Alison Kopit, photo by Alison Kopit Image description : Alison, a white femme with wire-rimmed glasses and blue eyes and brown hair, lays on the ground. Her face is partially obstructed by blades of grass, and leafy trees in mid-summer rustle behind her. She rests the side of her face on her hand and looks past the camera.
Alison Kopit is a queer and disabled multi-disciplinary artist and access worker creating at the intersection of movement improvisation and conceptual art. She is interested in the unquantifiable and undocumentable imprints that care leaves on our bodyminds. For her LiftOff residency, she will be working on a series called Reverberations that explores the potentialities of care through the lens of ephemerality and dynamic interpersonal connection. She invites the community to loosen their grip on time and space and dream expansively about the ways that we can reach toward each other.
Kopit holds an MS and PhD in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was a 2021-2022 resident of Dance/NYC’s Disability. Dance. Artistry residency program and a participating artist in UCLA’s 2022 Dancing Disability Lab. As an access worker, she embraces anti-oppressive approaches to cultural work, working with artists, collectives, and organizations to build commitment to intersectional, sustainable access practice. The depth of her experience comes from relationship and engagement with queer and disability communities. Mutual aid practice, arts organizing, access practice, direct care, and collaborative art-making are central to her art practice and life.
“My creative history with New Dance Alliance goes a way long. Since my friend, Chivas Sandage brought me to New Dance Alliance to rehearse in early 90’s, the place has become a part of my creative life. The long time existence of the studio and Performance Mix Festival are vital to the artists who seek and explore deep into their process. Whenever I step into the studio, it’s a new space with a lot of memories. I lie down on the floor, listen to my body, and I dance. It is valuable. The time in the space nurtures my practice and artistic vision. Karen’s vision of Lift-Off residency, feedback sessions, providing peer to peer connections are more significant than ever. It has been helping us to get through 2020 and we are going into 2021.”
– Nami Yamamoto
New Dance Alliance
182 Duane Street
New York, NY 10013
All venues are wheelchair accessible.
