this time
Melinda Jean Myers with Laila Franklin & Kate Vincek
Thursday, August 11
& Friday, August 12, 2022
7:00pm
signs and symbols presents this time by Melinda Jean Myers with Laila Franklin and Kate Vincek as part of artists & allies v. this time is an episodic choreographic practice that began in January 2020 in Iowa City, Iowa. In response to the pandemic, the work developed into a series of nine, collaborative and site-specific choreographies that were archived over nine-months. Each iteration was made by defining the possible terms of the specific space and time, then creating the work from what felt connective, inspiring and honest for the artists to contribute. The practice became a commitment to continued creative processing during the uncertain and tenuous global landscape that framed it.
In July of 2022, the collaborators returned to Iowa City to create a long-form choreography in response to each episode. This duet contains a relationship to embodied memories, feelings and questions from the past in conversation with current desires and curiosities. While honoring and referencing what once was created, they find each other again in this work with as much presence as possible — finding a new, yet familiar topography each time.
Collaborators:
Directed by Melinda Jean Myers
Choreographed by Laila Franklin and Kate Vincek in collaboration with Melinda Jean Myers
Performed by Laila Franklin and Kate Vincek
Video Edit by Alex Dela Peña
melinda jean myers is a dance artist, choreographer and Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance and Choreography at University of Iowa. She earned her MFA from University of Iowa (2012) where she received a Stanley Graduate Award for International Research and Iowa Arts Fellowship. She earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005). She was honored to perform internationally with the Trisha Brown Dance Company for four years (2006-2010), and currently re-stages their repertory. She created three new works as a devising ensemble member of Lucky Plush Productions (Chicago,IL) and toured nationally with the company for five years (2012-2017). As a member of The Cambrians, her collaborative work Clover (2015) was named one of Chicago Tribunes Top 10 Dances of 2015. She was chosen to produce her one-woman cabaret greatBIGworld through High Concept Laboratories’ Sponsored Artist program at Mana Contemporary in 2014. The Chicago Tribune review mentioned “Myers has proved herself a winning performer, boasting a brilliantly unstudied comic touch.” Her interdisciplinary dance works have been presented in South Korea, Germany, New York and throughout the Midwest.
laila j. franklin is a Boston-based dance artist and movement researcher. Her performance/collaboration credits include work with little house dance company, Ruckus Dance, Haus of Pvmnt and projects with Dr. Christopher-Rasheem McMillan, Melinda Jean Myers and Stephanie Miracle. Franklin's choreography has been presented through The Boston Center For The Arts’ Mills Gallery, Third Life Studios (MA), Public Space One (IA), the Boston Conservatory and the University of Iowa. She has been working as a teaching artist since 2018, serving communities in Boston and Iowa City. She also serves as a consultant for anti-white supremacy education projects/programming in the Greater Boston Area. She holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance from The Boston Conservatory and an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa.
kate vincek is a dance artist, choreographer and educator currently based in the Midwest. She has a BFA from Wayne State University and earned an MFA in dance from the University of Iowa in 2021, where she was the recipient of an Iowa Arts Fellowship. She has been a longtime collaborator and performer with ChrisMastersDance and has had the pleasure of performing nationally and internationally in works by Nicholas Leichter, Faye Driscoll, Melinda Myers, Alison Woerner, Jan Van Dyke, Sean Curran, John Zullo, Jeff Rebudal and Lauren Adams.
