Site-Specific Performance Workshops
Body Shift Collective loves to perform in public places. If you have an idea how we can highlight your spaces please email Silva Laukkanen. Visit the Body Shift Gallery for pictures and descriptions of past workshops.
Formal Performances
Body Shift Collective will be performing a duet choreographed by Veronica DeWitt at the Austin Dance Festival in April 3-5th. You can find more information about the festival here: https://austindancefestival.com/
Tanya Winters and Silva Laukkanen will be part of the Dome Show that will be performed in md-June. More information on this later.
If you want Body Shift to perform at your event, please email silva@artsparktx.org
On Display Austin
Every year on December 3rd, Body Shift joins a cast of local dancers, actors, and activists of diverse ages, abilities, and backgrounds to present Heidi Latsky’s ON DISPLAY.
ON DISPLAY is a deconstructed art exhibit/fashion show and commentary on the body as spectacle and society’s obsession with body image. It turns a cast of diverse and extreme bodies into a sculpture court where the performers are the sculptures. ON DISPLAY began as a simple human sculpture court and is now a movement, a growing portfolio of works that explore and demonstrate inclusion through art.
We’ve always been taught not to stare; not to look at someone deeply because it might offend them; that if someone “different” catches our eye we have objectified them. This is the life of the viewer. Alternatively, should we possess a birthmark, a glorious height, or unknown disability we risk being too noticeable and often ostracized or worse. This is the life of the viewed.
In both lives there is a harsh limitation where one does not have the time to see beyond mere characteristics and the other cannot be seen as anything but other. How can we possibly create a safer space for both to really look?
ON DISPLAY Austin is the local platform of an annual worldwide initiative ON DISPLAY Global that evolved out of Heidi Latsky Dance’s partnership with the NYC Mayor’s Office and the UN in celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It is a sculpture court where the performers are the sculptures.
Visit the Body Shift Gallery to view photographs of previous On Display presentations.
Please email Silva Laukkanen if you would like to participate in our next presentation of On Display or request more information.
