I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves

Stacy Matthew Spence’s new dance in triptych form, I am, here (a solo for Spence), Here with us (a duet), Where we find ourselves (a quartet) explores ideas of self, impulse, and sharing. I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves is created in collaboration with dance artists Tim Bendernagel, Joanna Kotze, Hsiao-jou Tang, singer/musician Charlotte Jacobs, percussionist Raf Vertessen, and costumer Athena Kokoronis.

A longtime member of Trisha Brown Dance Company (1997-2006), an educator, and performer, Stacy Matthew Spence’s dance work often explores the exchange between person and environment. This involves playful interactions and movement generated in response to the places he finds himself – studio, home, and in public spaces.

Presently, he brings his attention to the internal space of “me”– as a personal environment to be outwardly created, expressed, occupied, and shared.

For this work, “I asked my collaborators to take a journey from their internal finding, to the external expression and wondered how we would bump up against, allow for and possibly join/accommodate/revel in each other’s individual selves,” Spence explains. “How do we find ourselves? How do we find our place? How do we find each other?”

A forthcoming film version of Spence’s solo I am, here, a collaboration with videographer Iki Nakagawa, has been made in tandem with the live work. “The filmed solo, placed in different locations around New York City, is a conversation between myself and my history, the place and its history and the physicality of being in the present,”. 

“How do we find ourselves? How do we find our place? How do we find each other?”