Communion by Sidra Bell

"Communion" was born out of research prompted by Bell’s personal navigation of disconnection, loneliness, and faithfulness. With a poetic structure that is based in imagery, emotional structures, semiotics, body design and sensation, the work examines the current trajectory of despair, alienation, and dystopia that permeates the way that we connect with our bodies through society’s apparati. How does humanity intersect and transform through struggle? We ask the viewer to see and feel through frames, ruptures, personal empires, forgiving structures, wandering pathways and fragments. Things fall apart. This piece focuses on the ascendancy of community (muscle), compromise, effortfulness, support, simplicity, and love. This elegiac experience is a series of impressions, human huddles, rearrangements, and hybrid forms of movement set against a wild mixture of textures, design, and sound. The work features lighting by resident designer Amith Chandrashaker, set design by architect Cass Calder Smith, costumes by Caitlin Taylor, and sound design by Michael Roche. Sidra Bell Dance New York’s eight member company performs with live music by Immanuel Wilkins Quartet.
This work is in loving memory of our friends Casey Benjamin & Kevin Wynn.
World premiere of "Communion" in May 2024 at Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 53A Chambers Street, New York.