this time
Live Performance Accompanied by Film
Directer: Melinda Jean Myers
Choreographers: Laila Franklin and Kate Vincek, in collaboration with Melinda Jean Myers
Film Editer: Alex De LaPeña
Presented by signs and symbols, NYC, NY
25 minutes, 2 performers
Premiered at signs and symbols, New York, NY
August 11-12, 2022
signs and symbols presents this time by Melinda Jean Myers with Laila Franklin and Kate Vincek as part of artists & allies v. this time is an episodic choreographic practice that began in January 2020 in Iowa City, Iowa. In response to the pandemic, the work developed into a series of nine, collaborative and site-specific choreographies that were archived over nine-months. Each iteration was made by defining the possible terms of the specific space and time, then creating the work from what felt connective, inspiring and honest for the artists to contribute. The practice became a commitment to continued creative processing during the uncertain and tenuous global landscape that framed it.
In July of 2022, the collaborators returned to Iowa City to create a long-form choreography in response to each episode. This duet contains a relationship to embodied memories, feelings and questions from the past in conversation with current desires and curiosities. While honoring and referencing what once was created, they find each other again in this work with as much presence as possible — finding a new, yet familiar topography each time.
