The Humbling or Chapter of Mama: Part 1
Program info:
Company: Esmé Boyce Dance
Title: The Humbling or Chapter of Mama: Part 1
Performers: Jean-Paul Bjorlin, Esmé Julien Boyce, Ching-I Chang, Asa Fermin-Bjorlin, Caroline Fermin, Mathilda Fermin-Bjorlin, Cori Kresge, Matilda Sakamoto, Chat Travieso, Tahlo Travieso-Boyce
Music Composition: Cody Boyce
Costumes: Esmé Julien Boyce and Sue Julien
Set: Kit Boyce
House audio: Tahlo Travieso- Boyce and Asa Fermin-Bjorlin, edited by Chat Travieso
About the piece:
The Humbling or Chapter of Mama: Part 1, is a critical reflection of the joys and challenges of being a mother and a working artist. It is a piece for five dance artists as well as my toddler and husband and the toddler, newborn and husband of Caroline Fermin who all work together to perform the piece. Devotion is laced throughout the work in how we engage with our children and how we continue to return to the steps we’ve laid out for ourselves.
This piece embraces chaos as choreographic material. Equal parts concept and practicality, it is a demand that I not be forced to choose between motherhood and an art career; that children and the messiness of young life be enfolded into art making. This dance offers one portrait of feminism as my life requires it.
Thank you:
The Humbling or Chapter of Mama: Part 1 was developed in part during a Baryshnikov Arts Residency (BAC Open) at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY in Oct-Nov 2023. In addition, this project is made possible with funds from the Bronx Cultural Visions Fund, a regrant program of the Bronx Council on the Arts. This work would not be possible without the support of these organizations and we are so grateful for their faith in this experiment!
This piece is fleeting and will disappear as the children involved grow and change. Having the support and opportunities to make and share this work quickly has made this joyful and heart-filling experience possible.
Extra special thanks to: Jean-Paul Bjorlin, Cody Boyce, Kit Boyce, Sue Julien, Chat Travieso, Yara Travieso and Mac Twining (who helped originate the work) for showing up for me, for the kiddos and for the piece again and again. It takes a village and I have a wonderful one.
Writing about the work: READY, SET by Amy Shoshana Blumberg, a response to Esmé Boyce Dance’s creation of The Humbling or Chapter of Mama: Part 1
About the artists:
Esmé Julien Boyce (she/her) is a choreographer and dancer. Boyce was a fall 2023 BAC Open artist in residence at Baryshnikov Arts. She has presented her work at 92nd Street Y, Dixon Place, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Judson Church, Baryshnikov Arts, and Center for Performance Research. Boyce’s work was curated for the Judson Church performances of the Museum of Modern Art’s fall 2018 exhibition, Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done. Boyce was a 2016-2017 New Direction Choreography Lab Fellow at The Ailey School and returned to The Ailey School to choreograph for the 2018 BFA Fall Concert. Boyce has also been in residence at Chen Dance Center’s New Steps and The Visionary in Mount Tremper, New York. Boyce holds a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School and an MFA in dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Ching-I Chang Made in Taiwan, active in America and quiet places. MFA. She has a deep love for dance and nurturing harmony. She has danced for Susan Marshall, Gesel Mason, Punchdrunk, and many brilliant artists. She was an original cast member of Sleep No More NYC; as well as a rehearsal director of SNM Shanghai. Most recently, she has toured with ANIKAYA to Palestine and African countries. Along with performing, teaching has been her sacred process of learning. She was a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and an adjunct at U of California San Diego. She is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, Yoga and Yoga Nidra Facilitator. She has bathed in contact improvisation, meditation and yoga since 2005 with occasional teaching and sharing with others. In her free time, she practices calligraphy, plays with voices, and makes bad arts. And she loves bananas.
Sue Julien is a visual artist and costumer. She has created costumes for Esmé Boyce Dance, Cori Kresge, Yara Travieso, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, Catherine Tharin Dance, Janis Brenner & Dancers and the singer Grace Weber. Ms. Julien received a BFA in Painting from Carnegie Mellon University and a MFA in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries in Brooklyn and Chicago as well as Brown University, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for an Individual Artist, and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for an Individual Artist. www.suejulien.com
Cori Kresge is a NY based dance artist, writer, massage therapist, and teacher. Kresge has collaborated and performed with numerous artists on works for stage and film including Liz Magic Laser, Rebecca Lazier, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, Charlie Atlas, Zuzka Kurtz, Ellen Cornfield, Esmé Boyce, Stephen Petronio Company, José Navas Compagnie Flak, Bill Young, Wendy Osserman, Madeline Hollander, Sally Silvers, and others. She is a featured performer in the CUNNINGHAM 3D documentary by Alla Kovgan. She regularly teaches for the Merce Cunningham Trust. She has written two chapbooks: isn’t devotion (No, Dear/Small Anchor first chapbook prize, 2019) and Combustion Suite, (Bored Wolves, 2023). In 2020 she founded Play With Matches Workshop, pairing international artists of different disciplines together to co-mentor one another as they create.
Matilda Sakamoto is from Los Angeles. Matilda has performed in dance and theater productions including, Sleep No More in New York City, Richard Nelson’s play, The Michaels, at the Public Theater and starred in Apple’s “Snap” Airpods campaign as well as spots for Gap, Meta, Oscar Meyer, Skillshare and more. Matilda has shown and created work at numerous venues in New York and Los Angeles, like Chen Dance Center, Dixon Place, Martha Graham, Judson Memorial Church, Triskelion Arts, Juilliard, Caroga Arts Music Festival and Highways Performance Space. She was chosen to be a dance resident at Art Omi and for the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. She received her BFA from the Juilliard School.