Places that shape you

Places That Shape You documents the development and experience of composing and presenting Places That Shape You, an evening-length dance performance examining the relationship between culture and urban spaces, inspired by the physical parameters that cities provide for our lives. In the performance, a blend of postmodern contemporary movement vocabulary, text, projection, a mattress, 12 phonebooks and an overhead projector were used to a tell a story through the contrast of objects both obsolete and current. Musical collaborator, Austen Mack, created an original score that worked in partnership with the movement, advancing the unfolding of concepts about public and private spaces, community, memory, expectation and abstraction. In collaboration with six dancers, the choreographer conducted movement and archival research investigating personal stories, urban theory, somatic experience, place-making, and memories left in the spaces people inhabit, culminating in an evening length performance.