Undercover Episodes

As director and choreographer of the Undercover Episodes, I will reunite with my core artistic team of Chicago-based musicians/composers, Verger, and Minneapolis-based Art Director, Jt Williams, with whom I originated the piece during a 2015 Princess Grace Foundation-USA Works in Progress residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center, followed by a sold out run at Links Hall in 2016. I am also thrilled to work with three new dancers, Michael Gross, Emilie Leriche, and Andrew Murdock, all of whom are highly respected and renowned artists of the dance world.

We will spend three weeks together in the studio revamping and reimagining existing material from past Episodes while continuing to generate new supplementary movement, music, and projection elements that are suited to the current artists’ individualities and collective chemistries, as well as the new performance spaces. The material we create together will be shaped into a newly realized form of the Undercover Episodes which will be presented throughout the year in Chicago and Minneapolis.

Prospective venues include such unique and unconventional performance environments as an outdoor garden in a stylish Chicago cocktail bar, a public arts space in Minneapolis, and the distinctly stunning homes of generous Undercover Episodes supporters in both respective cities. By integrating new Episodes in fresh spaces and among new players and observers, I look forward to the inevitable transformation of the work and the new channels and conversation that will originate in response.

Creating and producing the Undercover Episodes has revealed itself to be one of the most challenging yet endlessly fulfilling projects of my career. It is one that allows me to explore and communicate through the language of movement. It also gives me a sense of freedom to take the risks necessary in order to truly discover new potential directions in my work. Keeping the Undercover Episodes alive is a constant logistical and financial push but I feel passionate enough about the importance of its evolution to continue pursuing ways to make it work. I hope you will consider joining me and my team on this journey!