The Encounter at Crossing the Line
The Encounter was presented for the first time in NYC as part of Crossing the Line Festival at French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), featuring performers and designers from NYC and Torn Space Theater in Buffalo, NY.
Initiated with a mix of teens and professional performers, The Encounter blossomed from the celebratory energy and gratitude of our return to the studio post-quarantine.
The work is an encounter with oneself, pulling from what we are currently carrying in our bodies–grief, hope, fear, desire, newfound power- and pairs it with our dreams in this moment of reconciliation with time. Working with communities around the world merging professional, pre-professional, and non-professional performers, Bartosik has been creating unique Encounter projects, creating an intergenerational cross-geographic, global conversation about the ferocious power of the body as a form of communication and the potency of movement as a connective language.
The Encounter at Crossing the Line
Choreography and Direction by Kimberly Bartosik, created in close collaboration with the cast
Performed by Kimberly Bartosik, Claude “CJ” Johnson, Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze, Ryan Pliss, Kalub Michael*, Mac Twining
With young performers River Bartosik-Murray, Logan Farmer, Ellington Tanner
Original Sound Design by Frank Naploski* and Sivan Jacobovitz, arranged by Kimberly Bartosik
Lighting Design by Roderick Murray
Costume Design Jessica Wegrzyn*
Creative Producer Carlos Diaz Stoop
Rehearsal & Administrative Assistant Lexie Thrash
Stage Manager Carly Weiser*
*Guests from Torn Space Theater in Buffalo, NY
Crossing the Line performances of The Encounter were made possible, in part, through FIAF’s commissioning funds; generous funding from the Nathan M. Clark Foundation & NYS DanceForce ; Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance at the Center for Ballet and the Arts @ NYU; creative development residencies at Tremper Arts and the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation; a generative partnership and residency with Torn Space Theater (Buffalo); and donations from John Robinson, our Kickstarter donors, and other generous patrons. This project was also supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
Photography by Maria Baranova
