Étroits sont les Vaisseaux, a duet created for Joanna Kotze and Lance Gries, is titled in homage to Anselm Kiefer’s 82-foot long, undulating, wave-like sculpture of the same name. In this 21-minute work, Bartosik imagined time and space as palpable bodies, and collapsed an oceanic tidal cycle into minutes and seconds (from hours and minutes), framing how we witness time passing, and making the space between bodies visceral with intimacy and/or distance. With design by Roderick Murray, Étroits considers scale and proximity to invite the audience into the duet’s fabric, not only watching but moving inside the work toward its emotional core.

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Étroits sont les Vaisseaux premiered at Gibney Dance Center, Agnes Varis Performance Lab in April 2016.  The work was presented as part of American Realness festival in January 2017.  Étroits will tour to Wexner Center for the Arts in February 2018

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Choreography and Direction by Kimberly Bartosik in close collaboration with the performers
Performed by Joanna Kotze and Lance Gries
Lighting and Set Design by Roderick Murray
Costume Design by Kimberly Bartosik, Joanna Kotze, and Lance Gries
Sound Design by Kimberly Bartosik and Roderick Murray
Video documentation and editing by Carlton Bright

Photography credit Ryutaro Mishima and Scott Shaw

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To view the work on vimeo, go here.

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Étroits sont les Vaisseaux was created with commissioning support from Gibney Dance with funds provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation and was supported in part by the Center for Performance Research’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Artist in Residence program.

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