"No more beautiful dances” wrestles with the ideas of exploration, introspection, and reframing of a woman after becoming a mother, and being an immigrant. Lenzu’s dance theater piece uses spoken word, drawings, and video projections to tell a personal vision of femininity, and what it means to be a woman today.
Choreographer/Dancer: Anabella Lenzu
Video Projection Design: Todd Carroll
Director: Daniel Pettrow
Costumes: Jennifer Johanos
"No More Beautiful Dances," a dance/theater solo in which the spoken word, drawings, and video projections merge to offer a very personal view of femininity and what it means to be a woman today.
In this interdisciplinary solo, Anabella's wrestles with issues of identity as experienced by a contemporary artist who is also a woman, mother, and immigrant. "I had arrived at a moment where I am 44 years old," she states, "have two kids, notice my body aging, and reflecting on other changes psychologically and emotionally. The work keeps me humble and honest about who I am and what I look like. I show the things most people want to hide as dancers. I show the body of a 42-year old woman. For me it's about embracing who I am at the moment." On another level, the artist feels that through dialogue with collaborators and mentors, her work starts out specific, but arrives at a universal message.
The choreography is captured not only by the audience, but by two live-streaming cameras, one above and the other below the stage area, two laptops and two projectors. Technology in this piece is a magnifying glass, showing something normally hidden from view. The cameras become a portal to another dimension for the audience and performer.
*Photo credit: Theo Cote