bLUr (2025)
Photographs 1-4: Ben McKeown, courtesy of the American Dance Festival
Photographs 5-25: Maria Baranova
Built in cycles of desire and fierce compassion, and culling from the haunting experience of having witnessed a loved one overdose, blur exists within a landscape of physical and emotional crisis. Five performers of exquisite humanity navigate urgent interventions, tender and brutal rescues, inside a space of howling hunger and deeply erotic tenderness. In bLUr, time warps and haunts, reminding us of our fragility, power, and need to care for and rescue one another.
Featuring performers Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze, Ashley Merker, Jacoby Pruitt, Donovan Reed
Original composition Sivan Jacobovitz
Lighting and Set Design Roderick Murray
Lighting Designer Assistants River Bartosik-Murray & Ari Barash
Costume Design Harriet Jung
Contract Manager Joshua Bristow
International Touring & Liasion Nicole Birmann Bloom, nicibbloom@gmail.com
Production Manager Emily Vizina
Company Manager & Marketing Kierra Nguyen
bLUr premiered at New York Live Arts, October 2025
co-presented with L'Alliance New York's Crossing the Line Festival
bLUr was restaged for L'Alliance New York's Le Skyroom in January 2026 co-presented with Live Artery/New York Live Arts.
bLUr on tour:
November 21-22, 2025: Dance Place, Washington, DC
May 15-16, 2026: Museum of Contemporary Art/MCA Chicago
June 27, 2026: American Dance Festival, Reynolds Theater
December 12, 2026: MASS MoCA
February 13 & 14, 2027: PS 21 Center for Contemporary Performance
March 5& 6, 2027: Walker Arts Center
bLUr is a National Dance Project/NDP supported work
For more information on NDP and our Community Engagement Workshop, contact Joshua Bristow, jeebristow@gmail.com
For international touring inquiries, contact: Nicole Birmann Bloom: nicibbloom@gmail.com
For tech rider, contact: Emily Vizina, Production Manager, vizina.emily@gmail.com
bLUr trailer
Trace of bLUr (2026)
Choreography by Kimberly Bartosik
Performed by Ny Opong
Sound by Sivan Jacobovitz
Design by Roderick Murray
Trace of bLUr is a 4-minute solo created especially for performer Ny Opong pulled from the interior of bLUr, Bartosik’s evening length work for 5 performers. In Trace, Opong, a performer of exquisite humanity, maps the ghosts of the bodies that inhabit the full work and tracks their pathways with fierce vulnerability and power.
Trace of bLUr was commissioned by PS 21 Center for Contemporary Performance where it premiered on July 11, 2026 as part of PS 21’s Gala.
bLUr will be presented as part of PS 21’s The Dark Festival 2027.
bLUr is co-commissioned by L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival and by ADF/American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works. The work is co-presented with Crossing the Line and New York Live Arts. bLUr is also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation. General Operating Support was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation. bLUr is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and with Project Support from The Harkness Foundation for Dance. The creation of the bLUr Community Engagement Workshop, made possible through NDP, was also developed with support from the 92Y Harkness Dance Center and in collaboration with Recanti-Caplan teen scholars. bLUr was developed in residency at Marble House Project, the Ragdale Foundation during a Sybil Shearer Fellowship, and as an Artist in Residency at Bates Dance Festival. bLUr is also supported through the generosity of individual donors, with major support by John Robinson.
