Author: Deborah Goffe

Deborah Goffe is a dance maker, performer, educator, and performance curator who cultivates environments and experiences through choreographic, design and social processes. Since its founding in 2002, Scapegoat Garden has functioned as a primary vehicle and creative community through which she forges relationships between artists and communities—helping people see, create and contribute to a greater vision of ourselves, each other, and the places we call home.
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on memories that are and are not mine

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I can see her walking away from me—white dress clinging on hips swaying, twist of torso in diagonal folds, thighs toning to the incline of steep jagged road, carrying wedding cake atop her head. She is flanked by other brown skinned women climbing hills with cake, one hand occasionally rising to steady sweet cargo. I wish I knew her face. That I could run to catch her, look longingly up into her gentleness, and stride to nuptials hand-in-hand. From a far-off distance—like drone camera hovering—I can see them beyond the crowd of villagers’ (men, women and children): pairs and pairs… read more

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on subtlety and militancy:

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I’ve had times in my life where I was dismissed for my lack of subtlety—for calling too much attention to myself. For being too big. I talked too much, had too many ideas, was prone to long periods of hyper-focus on writing about talking dogs, and could not contain the constant movement in my body. I was always on. The light in my eye was incongruous with so many adults’ sense of what light my black body should emit. They seemed threatened, and I could tell, but I didn’t care. Somehow I knew it was their problem and not mine.… read more

Newsfeed: BODIES, MOVEMENT, ARTS ECOLOGIES, AND DISMANTLING WHITE SUPREMACY

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What follows is a growing archive of arts-related online news, media, posts, and resources that have emerged in the context of uprising against the tyranny of white supremacy, racism and anti-black violence that has been activated since the late spring of 2020. Some earlier resources that have re-surfaced in current context are included as well. This page is intended as a space to archive some of the conversations being had about this moment as I encounter them so they can be engaged now, returned to later, and seen together in one place. It feels like a way to take the temperature of the moment. read more

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Newsfeed: WHEN ARTS ECOLOGIES AND GLOBAL PANDEMIC COLLIDE

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What follows was initially compiled by Deborah Goffe on the Moodle page for her Examining and Reimagining Contemporary U.S. Arts Ecologies course at Hampshire College during the latter part of the S20 semester. It carries forward her practice of collecting news about the “state of the arts ecologies,” which has been shifting dynamically in relationship to global pandemic. So, this page collects news about the arts, this moment, and what their collision illuminates about the ways arts ecologies work. The hope is that they will serve as points of reference as we individually and collectively engage ideas of what comes next. Deborah will continue to update this page until she grows too exhausted to do so. If you come across resources you think should be added, do let her know. As pandemic gives way to global protests to dismantle white supremacy, news and media covering the relationship between arts ecologies and recent uprisings is also being aggregated on this page. read more

Privy Performance Salon #5 | Sunday, September 29, 2019 | 6pm

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Privy is a solo work conceived and performed by Deborah Goffe (Founder/Director, Scapegoat Garden) in collaboration with Kelly Silliman (Co-Direction and Dramaturgy) and Maritza Ubides (Technical Direction). This multimedia experience is framed within a salon format which invites an intimate group of guests to share in food, conversation and the unfolding of personal story through the piece itself. Privy calls witnesses to collectively attend to the ways we might hold space for others’ vulnerabilities in this and other contexts.

Attendance at Privy performance salons are by invitation only. If you are interested in being a guest for this or an upcoming salon, or for more information, please click here to request an official invitation.

Garden Center North | Holyoke, MA

“Liturgy|Order|Bridge” | New England Dance on Tour | Friday, February 14, 2020 | 7:30pm

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In New England Dance on Tour, Scapegoat Garden shares the stage with three other regional dance artists to showcase the diversity and richness of dance in New England. Here, we perform another, more developed iteration of Liturgy | Order | Bridge. Conceived by Deborah Goffe and performed with Lauren Horn and Arien Wilkerson, this ongoing process has centered dance as the organizing principle in a liturgy (a ritualized public ceremony) that is imagined to stir personal, interpersonal, and communal stuck places. Dance has long been leveraged as a way to reconcile the relationship between the expressive body, imagination, faith, liberation, and aesthetic impulse. Here Goffe activates her own garden by visioning broadly and close to home.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS …

$28 general public; $26 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $6 Wesleyan students, youth under 18

Wesleyan University | CFA Theater | 45 Wyllys Avenue | Middletown, CT

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liturgy|order|bridge | SCDT Riff Talks | Friday, November 30

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School for Contemporary Dance and Thought | 25 Main Street | Northampton, MA ~ This emerging work imagines dance as the organizing principle in a liturgy (a ritualized public ceremony) designed to stir societal stuck places. The work seeks to reconcile the relationship between the expressive body, imagination, faith, liberation, and aesthetic impulse. What does dance do (not in service to some other discipline, but in and of itself)? What if there was an religious order comprised of dance practitioners called to enact powerful rituals that dance alone can enact? Do such dances shift the space between realms and between people? Can contemporary… read more

Privy Performance Salon #4 | Sunday, December 10 at 6pm

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Deborah Goffe in repose on a lacy doily black against a wood floor.

Garden Center North | Holyoke, MA ~ Privy is a solo work conceived and performed by Deborah Goffe (Founder/Director, Scapegoat Garden) in collaboration with Kelly Silliman (Co-Direction and Dramaturgy) and Maritza Ubides (Technical Direction). This multimedia experience is framed within a salon format which invites an intimate group of guests to share in food, conversation and the unfolding of personal story through the piece itself. Privy calls witnesses to collectively attend to the ways we might hold space for others’ vulnerabilities in this and other contexts. Attendance at Privy performance salons are by invitation only. If you are interested in… read more

update on Reaction Bubble

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It was about this time two years ago that I sat in The Garden Center for a first meeting with Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus of LoVid (a New York-based multimedia duo), and Matt Towers (a Hartford-based ceramicist).  It was the start of a multiyear collaboration with LoVid at the helm, Real Art Ways acting as matchmaker, and the Rauschenberg Foundation as major funders.  The motivating theme has been proxemics … the study of the nature, degree, and effect of the spatial separation individuals naturally maintain (as in various social and interpersonal situations) and of how this separation relates to environmental and cultural factors Merriam-Webster.com… read more

Processing: Black + Woman + Avant Garde + Choreographer …

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There are not yet clear thoughts or conclusions to offer here — just beginning efforts to gather thoughts in one place for future reference.  Black, woman, choreographer all ring true.  Avant-garde?  I don’t know. Seismic shifts …  I have been bracing myself as seismic shifts knock me off my center.  Shifts of all kinds in all areas.  While I can’t quite tease out where this whole thing is going, I’m clear that exciting things are being said out in the open. Case in point … Steve Ginsberg of Hartford’s Hartbeat Ensemble sent me an email over the holidays informing me of this event. … read more

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The Chick Austin Years: a Window into Hartford’s Cultural Legacy and Potentiality

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Through what mechanism is the cultural landscape of a place understood? What assurances or warnings about its capacity for forward movement have already been issued for those who would listen? How can these insights be of value to those who would later inherit the place?  During the years 1927-1944, Arthur Everett Austin, Jr. stood at the cultural center of a small, conservative city, and called the winds of change to blow through it. As director of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut during this period, he served as a nexus point, bringing artists and thinkers from around… read more

Saving the Garden Center?

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Happy August Everyone! I am really a fan of summer.  I find that my brain functions far better when it is sufficiently sunned on these long days.  I’m guessing I’m not alone in this sentiment. So let’s savor it while we can, huh Well, since the launch of our crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo last month, I’ve been engaged in ongoing conversation about the ideas driving The Invisible City Project Co-operative.  It’s been an important time for us to clarify the vision, get the word out and assess interest.  Just yesterday, I posted the following Facebook status: “Such an exciting conversation with Rebecca as we discussed the… read more

Privy: the home stretch …

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This gallery contains 9 photos.

I think I’ve been working on this solo forever.  OK.  Four years.  I’ve been working on Privy for four years.  The process began shortly after the first iteration of (re)Birth back in 2010.  I was fortunate to begin this work while in residence at the Bates Dance Festival that summer.  I continued the work into the fall while in residence at Billing Forge Community Works.  Then it all seemed too close.  I needed distance … a little perspective.  So my focus shifted to The Garden Center and the idea of offering (re)Birth in a series of performance salons there.  Since then, Privy has returned to the front burner for stretches of time only… read more

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Hartford’s Edgy Arts?

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On the evening of Monday, February 10th [2014], I attended the Hartford Courant & Fox CT Key Issues Forum entitled, Hartford’s Edgy Arts.  The event was co-sponsored by Hartford Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs (HYPE), an initiative of MetroHartford Alliance and was held at the Mark Twain House & Museum.  The forum assembled a panel of six Hartford artists (visual artist Anne Cubberly, Maxwell Williams Associate Artistic Director of Hartford Stage, Cynthia Bulaong of Open Studio Hartford, Khaiim the RapOet and Julia Pistell of SeaTea Improv) and was moderated by the always effervescent Chion Wolf.   I must admit that I entered the situation with a… read more