The annual Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program for early career movement-based artists will continue to celebrate its 60th year with five sublime artists: Dorchel Haqq, Ariel Lembeck, Cristina Moya-Palacios, Dahlia Qumhiyeh and Sacha Vega. Featuring current Artistic Advisor Juliana May, the program originated at Dance Theater Workshop in 1965 to bring new choreographic artistry to the forefront. New Works is a fully produced shared evening featuring pieces created during the residency.

---

ABOUT THE WORKS

Dorchel Haqq: vol.1/DND/ a study on perspective

With access to unlimited channels of information, when do you pause? Does everyone have ADHD? Where does our food come from? What is our daily level of consumption? Who are you? Why are you here? When are you free? How do you show up?

DO NOT DISTURB 

vol.1/DND/ a study on perspective features performers who confront human awareness and identity in an overstimulated world. ‘DND’- do not disturb mode warrants agency over one’s autonomy. A reflection on consciousness, consumption, attention, and evolution of humanity, vol.1/DND/ a study on perspective is performed by Dorchel Haqq, Christine Shepard, Syaera Valentine, & Channce Williams to an original soundscore by Joy Guidry.

Director/Choreographer: Dorchel Haqq
Original Soundscore: Joy Guidry
Garments: Malcolm X Betts
Styling: Dorchel Haqq

Ariel Lembeck: Blasé-faire

Ariel Lembeck’s Blasé-faire is a dance about the everyday grind; where a fist pump, a ponytail twirl, and a slow dip straddle the line between compulsory and existential. Syncopated rhythms, overstretched gestures and intricate patterns bring Marin Day, Emma Judkins, Dasol Kim and Ariel Lembeck into solo tangents, tangled tableaus, and collective action. This dynamic quartet redefines the space in which they dance, while probing their relationship to labor and productivity.

Director/Choreographer: Ariel Lembeck
Sound Design: Ryan Gamblin
Costume Consultation: Karen Boyer

Cristina Moya-Palacios: Without Breasts There Is No Paradise

Choreographed by Cristina Moya-Palacios, Without Breasts There Is No Paradise is an ensemble dance theater work that examines the contributions of Latin Americans to the cultural fabric of the United States and beyond. During this time of increased visibility and dialogue surrounding the persecution and abduction of Latin American immigrants, there has been a constant bilateral reminder that Latines are only valued for their manual labor. Through a series of vignettes depicting various facets of iconic Latin American entertainment, this piece is a reclamation of the humanity and vibrancy within the community. Performers Valentina Baché, Kashia Kancey, Cristina Moya-Palacios and Kyle Scheurich lean deep into the absurd with a telenovela slapping duet, luchadores in love, a spiraling Miss Universo, and an El Chacal striptease number. The work both plays into and rejects stereotypes in a shiny, dramatic, and off-kilter physical theater extravaganza.

Director/Choreographer: Cristina Moya-Palacios
Sound Editing: Cristina Moya-Palacios
Costumes: Raspaditos (Valentina Baché), Cristina Moya-Palacios

Dahlia Qumhiyeh: AB+

Dahlia Qumhiyeh’s AB+ is a theatrical movement piece that explores the entanglement of the medical industrial complex using ropes, projection, and bandages. The piece explores gender affirming health care as an act of initiation into a web of insurance claims, hoops to jump, and occasional acts of violence. A live cast of six, and two performers projected on a screen, move through ropes, engage in a fight, and cut themselves free to reveal the damages that come from what could be healing. Featuring performances by Sarah Esser, Joshua Leon Eguia, Angad Kalsi, Christine Shepard, Dahlia Qumhiyeh, and Bev Vega, AB+ features a sonic landscape devised of triphop, electronic music, and live commentating by two medical insurance providers.

Director/Choreographer: Dahlia Qumhiyeh
Assistant Director & Writing: Bev Vega
Styling: Joshua Leon Eguia
Video: Bev Vega

Sacha Vega: SWELL

How did we learn to perform power? In SWELL, multidisciplinary choreographer Sacha Vega and surreal comedic performer Rose Luardo take on the slippery logic of power through a shared hallucinatory solo.

Power suit.
Power play.
Power ballad.
Power trip.
Power pose.

Together, Vega and Luardo devise an experimental dance that slips between satire and sincerity, hustling through impressions of American™ ambition, humiliation, and autonomy, all channeled through the body of a woman enigmatically unmoored by linear time. From their process trickles up a disruptive, humorous piece, layering physical comedy, 80s grandeur, nicotine nostalgia, and overinflated ideologies.

Director/Choreographer: Sacha Vega
Performer: Rose Luardo
Original & Live Sound: James Gentile
Costumes: Liv Chiaravalli
Props: Ollie Goss