CBS2news: Female visual artists, choreographers collaborate
Women’s History Month: CounterPointe combines visual art, dance in celebration of women
by Dave Carlin
Thursday, March 3, 2022
NEW YORK -- For Women's History Month, we turn the spotlight on a project that combines visual art and dance as artists from different generations and backgrounds collaborate to lift one another.
Artist Sophia Chizuco and choreographer Sarah Marazzi-Sassoon were strangers eight weeks ago when they were assigned to an experimental performance project celebrating women.
"There's quite a big age difference between us. It doesn't matter. We just both had a..." Marazzi-Sassoon said. "Yeah, a common, common interest," Chizuco said.
They discovered they share a love of biology, so they used imagery of eggs. A baby image is hidden in the costume worn by dancer Hannah Wineinger, whose interaction with the art suggests an organism coming to life.
Seven other teams prepare works for a three-night series of performances starting March 11 at the Mark O'Donnell Theater in Brooklyn. It's called "CounterPointe" -- as in a ballet pointe shoe.
This project creates new opportunities and partnerships for Women's History Month and beyond.
"I think it should be most months, actually. I think we should be celebrating the power of women more months out of the year," Wineinger told CBS2's Dave Carlin.
Choreographer Julia Gleich founded CounterPointe in 2012. "This is completely a blind-date situation, and they only get about two months to create together," she said. "It's amazing, the information that's exchanged from one visual artist to one choreographer. They learn so much about each other."
"You don't know what you're getting into. You haven't met the artist," said choreographer Eryn Renee Young. Young is partnered with artist Elizabeth Riley. The dancers wrap themselves in Riley's artwork. "It also has given me a chance to see how visual art and choreography overlap," Riley said.
To expand what is possible with both dance and visual art, these collaborators dig deep and investigate the themes important to them. "Being able to be vulnerable at the same time as being strong, I feel like that's a lot of feminism," choreographer Joan Liu said. "I think it brings a sense of confidence to me and to the dancers as well," artist Traci Johnson said.
These women say together their art and their spirits rise.
CounterPointe runs March 11-13 at the Mark O'Donnell Theater, which is at the Actors Fund Arts Center on Schemerhorn Street in Brooklyn. For more information, click here.
