February, 6-8, 2019

Karen Bernard

Karen Bernard - Lakeside Audrée Juteau, courtesy of L'Annexe-A

Karen Bernard presents a haunting new performance confronting the memory of trauma and its lasting impact on the body. Using a found costume from her past (a bright yellow and black body suit), Bernard conjures a scene where she and her collaborator Lisa Parra inhabit roles of victim, witness, and murderer, crisscrossing identities though minimalistic movements that have the power to deliver an emotionally charged wallop characteristic of Bernard's layered and introspective work. The costume itself is imbued with a personality that is passed back and forth between Bernard and Parra, pointing to a shared experience of physical terror. The act of watching and bearing witness to violence is subtly interrogated, leading us to question what spectatorship means in a culture that regularly transmits and consumes violent imagery done to female bodies.

Lakeside is performed by Karen Bernard and Lisa Parra. Dramaturgy by Andi Villa Stover. Soundscore by Boris Billier. Video by Karen Bernard. 

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A photo of dancers lifting another up in the air in a studio of a Summer MELT workshop. There is a standing lamp off to one corner as the lifted dancer reaches up in the air. Photo by Rachel Keane.

 

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