‘_ _ _ _ _ Y’
This piece was originally conceived at Jacob’s Pillow during the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellowship in 2024.
‘_ _ _ _ _ y’ delves into the metaphysical nature of memory, inviting audiences to reflect on the malleability and visceral impact of their own recollections. Through a contemporary movement language rich with tension, speed, stillness, and satirical gestures, the piece weaves text spoken by dancers into the physical landscape.
"Witty."
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"I'm still thinking about this piece... months later."
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"Intelligent."
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"Such a light entry point, but I was nearly in tears."
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"Mature."
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"Witty." • "I'm still thinking about this piece... months later." • "Intelligent." • "Such a light entry point, but I was nearly in tears." • "Mature." •
Support the development of this work!
I am actively seeking residencies, creative fundraising opportunities, and funding to further this work. If you have any leads on creation residencies, technical residencies, dramaturgical support, lighting designers, creative designers, etc… please contact me!
Artist Testimonials
Being inside of this work feels like tapping into my innermost self. Reaching back into my memories as a child, moving through the motions of what memory feels like inside my body. It's all quite nostalgic and exciting. I believe the excitement stems from the youthfulness that comes out of us when we are asked to think of our fondest memories. Good or bad, memories have a way of showing us what it is we're looking for, answers we may be seeking. I think audiences would appreciate seeing this work because of its passion for story-telling while allowing them to create their own narrative. In addition, its tenderness, clarity, dialogue, focus, and meaningful memories which we all can relate to, help to develop that same narrative along. One of my favorite attributes of the work is the way audiences respond to the playfulness around the idea that sometimes... we just can't remember!
- Hunter Wayne Foster
As a performer, this work serves as a sacred channel for the embodiment of what’s most intimate within myself. The piece’s structure and language invites me to experience simultaneous recollection, discovery and catharsis. Despite the deeply personal nature of the memories that are being relived throughout the piece, there is a profound thread of connection that unites all who are involved in this process, including the observer. The audience witnesses us in the act of replaying and remembering, and in this witnessing, I can feel them faintly reckoning with their own sense of memory, with their own pasts. The memories become equally as universal as they are individual, because we are all invited to experience their animation in the space. To me, this is the most fulfilling and significant reward of living inside this world that Nicole has created.
- Aika Doone
Photos by Christopher Duggan courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow.