even into comedy? Taking inspiration from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” as well as Salvadore Dali’s twisted and textured paintings, it tells a story of transformation.

Dancers are Rebecca Margolick, Naoki Yogi, Kayleigh Smerud, Morgan Gregory, Elizabeth Shupe, Jesseca Alexander, Eduardo Jiménez Cabrera, Thomas Hogann, Julian Grubman, and Ellexis Hatch, with recorded music by Marco Rosano, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Henryk Gorecki, Antonio Vivaldi, The Bulgarian State Female Choir

Annie Rigney - Artistic Statement

"My choreographic interest and movement research lie in the intersection between extreme physicality and healing. In the conflict between the need for art to challenge and destroy and the simultaneous healing and uniting power of movement. While in the process of discovering my voice as an independent dance maker, I am learning to trust that the act of creating is free-flowing and available, when we work from a place of curiosity, intuition, appropriate rigor, and play. My personal movement practice is deeply rooted in my background of Gaga and the Ilan Lev Method, in both of which I am certified. Both techniques are sensorial, anatomical, and energetic. They hover at the meeting point of Somatics and physical virtuosity. I’m interested in the chain reactions of bones, how we fold and manipulate ourselves and others. How and where we engage our flesh and how that creates physical or emotional storytelling. While creating, I have the sense that I am painting with textures. That the rhythms and cadences of movements create a frequency which can correspond to a feeling. Contrasting textures and frequencies evoke emotions. Emotions are not usually simple, and I think that dance is uniquely able to communicate the complexity of feelings--like something bittersweet, or beautifully tragic, or when two people mean well but can’t understand one another. The music is always central to my process and in the case of this particular work, the human voice became a main engine for creation. I've been very fortunate to collaborate with composer Marco Rosano, and his main artistic collaborator, world-renowned Countertenor Andreas Scholl. Together we have been working on an original piece of music which will live beside previously released compositions of his, and evoke the eerie realm of the subconscious mind. In my work, I’m looking for some “truth” about the body to be revealed, and I'm looking for an emotional truth to be told through movement. 

Annie Rigney is a New York based dancer, choreographer, Gaga teacher and Ilan Lev therapist. She is an Alumnus of the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase. Annie danced with the Batsheva Ensemble under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. She toured internationally with Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company and was a cast member of Punchdrunk's immersive theater production, Sleep No More, from 2015-2019. In April of this year, Annie premiered a new choreographic work, "Get Up, My Daughter," created for the Martha Graham Dance Company and presented at The Joyce Theater. Her choreographic work, “Galithea"  was featured as a part of the 92nd Street Y’s Future Dance Festival. Annie was a guest choreographer for the Fall Concert at SUNY Purchase 2021, a recipient of the Moving Women Residency from Gallim Dance, a CUNY Grant recipient, and a current choreographic fellow for Robert Battle's New Directions Choreographic Fellowship program at the Alvin Ailey School.
 

About The 92nd Street Y, New York:  

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY’s programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit  www.92NY.org.