The Atlas began as a capstone project for my BA in Cultural Geography. Drawing from the writing of geographers such as Doreen Massey, and from the landscape-focused work of writers such as Ana Martins Marques ("Cartografias"), I sought to make performance art that reflected the layered nature of a physical atlas - a compendium of representations of many places, or of many ways of representing the same place, layered and folded on and into one another. Places that are distant can share a border; space and time are both shrunk, yet expansive as ever. Our globalized world is somehow still hyperlocal.
In parallel, my research in this ongoing project is concerned with the ways that places in our lives - as individuals, as peoples, as nations - exist dually, as physical locations on the surface of a planet, and as memories or imaginations in our minds. I seek to uncover the overlays between these different aspects of places, how they interact with each other, and how they are also distinct and entire on their own.
This collaborative work was rooted in improvisational scores developed in tandem with the performers that allowed them to explore pathways between real places in their lives. These pathways were scaled to fit the stage and overlapped with each other, creating an atlas of highly individual and highly porous maps generated through movement. The piece is concerned with the way that our deeply embodied memories of place become places in their own right, existing ephemerally but distinctly.
Presented at Meet Me: Senior Thesis Concert, Hallie Flanagan Studio Theater, Smith College, April 2023
Performers: Clara Kim, Riko Mukoyama, Sarah Thieler, Teagan Benavidez, Emily Swindell, Shira Zaid
Sound: Field recordings by Samantha Grossman; "preston ave" and "discrete (the market)" by claire rousay; "Embrosneros" by JAB; "Windbag" by Ben Hall
Sound Design: Samantha Grossman
Costumes: Samantha Grossman
Atlas II is an exploration of the relationship between a spiritual imagination of a place and the reality of that place through storytelling and movement. It is rooted in personal experience and my relationship to Judaism in a time of genocide. This piece was a chance for me to experiment with pairing text and movement, working with props, and toeing the line between fantasy and realism.
Presented at:
Stomping Grounds Festival, Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, MA, August 2024
LOCULUS Studios, Holyoke, MA, November 9th 2024
Sound: Field recordings by Samantha Grossman, "Whale Nigun" by Samantha Grossman with Ari Jewell
Props: Ariel Shapiro, Ozzy Gold Shapiro, & The People's Puppet Parade (Northampton, MA)