Anna Thérèse WitenberG Choreography & Direction
233 Jefferson Avenue
Following TUXEDO, I created TUXEDO TUXEDO in the apartment of my longtime collaborator Jack Whitescarver. If Tuxedo functioned as a close-up, this work opened into a medium-wide frame, with sightlines into the kitchen, stairwell, and adjoining spaces. This shift in perspective expanded the choreography. Movement became larger, more explosive, and more spatially dynamic, shaped in response to the live piano score composed and performed by Whitescarver, which introduced a looser and more volatile emotional register.
For TUXEDO TUXEDO, I conceived of the set in collaboration with Le Xie. Inspired by Ballets Russes designer Léon Bakst, who described the dancer’s body as “transparent,” Le created three large dresses made of plastic sheeting, printed with a distorted image of two figures kissing. Like a haunted exoskeleton, these forms act as extensions of the dancers’ bodies, foregrounding vulnerability within dancing.
Choreography and Creative Direction by Anna Thérèse Witenberg
Set Design by Le Xie Dressed Construction and Design by Sophie Turok
Dancers Rachel Gill, Ethan Huffman, Aimee Grumbach, Josie Bettman, Kieran McBride
Link to Video of Performance