They Say A Lady Was The Cause Of It

An ERGO/movement production

An evening-length contemporary dance opera exploring gender, agency, intimacy,
and identity, with live music and vocals.
Director, Producer: Jessie Owens
Composer: Matthew LaRocca
Dance: Beth Morelli, Brooke Moen, Danielle Tekut, Emer Pond Feeney,
Hanna Satterlee, Holly Chagnon, Jessie Owens, Joy Madden, Kim Beinin, Nicole Dagesse, Toby MacNutt
Music: Britta Feniman Tonn, Kyle Saulnier, Matthew LaRocca, Polly Vanderputten
Vocals: Allison Steinmetz, Cameron Steinmetz, Roxanne Vought Plasha

They Say a Lady Was the Cause of It is an evening-length dance production that embodies a contemporary exploration of agency, identity, intimacy, and relationships. Inspired in part by Virginia Wolff's Orlando and Undine Geht by Ingeborg Bachmann, this work examines the complexities of gender roles imposed by society, as well as the fight to reclaim individual and relational narratives and rewrite what society has prescribed. The eleven dancers performing in this work contribute their own narratives, voices, and movement to this important conversation.
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Part 1: The Dinner Party
This piece exists as a framework or a setting: the dinner table, and of the majority is created by the performers themselves and changes with each new group of people. In keeping with the tradition of Tanztheater, a dance form born out of German Expressionism, this work is an exploration of individual experience and emotion, in which the performers will make use of theatrical methods (props, set, costumes), and will intentionally reference reality in the creation process. There have been many Dinner Parties. May there be many more.

Part 2: The Wet Frontier Between Me and Me
This is a raw and physical work in which the performers contend with themselves and their identities, as they negotiate more directly their relationships with each other and with the audience. 

This project was supported by grants from the 
Vermont Community Foundation and 
the New England Foundation for the Arts

Fiscal Sponsorship for this event was generously provided by the Vermont Dance Alliance

Photos by Micheal Heeney