Remnants is an ongoing, immersive performance project combining dance, photography, music, and indigenous storytelling. In each iteration of the work, the audience moves through the site as the work vacillates between depictions of alienation and dispossession to reconnect with land, nature, and self.
The project emerged out of
Remnants, a performance held in Rochester’s Ellison Park in September 2021 as a Fringe Festival event. Collaborators include: Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp (Director, Choreographer), Trish Corcoran (Writer, Director, Storyteller, Naturalist), Andrea A. Gluckman (Photographer, Filmographer, Visual Artist), Stella Wang (Writer, Director, Story Collector), Greg Woodsbie (Music Director, Composer), 4 actors, 12 dancers and 5 musicians.
Led by the familial stories of Trish Corcoran and her Onondowaga lineage, the piece began with embodied research, writing, and mindfulness. The first iteration became a site-specific performance that integrated oral narratives with ecological facts about the land in and around the Ellison Park. Dancers, storytellers, musicians, writers, and visual artists reflected on the legacy of the earth, their connection (or disconnection) to it, and how our bodies seek to connect with the elements of the land — the body of the earth. The feedback from the show was overwhelmingly positive (read
Jeff Spevak’s review) and we quickly realized that this work has potential to create change through awareness and re-connection.
The work asks audiences for their presence in the moment and suggests that this is a collaborative work -- the performers share -- the audience attends -- and the quality of that intention brings Remnants towards a transformational experience for all involved.
This project offers a multi-pronged artistic invitation to look at difficult things -- complex histories, hidden realities, and dark pasts that are embedded in the land -- and our bodies. The power of the art--dance, music, storytelling, and visual media--can move people in a way to bypass their defenses and allow the emotion to seep in. This can allow the audience many different ways to feel empathy while
embodying the experience, which we know is the most powerful form of learning and the only road to action.