About UNCONVENTIONAL DANCE: BIG Kmart

UNCONVENTIONAL DANCE: BIG Kmart is the first in a series of dance films and live performances, exploring dance and its relationship to setting. By placing dances in non-traditional and everyday spaces (grocery stores, abandoned malls, parks, museums, a Target bathroom) we are examining movement, memories, and lineages within this form. Through this multi-year project we’re continuing to question the hierarchy of spaces and assumptions of dance performance. Each iteration of this project will be tailored to its specific space; highlighting larger societal themes like late stage capitalism, climate change, decaying infrastructure, accessibility, gatekeeping, performativity and community, to create a collage of dances that stir up memories and nostalgia while allowing for a reimagining of how dance exists in our spaces and in our bodies.

About Hollis Bartlett & Nattie Trogdon

Hollis Bartlett and Nattie Trogdon are performers, practitioners, and partners based in Brooklyn, NY. Their collaborations include films and live performances which interrogate their lineage and intentionally craft experimental, risk-taking works that disrupt the hierarchy of spaces and assumptions of dance performance. Their work has been presented at Gibney (Work Up Artists), DMAC, No Theme Festival, Earthdance, SCDT, and CPR. They’ve been awarded artist residencies at The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Visionary, MOtiVE, Mana Contemporary and NYU, and have received commissions from Swarthmore, SUNY Brockport, Roger Williams, SUNY Purchase, University of Maryland, and Salem State.