04 Feb 2026 9 min read

BLOG - Fall Update 2025 (Sept, Oct, November) And also December

Read Reader, Read Dearer, Dear Reader, and so on. . .

On August 1st I moved to NYC. From Urbana Illinois where I was finishing my MFA. On December 3rd I will perform in the World Premiere of the Tere O'Connor Dance Company's new dance, The Lace, at New York Live Arts.

I wrote a while back here, about 50 days back here, about my first few weeks here.

It has been a whirl. a whirl a whirl!

And now Tere's Show is closing. And my shoulder hurts from that spin with Aaron, yes that is the truth. But My heart! OH! holy cow its full. Holy moly cow!

There's a section in the dance called COW! so obvi that's been on my mind (cows)

But mostly, I wanted to let you know, In some sort of way. What has been going on. Up here (brain) in here (heart and also body) but also around here (n y c)

I think. This will be the writing style. so. A bit. Unedited, stright frm th dome. And hopefully that gets at some honesty about what it is to be alive with a spoonful of microplastics in my brain and also a dance in my heart and steps in my haed. (head)

right.

so... I have been watching a lot while I've been here dear reader. In between rehearsals and let me remember some with you now.

September 2025

Shane Larson x Julia Antinozzi or the NYU Artist Development Program for Dance Showcase - September 9th

I can not believe how long ago this was. I was coming from Tere's rehearsals, and HAD to see Julia, who has been so welcoming, so kind!

The dances I remember, now in December, are this tape duet, flinging weighted bodies, these exacting technicians with self imposed confines and rules and expectations that for me exist within the tape, because of the tape? I love the tape! I love watching people spin who seem to have no issue muscling against physics. Dancers who are elegantly nonchalant in their commitment to well crafted phrasework. Phrasework that feels in stark contrast to the IG SLOP! like here is somework that is emphasizing the construction that goes into making something beautiful. Why is it beautiful? BECAUSE ITS SET! oops Caps lock. Because it is felt but not for the limited IG scroll! It is yes contained to the X tape on the floor, but that doesn't make it shrink.

Julio Torres - September 12th

Trajal Harrell at the Armory - September 13th

Glenn Potter-Takata at Kestrels - September 19th

A question Aliza asks as we leave is "does smashing sugar beets represent the death of god?"

or labour? I retort.

when researching for this writing i google 'sugar beets glenn takata tv buddah'

four links pop up: glenn's website, an instagram reel from movement reseach, a ticket link for the Gowanus show, and a Pacific Citizen Newspaper pdf from 1965 about miscegenation laws in Wyoming and Virginia.

Interestingly enough midway through the pdf is an additional headline "700 Japanese supplemental farm workers placed on 'stand-by order' in California" which details in specific numbers by each farm, the amount of workers placed on standby according to their race. I'm left a bit confused. But inspired. Somewhere, there is work out there confronting the horrors of war and cuteness as culture and the plastification of it all. The instant repoduction avaliable with just some technical knowhow and a lidar machine. And Also, the fact that I am constantly walking into coffee shops and seeing people 'hard at work' looking at spreadsheets while watching videos of ICE agents dragging Brown folks to Alligator Alcatraz feels like the obligitory next scene in the apocolyptic plasticized hellscape of 2025. OK. Well yes, I think this work is grappling with that. I think Evan does stand in front of a camera and convincingly spout off what feels like to me, An intake interview for a labour camp, a video of someones Angel Island story playing forever on a loop overlooking the original Alcatraz.

Malcom-X Betts at Movement Research Wed/Thu/Fri, Sep 24 - 26, 2025 | 4:30-7:30PM

On Day One of Malcom's Movement Research workshop we were interrupted by a flood! A Sign? IDK maybe! Who even cares abt signs, too many at this point. I stay in That Room on 1st Ave all day because Tere's Rehearsals were there too.

From my notes:

" Malcom talks about circles, slave circles (?), circles of [enslaved people] working, signaling, to each other, to ancestors, from beyond the present, from the mouth, calls, shout circles? no

prayer calls?

round offs?

Ring Shouts!

As we dance we talk about

frustrations with writing about dance

BIPOC people being erased in criticism

Reviews & Traditional critics who have erasure when they claim to be writing from a place of non Bias. Showing up in ways that clean the writing for the benefit of whom exactly?

Malcom's Description of the Workshop is that "We start by conceptualizing repetition and exploring themes of cyclical patterns in behavior, thoughts, and ideas. We will use somatic practices from childhood to unlock an otherwise possibility to imagine space outside of everything complexed."

Behavior Patterns I was grappling with from rehearsal, from Grad School, from not doing contact improv with anyone since before COVID. That pesky lurking truth. I Find! That when it is brought into conversation there is an air taken out the room, A collective sigh of what? what is it I'm feeling? Exhaustion? Tiredness? Regret? How do I let that behavior go and actually sweat on people and commit to Malcom's Circle walk and Solo Improvisations. is a question.

Searching for something - figuring it out - letting it go.

Moments where things become soft. Things being borders and relationships and rules. Its in stark contrast to the time I spent with Tere. In these workshops I rediscover a seemingly limitless curiosity that comes from dancing with people, for matching people's energies and finding moments of flowing together.

In a movement exercise later in the week, we break into partners and ask questions to each other

A simple Question , Then ask WHY? I want to know more - answer question. Then 10 mins will start. Authentic Movement. Which Malcom explains comes from a process of dancing with Moira Evans "for a while"

Malcolm-x Betts is a New York based visual and dance artist who believes that art is a transformative vehicle that brings people and communities together. His artistic work is rooted in investigating embodiment for liberation, Black imagination, and directly engaging with challenges placed on the physical body. He has a community engagement practice allowing artistic freedom and making art accessible to everyone.

CHASING THE FRAMEWORK is an open framework centering improvisational performance to excavate thematic structures within the body; rooted in Blackness, abstraction, and relentless exploration, seeks to unearth possibilities beyond the confines of our current reality, dismantling oppressive systems like white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and sexism.

Shows In September I missed or had tickets to but gave them away. I'm Sorry! I was just getting my footing and it was ROUGH. I was NOT prepared for NYC prices, so I would swirl down into a shame spiral of not having enough money and not wanting to ask for help and not sure what job to get and getting rejection after rejection from AI robot email accounts:
9/17 - THE BBB WEEK | BEYOND THE BLACK BOX (9.17) WEDNESDAY
Black Lazarus
Victoria Awkward
Ishmael Houston-Jones

9/18 - Ayano Elson, Niala & Stacy Lynn Smith Dance and Process: The Kitchen at Westbeth (163B Bank Street, 4th Floor Loft)Dance and Process 2025: Ayano

9/26 - Fri Sep 26, 2025 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM Offerings: Niall Jones / JOYBOY / Thibault Lac

9/27 - YAKIKAT, Julia Antinozzi, and Ambika Raina at BEAMS

9/29 - Movement Research at the Judson Church, MR Friends Night! | Sep 29, 2025 Dorchel Haqq, Lydia Östberg Diakité, Muyassar Kurdi, NiNi Dongnier

And then the sun was setting and I was on a train back from Baltimore. And I was about to turn 27. And I had a foot fungus growing in-between my toes. And I couldn't get myself to buy fungul cream for 13 dollars. But I did and it cleared up right away and I thought oh. That was literally not that deep. And the dance was coming together, there were some sick ass lifts already and partnering moments with Tim and I was learning so much from watching Heather's incredibly articulate face. And the way the group was beginning to figure each other out. And yeah, I was withholding a lot, in my way of speech, in my N R G. oKaY yeah it I don't know if i have gotten to a point of really letting it all out there, I mean it's much easier in writing isn't it. Although also. Revealing. And Permanint. Proof to point back to. But also, Okay, Sure it's data that could be instantly summarized by AI, sure it's something Pa1ant1r could use in their all seeing EYE Depertment of Defence contract to build a docier, but also, should that really be stopping me from having a good time? I'm 26! I'm like literally so young and my achilles are so flexible.

October - 2025

Open Performance Solo of Horse Dance and Midwest Princess FrFr - October 7th

Intergrants Ensemble with Ching-I night one

Meghma Banerjee & Samadrita Bhattacharyya
Demetris Charalambous - Whose roommate I met and went on a walk with for froyo.

Inter-grant Festival 國際移民藝術節 — 張靜宜。Ching-I Chang

張靜宜。Ching-I Chang

Abigail Levine's Words Begin as Sounds - October 23rd

I go with Carlo and eat soup before at a diner. Its a cheap filling warm option. The nights are getting colder. I'm meeting more people

I tell them I moved here in August. Oh so you're like brand new. I tell them I'm Tere's new Twink dancer. OH Congratulations I have tickets to that show.

one of those 8 shows. Insanity.

Living in the corn will make you lose the ability to bullshit/maybe truly It is never a gift of mine.

Hundreds of Beavers

HorsegiirL - October 11th

Before I left for California, I stayed up until 1:36 watching HorsegiirL in Bushwick. I biked there and back, then stayed up until 4am waiting for my uber to take me to newark to fly me to SFO so I could go on a bike trip with my cousin. I wanted more physical excursion I wanted to be in California. And I was only rehearsing once a week for these three weeks. Could I afford it? No not really. But I felt as If i needed to go.

27, is a year that holds the weight of history. the year my parents were married, living in Berkley, starting their family. My mom was 8 years away from losing both her parents.

But here I am. Dancing, Not eating, Cheating, Biking, Lying, Growing my hair long, spending money I don't have to appear as I do online. Spending time I can't waste, doing something I can write about.

Symara Sarai - October 16th

Sundays on Broadway - Jennifer Monson - October 26th

On Halloween I walk around with devil horns on. I take 10 mg of mushroom chocolates I got in year two of grad school. I am the brokest I've ever been. I

Nov 2025

Miss Woman the Woman presents Katy Perry visits the Seven Layers of Hell - November 5th

Orantorio for Living Things - November 7th https://signaturetheatre.org/show/oratorio-for-living-things/

I go with Josh, a boy I write to, and drink with, and met dancing last January. Maybe two Januarys ago. And we have progressed now to drinking cocktails in our underpants. In the nude. To watching Showgirls together. To watching shows together. To Gay Frivolity I write him. I'm looking forward to more gay frivolity. or something.

Merce Cunningham's Changeling One-Day Reperatory Workshop led by Silas Riener - November 9th

Keioui at Nowadays - November 6th

Evan Ray Suzuki at Pageant - November 6th

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