Alabama Dance Festival and UAB’s Alys Stephens Center present choreographer and 2021 Guggenheim fellow Helen Simoneau’s investigation of command without force.Join Alabama Dance Festival and the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center as they present Helen Simoneau Danse, “Delicate Power,” on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
“Delicate Power” is an investigation of command without force. It examines the different ways we yield, share or exert power as individuals and within communities. The work subverts expectations of power by asking: What does power look like without the need for dominance? How is power embodied when innate and not hard-fought? What is power rooted in respect? Power without ego?
Movement and intricate structures of design convey the strength within softness, the potency of empathetic exchange, resilience forged in reflection, and propulsion stemming from confidence and trust. This dance features an original score by Pulitzer prize-winning composer and musician Caroline Shaw, with dramaturgy by Melanie George, costume design by Quinn Czejkowski and lighting by David Ferri.
The performance is at 8 p.m. in the Alys Stephens Center’s Jemison Concert Hall. Tickets are $25, with a limited number of $10 student tickets. Call 205-975-2787 or visit AlysStephens.org for tickets or for more information.
Simoneau is a French-Canadian choreographer exploring themes of intimacy, agency, identity, sexuality and power. Rooted in form, her movement is created in reverence to its lineage, yet subverts traditional ways of being within dance by proposing new ones, according to her artist’s statement.
She has been commissioned by The Juilliard School, Charlotte Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Ailey School, BalletX, the American Dance Festival, and colleges, dance companies and festivals throughout the United States and Canada. Simoneau was recently a choreography fellow at New York City Center and received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. She has also been a resident artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYU/Tisch, and a fellow of The NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab, and the Bogliasco Foundation. She was awarded first place for choreography at the 13th Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, for her solo “the gentleness was in her hands.”
A self-proclaimed “late bloomer” in the dance field, Simoneau’s choreographic pursuits blossomed in parallel with her more formal technical training and performance experience. Hers is not a linear path from performer to choreographer, and she makes work without a pronounced partiality between contemporary and ballet. She continues to hone her artistic voice nationally and internationally and divides her time between New York City and Montréal.
“Delicate Power” was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.