“American Dawn” draws inspiration from a poem written by choreographer Erin Carlisle Norton’s grandfather Thomas John Carlisle “America Dawn” from 1976, inspired by a Louise Nevelson sculpture of the same name from 1959/67. A dance inspired by a poem, inspired by a sculpture.

This work creates a cityscape environment that juxtaposes beauty and decay, fusing structural and sculptural bodies with movement that is pure abandon, intricate, and chaotic.  The performers use crunchy plastic tarps both as garbage refuse danced through like rubble on the streets and as an ethereal inflatable plastic bubble to dance within. Shadow and glare are projected from handheld lights. Performers, all in beige, wear floating translucent tulle adornments on the neck and wrists while the percussive and temporal soundscape of the music grounds the work, pushing the edges of the relationships between time and space.  “America Dawn” lifts and brings to the stage the original sculpture’s textures and proportions, the poems’ optimism and cyclicity, and the beautiful and muted architectural cityscapes of both. This work involved various collaborations between the company and gwen charles (visual art), Ralph Lewis (composer), and Porl Gordon (sound).

​

For a complete list of credits, please visit our YouTube channel.