Transmission
'Transmission' was a community show exploring space, connection, and what keeps us together beyond barriers. It took place on Saturday, April 24th, 2021 at 5:00 pm on an athletic field.
Beyond our basic needs to eat and be sheltered from the elements, we implicitly require the entanglement of people in our social network for emotional survival. Even if our bodies are sustained, without human connectedness our mental well-being and reason for existence quickly deteriorates. When suddenly faced with the requirement to put physical barriers between us and the people we NEED, we have struggled with how to transmit and receive connection.
We’ve floundered in empty space.
We’ve realized how unlivable it is to be alone.
We’ve reached out to our communities in new ways.
We’ve reconfigured how to transmit and receive what we require from each other… without transmitting and receiving what we definitely do not.
Transmission shared experiences from the past year and explored how we maintained our cherished human connectedness.
*Now Available for Booking for 2021*
'Transmission' is available for your event. You can book the show in its entirety or customize it to your needs. Contact us for more information!
Video from show day available upon request.
Check out our digital program!
Special Thanks to
for their amazing and truly appreciated support,
including rehearsal locations, sound production, and so much more.
Our Cast
Tran | Annie
Silks | Silks
Tran and Annie, a silks duo act who come to us from Tucson, have been using their piece to explore the emotional arc of how they've experienced connection throughout the pandemic. Their movement will speak to the dichotomy of their old normal routines and the new reality of anxiety and unknown, fraught with isolation and boredom, and eventually new connection through shared experience.
Lora & Ryann | Shawn
Lyra | Sling
Who, in the last year, can’t relate to their own anxiety as such a real impediment to productivity it feels like a living, breathing, monkey on your back? We certainly can. In their lyra/hammock act, Ryann, Lora, and Shawn contemplate the concept of anxiety as a physical parasite, constantly working to derail their life.
Kristy | Corina
Dance Trapeze | Lyra
Kristy and Corina tackle the lighter side of pandemic chaos in their trapeze/lyra act. Remember the constantly changing guidelines? The TP crisis? Did you wipe down your groceries with bleach or drink extra wine to cope? (One of our producers was both of those people and she’s not coming forward to confess.) Regardless of how terrible it was in the moment, you have to admit, some of it is laughable in retrospect.
Forrest | Jill
Silks | Silks
The pandemic has presented a particular challenge for people who live alone. It’s harder to watch your friends and loved ones for warning signs they have emotional needs that aren’t being met, when you can’t get closer than a zoom happy hour. This last year has highlighted for our society as a whole that friendships we sometimes take for granted aren’t merely elective. For many, they provide necessary sustenance for our well-being. Forrest and Jill, in their silks duo, delve into the relationships we need to lift us up when we don’t have the strength to do it for ourselves.
Agustin & Gustavo
Spanset
The last year left many people isolated from lovers; some separated by circumstance in different parts of the planet, not knowing when they would see each other again. Agustin and Gustavo experienced this trauma. They felt trapped in different locations and pushed aside by the world. Their stunning duo span set act speaks to their experience being apart, and finally reunited, and all of the anxiety and torture that accompanied this fight against their barrier of time and space.
Emma | Dzintra
Sling | Dance Trapeze
Emma and Dzintra's hammock and dance trapeze act tackles a topic that has tortured far too many of us over the last year: online schooling. If you’re a parent, you can surely relate to the particular challenges that have invaded the teacher/student relationship in the internet world: microphones not working, bored students, a general lack of understanding among involved parties, etc. That said, even if you haven’t been herding small humans in the last year, it’s very probable you took an online workout class or even a job training that resulted in endless (and possibly comedic) frustration, a la “I’m here live, judge, I'm...I'm not a cat.”
Thomas & Corina | Amy & Sarah
Teardrop | Dance Trapeze
When the world locked down, were you suddenly trapped with another person day in and day out, with no break, no catharsis of getting out and seeing other people, no relief of time apart to miss each other again? Or were you trapped alone, with only your own face in the mirror to keep you company? Both situations presented unique tortures and joys. Thomas, Corina, Amy, and Sarah compare and contrast the daily lives of a set of neighbors composed of lovers, and a single woman with only her alter ego to keep her company, in their teardrop/dance trapeze piece.
Jeanie | Rebecca
Lyra | Lyra
At a certain point last March, it seemed like the gravity on Earth got dialed up a notch. We still had to get through living the day-to-day life, but everything was heavier, everything was more difficult. We were weighed down by uncertainty, fear, and sorrow. Every normal task was more of a struggle than ever before. Jeanie and Rebecca’s duo lyra piece delves into the before, during, and after of the last year and the toll it’s taken on how we navigate life.
Elizabeth | Tawnya
Sling | Straps
Caretakers have come into the spotlight as people we desperately rely on. We need them when we are at our very most vulnerable. These are the people we depend on to provide us with resources when we can’t do it for ourselves. Care-taking is not just an occupation, though, and caretakers are not, themselves, an island. People who give care also become depleted and rely on their own support system to rebuild their strength. Elizabeth and Tawnya's straps/hammock piece explores how we get what we need from each other and giving/received care as a cycle.
Jeni & Emily | Crissy & Nichole
Straps | Straps
Jeni, Emily, Crissy, and Nichole's straps act contemplates the trauma they experienced during the pandemic as a result of the necessary dismantling of their group of friends. They were forced to isolate from each other, and then slowly, carefully, were able to come back together. After the mental toll of uncertainty, they found that connection, support, and love helped to heal in the end.
Alisha & Brent
Acro Duo
Alisha and Brent's acro duo act takes us all back to those moments of quarantine when we were separated from the things we loved and feeling weary. However, it tells an uplifting story, one where two artists found ways to make the most of a less than ideal situation. Despite facing obstacles, they come together and visualize what it will be like to perform their art again.
Alex | Kristi
Silks | Silks
Alex and Kristi’s silks piece addresses the resiliency of the human condition with a dash of Freddie Mercury. Yes, we’ve all been through a lot, and most of us will come out on the other side changed in ways we could never have expected, but we are also emerging from this traumatic last year with a renewed appreciation for things we previously took for granted. Kristi and Alex break free of the monotony of daily life to live their true joys, and we are here for it and can relate.