Underwriting Companionship
"Underwriting Companionship" is a mixed media piece combining spoken word and dance. It was performed by Kathryn Shearman myself, at both Hollins University as well as Cornell University in October 2006. The piece was reworked for the ODC PILOT Program in San Francisco, and evolved into a new piece, Hysterics Anonymous.
"Underwriting Companionship" is an investigation of the feminist sensibility through a history of female correspondence. Combining letters about women's rights (Susan B. Anthony) with letters that express a more universal human tendency to heal and recover, it is through this diverse historical cross-section of female correspondence that I intend to examine and reveal the place of women in our society. Movement and music (pre-recorded) serve to emphasize the emotional resonance inherent in the letters themselves, and the piece as a whole invites audience members to speculate on common threads between the letters and ways in which the world has changed since they were written. A common thread in my dance work is the juxtaposition of narrative and abstract, and I often use narrative concepts as a springboard into movement investigation.
"Underwriting Companionship" was commissioned by Hollins University, and premiered there in October 2006.
Type: Dance-Theater
Running time: 10 minutes
Date of Creation: October 2006
Direction/choreography: Catherine Galasso
Music: Mendelssohn, Michael Galasso, Ratatat
Performed by: Kathryn Shearman and Catherine Galasso