JACKS

can you come outside? (2019)

Premiered: Saturday, October 12, 2019 @ NEXT DOOR Red Hook, Brooklyn

Created + Produced by: JACKS

Collaborators + Performers: Nicole Assanti, Rebecca Fitton, Maddie Leonard-Rose, Ceci Lynn-Jacobs, Debbie Z Maciel, Debbie Mausner, Ben Roach, Leah Samuels, Libby Wolf

Work-In-Progress Showings: SharedSpace @ Mark Morris with The Lovelies, The Craft @ Governor’s Island, Summer Rose @ Chashama, Movement Research Open Performance @ PSNY, Winter Follies @ Old First Reformed Church, Halfsies @ Cora Dance.

Can you come outside? came at a time when we were losing and questioning ‘home’. Equal parts homage to ‘what was’ and determination to identify ‘what is,’ we look at ideas of what and who makes home so sacred - or painful. Ten participants will remember, map, embrace, define, and share. Through a game-playing structure, each performer processes personal associations with spaces they identify as home. Using a blueprint of this space, performers repeatedly physically and vocally map a pathway of memories. Each time the pathway is mapped, a different game is played. With guided rules and structure, performers choose their own adventure - deciding as a unit the order in which the games are played. Between games, performers use decision-maker games as touch-points to decide what comes next.

the minimalists at dancify that!

Performed on: April 5, 2019

Producer: Billy Schultz

Kels + Lex became “The Minimalists” for a night, and won the coveted title of Dancify That champions!

Watch video. Make dance. Go for gold. Dancify That! is a comedy dance game-show in which contestants compete in creating dances inspired by bizarre videos excavated from the depths of the internet. Dancers make the dances, comedians do the judging, you decide who wins.

housewarming (2018)

Premiered: Saturday, November 3, 2018

Choreography + Performance: JACKS

Produced by: KIT DISTRCT

Collaborating Artists: Vinny Mwano, Beth Anne Brooks-Mwano, Hana Clarice, Hannah Freedman, JACKS, DanceBoissiere, Rebecca Cohen

HOUSEWARMING was a show for a small audience inside a cozy row home in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C. showcasing the work of visual and performance arts groups from NYC and DC coming together to meditate on the theme of "being at-home.” Each audience member was led through a unique, fully immersive, theatrical environment that was part dinner party, part museum, part dance performance, as well as a community-building experience generating thought-provoking dialogue on what it means to be at home in ourselves, in our community, and in our environment and how we create that for others.

After this process, Kels + Lex were left with questions of home, and the lingering urge to create a community, participatory experience for both performers and audience members back in our home-base. Our dream to expand this project to more homes and humans came to fruition in the creation of Can you come outside? (2019), an evening-length performance experience in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Table of contents (2018)

Photos, words, moments, memory... This work dives into chapters of stories spanning genres and generations. JACKS’ first experiment in the creation of an evening-length work, Table of Contents is a non-linear, chance-based duet investigating chapters of captured moments, invented stories based on underlying truths, and familiar memories. Movement enters into rich theatrically and quickly departs - an experience akin to “changing TV channels to different cartoons.” Currently in development, the work is made up of 10+ movement sections or chapters, appearing as a compilation of vignettes. An order of events is randomly selected prior to every rehearsal and showing, rendering each iteration of the work fleeting and unique. We are interested in finding opportunities to experiment with the randomized order of its parts, especially with an audience. After experiencing Table of Contents as it exists for the stage, JACKS embarked on the film iteration of this work in July 2018 alongside their trusted film crew. More info here.

Table of Contents was created with generous space support from Cora Dance.

RUPTURE (2018)

Premiere: Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at The Art During the Occupation Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn

Created by: Eric Gottshall

Music Composition: Adriana Norat

Choreography + Performance: JACKS

Guest Musical Artists: Sonpekiza And Marcel Krasner

An experiential fusion of dance, sound art, and wearable sculpture. Through use of dance, live musical scores, and perception-altering wearables, the themes of displacement, death, and social progression were explored.

dual (2017)