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Adrienne Westwood, a Brooklyn-based choreographer who grew up in Fredonia, had her latest creation selected by Dance Magazine as one of nine "must see" performances.
Created in collaboration with Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón, the work, entitled [ ], is a multilayered work featuring dance and an interactive sound sculpture. It premiered at Target Margin's intimate Doxsee Theater in Brooklyn with performances Oct. 23 to 25.
The intimate and image-rich work combined dance, music, live camera work, and projection within an interactive sonic sculpture, weaving personal and ancestral memory into a mirage-like environment. Through sweat, breath, and shadow, the work physically reclaims the stories of invisible female labor, ultimately asking: What is long ago, but still right now?
Developed through a five-year process, [ ] was co-created by Westwood and Negrón and brought to life by a powerhouse cast of eight femme performers and a visionary design team. The title itself is an act of physical resistance.
Rather than a written word, the title, [ ], is announced by framing one's head with deeply curved arms or by speaking the phrase "the empty space between brackets." By refusing to be neatly captured by the English language, the title manifests the gaping, felt absence of femme labor in dominant historical narratives.
Published since 1927, Dance Magazine covers the professional dance world, from ballet and contemporary dance to Broadway, commercial dance, dance education, and the business of building a dance career. With an international circulation of 54,000, each month it selects a small number of performances for its "must see" column.
Adrienne moved to Fredonia with her parents when she was 2 years old. She is a 1999 graduate of Fredonia High School who studied dance for many years with Emma Bishop of the Center Stage dance studio in Westfield and participated for four years in the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance in Saratoga Springs.
She went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a master of fine arts degree from Hollins University. She has received numerous grants and commissions, including from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Howard Gillman Foundation and the New York Council on the Arts.
Adrienne is the daughter of Wendy and Jefferson Westwood of Fredonia. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, designer Seth Easter, and their two children.