“Liturgy|Order|Bridge” Prototype Performances | Christ Church Cathedral | Hartford, CT | July 13-15, 2023

Reserve Your Seat Now
Visa LogoMastercard LogoAmex LogoDiscover Logo

TO RESERVE MULTIPLE SEATS,
PLEASE COMPLETE SEPARATE TRANSACTIONS.

LITURGY|ORDER|BRIDGE
Thursday-Saturday, July 13-15, 7pm
Saturday, July 15, 2pm (fully-masked matinee)

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
45 Church Street
Hartford, CT 06103

Liturgy|Order|Bridge is a participatory dance-based ritual that uses Black church traditions and secular performance modalities to make porous the border between “audience” and “performance.” Calling on Black church traditions, a group of core performers  bring guests into a collective score of movement, clapping, vocalization, and witnessing. Within a visual and aural landscape that merges the worlds of faith, nature, fashion, and experimental Black arts, a chorus of local movers facilitates guests into and through the liturgy performance and then into the rest of life. Liturgy provides an avenue by which all participants of the encounter can identify and established shared responsibilities among and to one another, which can then ripple out beyond the performance itself.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Director/Core Performer: Deborah A. Goffe
Core Performers/Co-Creators: Abena Koomson-Davis, Lauren Horn, Arien Wilkerson
Wisdom-Keeper: Jasmin Agosto
Threshold Chorus Members: Chantal Edwards-Matthews, Juanita Harris, Kerry Kincy, Latoya Walker,
Ian Watson, and a growing group of community participants
Technical Director: Maritza Ubides
Lighting Designer: Kathy Couch
Rehearsal Manager/ Producer: Amisi Nazaire-Hicks
Creative Producer: Alexandra Ripp

RUNTIME:

Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance officially begins to allow for preshow engagement, mingling, and a light reception.

The performance itself will run for approx. 90 minutes.

FULLY-MASKED MATINEE:

The 2pm performance on Saturday, July 15, will be fully masked for audience members in order to make the event accessible for folks who cannot be in unmasked spaces. Please note that performers will not be masked. Extra masks will be available onsite.

PARKING:

Metered street parking is available near the venue and is free after 6pm and on Saturdays. Alternatively, by showing your ticket to the parking attendant, attendees have access to a lower rate ($5) at the MAT Garage adjacent to Hartford Stage (50 Church Street, Hartford, CT) and across from the venue. Please bring cash for this transaction. 

ACCESSIBILITY:

The front entrance of the venue is fully accessible. Attendees will be invited to stand for short periods of time and to move lightly, as well to vocalize as a group. 

Reflecting on Homecoming

Birthdays are a good time for looking back and looking ahead. This is especially true for me today as I’ve navigated a rapid unfolding of new and remembered milestones over the last few months. I have wanted to share these moments more publicly and immediately, but it has felt necessary to prioritize deep processing without the pressure to articulate it externally right away. However, as I celebrate my birthday today—big ups to Aquarians everywhere—I feel called to mark this moment with you. In the transition to 2022, I have been thinking a lot about the impact of homecoming on my life and career thus far. As I write this, I am feeling nostalgic… read more

Pillow Lab Residency | Jacob’s Pillow | January 12-22, 2022

Jacob’s Pillow is pleased to announce eight artist residencies this winter and spring at the Pillow Lab, its year-round incubator of new work: Deborah Goffe, Kayla Hamilton, Ladies of Hip-Hop, Gesel Mason, Taylor Stanley, Ananya Chatterjea, Emma Cianchi, and Irene Rodríguez.

Deborah will be developing Liturgy|Order|Bridge in the Pillow Lab, and will be joined in this endeavor by her core collaborators Lauren Horn, Arien Wilkerson (dance artists), and Abena Koomson-Davis (musician).

Read Jacob Pillow’s December 6th announcement about the Winter/Spring 2022 Pillow Lab residencies.

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

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

Exciting Re-emergences … Why Wait?

… and we’re back!  When last I wrote back in February, I was on vacation with my bestie ruminating about all things retreat, faith and reciprocity.  Well, that turned out to be a lengthy and fruitful meditation because, in the months between that time and this, everything has changed!  I’ve wanted to share the crazy transformation of my life as it has all been unfolding, but with so many moving parts, I have had to hunker down and direct my focus in a BIG way. So … where do I start?  Well, back in March I accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Modern/Contemporary Dance at Hampshire College in… read more

Aren’t we all made for dance?

I’ve been more than a little overwhelmed lately, and I don’t think I’m alone. There are so many challenging/good/terrific things converging all at once, not to mention the abundance of art in the Greater Hartford area this fall.  So I’m trying to keep up.  In the midst of it all, however, I’ve had a couple of experiences that have reminded me just how powerful this dance thing can be.  In addition to teaching the amazing students who have been entrusted to my care this semester, and the performances I’ve bee involved with lately, I have also been invited to share dance with non-dancers on two occasions in the last three weeks.  Perhaps… read more