CHOREOGRAPHY
Premiered January 11th and 12th at the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery
Choreography: Victoria Lynn Awkward - VLA DANCE
Performers: Victoria Awkward, Jojo Boykins, Jess Chang, Kate Dube, Mitzi Eppley, Tabitha Hanay-Reaves, Tatiana Isabel, Michayla Kelly, & Jessy Zizzo
Original Poetry By: Tatiana Isabel
Original Music (not featured in the clip below) By: ELSZ
Premiered May 5th, 2018 at the Goucher College
Choreography: Victoria Awkward - VLA DANCE
Featured Dancers: Patti Alveraz, Janessa Fell, Mabel Lujan, and Allie Yun
Dancers: Ben Anderson, Caroline Burden, Laura Garrett, Jamie Herman, Harmony Jackson, Michayla Kelly, Jazmyn Morse, Sarah Pacheco, Tamar Reisner-Stehman, and Ally Rosen
To Hold Many at Once
Awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Brooke Pierce Award in the Fine Arts 2018 for this work
Presented at American College Dance Association Northeast Region at Montclair State University on March 16th 2018
Premiered at Goucher College on December 1st 2017
Choreographer: Victoria Awkward
Dancers: Ben Anderson, Jamison Curcio, Janessa Fell, Samuel Gaines, Michayla Kelly, and Allie Yun
Sound: Aridity by Roll the Dice, Upon Contact by Bruno Sanfilippo
feat. Francesco Giannico and the Ocean
Reviews
We need art that touches on the fullness and complexity of the time we live in. We need work that isn’t one-directional and that touches on the depths of our times. The ability to portray competing emotions is powerful and takes enormous emotional and intellectual depth.
I was taken by the powerful way in which this work embodied the drive to hold many contradictions in one space. This piece (in all of its aspects) created a message for the contemporary moment to linger within our contradictions rather than deny them. This ability to acknowledge and use divergence and difference as a tool to bring people and ideas together is one of the greatest strengths the arts can bring us at this time.
James Sutton
• The performers in this piece were strong as an ensemble as well as individually
• Beautiful flow of piece
• Wonderful duets and ideas
• Incredible dancers with a sense of inhabiting self; this idea of inhabiting self is a
powerful statement
• The falling was authentic; dancers pushed themselves almost to a place of discomfort
• Social Statements
• Not knowing the specific story behind the piece was incredibly satisfying
• Fabulous performance
Gerri Houlihan
• What an inspiring group of movers
• Full bodied movement quality (Referring to Allie)
• Dancers were attentive to the energy of the group which is why they were so great as
an ensemble
• Loved the image of Ben crossing back and forth in the background that lead into the
solid, quiet, effective duet (referring to duet with Sam and Ben)
• Waves, arms reaching and pushing
• Taken by the ability of the group to work both as an ensemble and as individuals
• Beautiful Soloist (and specifically refers to Janessa)
Gerald Casel
• Lovely luscious movers
• 1 out of 36 pieces (so far) to use retrograde
• It is clear the maker of this work is interested in composition- push it, keep going
• The image of Sam being pulled was filled with loaded meaning and metaphor
• Two men performing tenderness is nice to see in an age of toxic masculinity (referring
to duet with Sam and Ben)
• Lovely use of weight
• Ends beautifully with a reach to the sky asking for rain or celebration of life and light
• Intriguing title- open to so many interpretations
• Well done
Make Noise
photography by Chris Truini
Premiered March 2017 at the Accademia dell'Arte (Arezzo, Italy)
Choreography: Victoria Awkward
Duet by Ashlyn Elizabeth Fletcher and Eliza Malecki
Dancers: Victoria Awkward, Caroline Burden, Ashlyn Elizabeth Fletcher, Desiré Graham, Megan Hopkins, Alice S. Kabia, Michayla Kelly, Eliza Malecki, Olivia Parente, Tamar Reisner-Stehman, Sydney Simone, Kyra Tanto, and Renelle Wilson
Jamming in the Streets
Photography by Chris Truini
Premiered April 2017 at the Accademia dell' Arte (Arezzo, Italy)
Choreographer: Victoria Awkward
Dancer: Victoria Awkward
Sound: Recorded street sounds from Slovenia and Italy, The Night Me and Your Mama Meet by Childish Gambino
I Am Right Here
Premiered December 2016 at Goucher College Dancers of Color Coalition First Annual show
Choreographer: Victoria Awkward
Dancers: Charity Broussard, Wayne Cornish, Jamison Curcio, Alayna Dutcher, Harmony Jackson and Sarah Pacheco
Sound: Music for Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich and Drumming by Victoria Awkward
Sweet Thoughts
Premiered December 2016 at Goucher College Dancers of Color Coalition First Annual show
Choreographer: Victoria Awkward
Dancer: Victoria Awkward
Sound: If I Can't Have You by Etta James
From the Taste, Touch, Smell, Sight and Sound
Premiered December 2016 at Goucher College Dancers of Color Coalition First Annual show
Staging: Victoria Awkward
Sound: Poetry by Cast
Dancers: Victoria Awkward, Connell Altschiller, Charity Broussard, Jamison Curcio, Wayne Cornish, Alyssa Colon, Alayna Dutcher, Laura Garrett, Harmony Jackson, Asia Johnson, Imani Lambert, Sarah Pachecho, Tamar Reisner-Stehman, Alexandra Rosen, Ryoko Skelton, Francis Thometz and Coleman Walker
Grooves
Premiered July 2016 at Steps on Broadway
Choreographers: Victoria Awkward and Daniela Funicello
Dancers: Daniela Funicello and Victoria Awkward
Sound: Sierra Lift by Blue Hawaii
I Am
Premiered May 2016 at Goucher College
Choreographer: Victoria Awkward
Dancers: Charity Broussard, Jamison Curcio, and Leslyn Ham
Sound: Perazuán by Esperanza Spaling and Poetry Complied by Victoria Awkward- Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Iyanla Vanzant, and Nayyirah Waheed
Poetry Read by: Victoria Awkward and Isabella Louis