
The Encounter: Buffalo
The Encounter: Buffalo, created by choreographer/director Kimberly Bartosik in partnership with Torn Space Theater, is a live work of physical theater featuring 9 local performers, ages 17-64. It exists within Bartosik’s larger project, The Encounter, which she is creating with communities around the world, merging professional, pre-professional, and non-professional performers. 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, as we dig our lives out of the pandemics of this age. The burgeoning result is a 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: Buffalo
Choreography and Direction by Kimberly Bartosik
Creative Assistance by Burr Johnson
Original sound and lighting by Frankie Napolski
Design concept by Kimberly Bartosik in collaboration with Torn Space Theater
Created in partnership with Torn Space Theater, with support from NYS DanceForce and Torn Space Theater’s lead funders Cullen Foundation, NYSCA, Erie County, Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, Stenclik Family Charitable Foundation, Creative Arts Initiative, the June Farrington Fund, M&T Bank, and REDC.
Press: NPR Interview | Buffalo News
Photos at Torn Space Theater by Mark Duggan
Trailer by FLATSITTER, shot by Jeanette Chwan, drone by Jim Cielencki






