The Kitchen welcomes back Tere O’Connor for the world premiere of The Goodbye Studies, a piece continuing his decades-long commitment to strictly movement-based investigations. Engaging a large group of twelve New York-based performers, the work promotes complexity as a key feature of consciousness and seeks to fully detach from comprehension as a value. Together with the performers, O’Connor will create aqueous fields of constant movement, where transition and event are indistinguishable. Moving away from a focus on single beings, The Goodbye Studiespromotes the idea of the crowd as protagonist where everyone replaces someone as subject. Images of masses of people trudging through their misfortunes or fighting for empowerment are everywhere. Considering such sources as a background presence in this dance, we might ignite our compassion regarding human rights and the conditions of our shared world. This work will have a new score composed by James Baker, O’Connor’s collaborator of thirty years. The score will be made up of numerous recorded components that will be manipulated live into infinite reconfigurations. Lighting design by Michael O'Connor. 

December 2–5 and 8–12, 8pm
Tickets $15

Tere O'Connor: The Goodbye Studies is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, and The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The project received additional funding from the Arnold O. Beckman Research Award at the University of Illinois.

Photo: Paula Court