Disability Arts Ensemble Kinetic Light to Present the NY Premiere of WIRED at The Shed

Internationally-recognized disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light will return to New York City to perform the NY premiere of its latest work Wired August 25-27, presented by The Shed as part of the organization's Open Call performance series.

Wired is a potent contemporary aerial dance performance that explores race, gender, and disability stories of barbed wire in the United States, tracing the fine line between "us" and "them" and exploring the contradictions, dangers, and beauty of barbed wire. Immense and intimate, Wired is a work of sound, light, and movement; a performance that ruminates on power, belonging, abolition and deinstitutionalization, sexuality, art, community, and connection-embodying disability as creative and cultural force. Wired was commissioned by The Shed in 2018; the work had its world premiere in May 2022, presented by MCA Chicago.

"After a significant encounter with Melvin Edwards' sculpture Pyramid Up and Down Pyramid, the idea of Wired was born. The work itself began in 2019 thanks to The Shed and their Open Call commission and has continued through these pandemic years due to the dedication and incredible work of Kinetic Light's artists, collaborators, production team, and administrative staff," stated Alice Sheppard, Kinetic Light Founder & Artistic Director. "We are thrilled to return to New York to share this work, in all its accessible forms."

Wired is performed by Kinetic Light company dancers Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson, and Sheppard, with lighting, projection, scenic, and production design by company member Michael Maag. The work is directed and choreographed by Sheppard, with choreographic collaborators Herman and Lawson. Kinetic Light artist bios here. Artist Josephine Shokrian conceived and created prop and scenic design, including various forms of Wired's signature "coilography" and set pieces. Musicians and composers LeahAnn "Lafemmebear" Mitchell and Ailís Ní Ríain have each composed original scores for discrete sections of Wired. Artistic collaborator bios here. Costume and makeup design are by Lawson. Chicago Flyhouse provided rigging and flight consultation. Catherine Nelson serves as Flight Director, in addition to more than 30 independent rigging, automation, and flight production professionals and consultants who have contributed to Wired.

Kinetic Light commits to an artistically equitable access approach within its artistic works, culture, and day-to-day operation. Wired expresses Kinetic Light's expansive access culture, integrating artistic and audience experience details for tactile and sensory access. Kinetic Light is collaborating with The Shed to offer accessible theater experiences through expanded accessible seating, accessible marketing, patron services, lobby exhibits, quiet space, and more.

Rich spatial audio description for Wired is available through Audimance, Kinetic Light's signature multiplex audio description app. Audimance and the Wired Audimance listening environment are designed by artist-engineer Laurel Lawson; audio description artists for Wired include Shannon Finnegan, Cheryl Green, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Nathan Geering, Shankojam, and Mo Pickering-Symes (all using The Rationale Method). Audio description sound design for Wired is by Dylan Keefe and Andy Slater. Haptic soundtrack interpretation and tactile experience exhibit are also available.

Performance Details

In-Person Performances (all ET)

August 25 7:30pm

August 26 7:30pm

August 27 7:30pm

Access: ASL, rich spatial audio description with Audimance app, haptic soundtrack interpretation, tactile lobby exhibit, quiet space available before and during performance, exit and entry welcome during performances.

Tickets: free with registration

To Register: tickets available to the public July 21 https://theshed.org/program/121-open-call-kinetic-light

ABOUT KINETIC LIGHT

Founded by Alice Sheppard in 2016, Kinetic Light is a disability arts ensemble working at the intersections of disability, dance, design, identity, and technology. Through nuanced investment in the histories, cultures, and artistic work of disabled and/or Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), the company promotes intersectional disability as a creative force and access as an aesthetic critical to creating transformative art and affirming the disability arts movement. Kinetic Light artists include Jerron Herman, Laurel Lawson, Michael Maag, and Alice Sheppard.

Company member Lawson leads the development of artistically accessible approaches, software, and products including Audimance, an app offering multiplex audio description experiences. Kinetic Light's field-building and community work includes Access ALLways, a holistic approach to artistically equitable access; a fellowship program for disabled arts workers; events aimed at supporting U.S. disabled artists in their own art-making; and more.

Kinetic Light has been presented by the BRITT Music & Arts Festival (OR), Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY), Jacob's Pillow (MA), MCA Chicago (IL), New York Live Arts (NY), Ferst Center for the Arts (GA), Walker Art Center/Northrup (MN), The Whitney Museum (NY), and The Wilson Center (NC). The company has received funding from the Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, and New England Foundation for the Arts,among others. For more info: https://kineticlight.org

Image Description: Three dancers are encircled by waves of green and blue light. Laurel Lawson, a white woman with cropped hair, bends backward, arms curved over head and torso, as she hovers above the stage. Alice Sheppard, a multiracial Black woman with short curly hair and coffee-colored skin, also hovers behind Laurel, partnering her and cradling her legs and wheels. Jerron Herman, a dark-skinned Black man with blonde hair, balances on one foot, embracing Alice and Laurel's wheels and peering over at Laurel with curiosity.

Photo credit: Robbie Sweeny