Shapes of Movement

The Moving Architects with choreographer Erin Carlisle Norton and dancers Emily Cicio and Kelly Guerrero
sculptor Crystal Gregory
artist gwen charles
curator Kathy Imlay

Shapes of Movement utilizes the space in-between the disciplines of dance, sculpture, weaving, and architecture, to explore how we can be active participants in the environments we find ourselves in, and adaptive to how we intersect and respond within our communities. The project is a collaboration between the all-female dance company The Moving Architects led by Artistic Director Erin Carlisle Norton, sculptor Crystal Gregory, multimedia performance artist gwen charles, and Curator Kathy Imlay. The site adaptive installation is composed of a modular steel structure and numerous weavings with the ability to be worn; dancers dynamically activate the elements and space through a feminist theoretical framework that champions the process, the labor, and the work over the end product. Linear structures begin to break down and open up to movement encounters that are cumulative, always listening and responding to the particular environment and community in which it is sited.

As individuals who seek to expand our individual practices, we approach our work together with open hearts and minds. Having developed a feminist theoretical framework that champions the process, the labor, and the work over the end product, our strength lies in valuing each practice equally, with no hierarchy of importance. We share knowledge and learn from one another. Our team operates with a spirit of gratitude, using the term “not precious” to emphasize the flexibility we maintain in our making and imagining processes.

Teaching and Creative Residency, February 19-25, 2023
University of Kentucky and Luigart Studio, Lexington, KY

Work-in-Progress Performance, April 6-8, 2023
{Re}HAPPENING 11 at Black Mountain College, NC

Future dates TBA

Collaborator Links:
Erin Carlisle Norton and The Moving Architects
Crystal Gregory
gwen charles
Kathy Imlay