ShaLeigh Dance Work’s 2020 evening-length work The In-Between premiered at The Fruit March 13-15th. All 3 live performances received standing ovations and were followed by the company’s first live-streamed premiere amid the Covid pandemic.
The work ultimately explores the nature of social disruption and reframes frustration and diminishment as strength. Comerford and the dancers took a deep dive into researching how these textures press on the world and against each other. Through personal stories, pleasures, and challenges, the dancers move between multiple, layered identities. The work found its deeper universal themes for engagement crashing into convergences through a two-week residency with Rosie Herrera, Artistic Director of Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre.
The fifty-five minute work is forged through performative gestures and vignettes and encompasses the very real complexity of identity, feminism, race, and queerness as the embodiment of what it means to be human. During the performance, SDW’s ensemble delivers a stunning display of dance through vignettes rich with images and movement. The work charts bold new directions that displace the confessional with the performative, and proposes social disruption as a natural antidote to identity itself.
The In-Between is directed and choreographed by Artistic Director ShaLeigh Comerford in collaboration with ShaLeigh Dance Works’ company members. The original score is by Sand Pact. Costume design is by Stephanie Sevilla. Lighting design is by Bamboo Wind efficianando Jeremy Kumin. Stage design is by Shannon Faribanks.
This work was selected to showcase with Booking Dance Festival at Jazz at Lincoln Center for APAP 2020. Excerpts have been presented by Durham Magazine’s TASTE; Gallery 202’s Movement Art Gala in Roanoke, VA; Westgate Wine in Raleigh, NC; and Revolutionaries in the Dark in Durham, NC.
Estimated Run-Time: 55 minutes
“I love this work! So powerful and focused! The build-up of tension is breathtaking!” – Jodi Kaplan, Booking Dance
“In a most eloquent, fierce, and dynamic language of movement, The In-Between holds the space for introspection and ultimately for empathetic discovery.” – Myra Weise, Proxemic Media
“Incredible lighting and a sound experience that’s among the best I’ve ever heard in dance — or any performance. Truly, this is a work in which all the elements combine in ways that captivate an audience. Kudos!” – Timothy Walter, Durham Fruit
What our audience is saying:
“In person, this performance was like nothing I’ve experienced; one almost felt immersed in it. Like the difference between seeing a regular movie and one in IMAX 3D. I’m fascinated to see how such a visceral and powerful yet so intimate performance will translate to this other medium.”
“Intensely captivating, hypnotizing … an out of body experience.”