Hortense Gerardo is the program director in Anthropology, Performance, and Technology at the University of California, San Diego. She performed works by New York-based choreographer, Edisa Weeks of DELIRIOUS, Deborah Butler of Kitsune Dance Theatre in Somerville, Annie Sailor, Susan Matheke and Kathryn Kollar at Artspace in New Haven and Reggie Wilson of Fist and Heel Performance Group. Prior training includes modern dance with Paul Saliba of Sydney Dance Company, Elke Scheller at der Tanzwerkstatt, Germany, African dance with Jennies Newman of Ghana Dance Ensemble, flamenco with Kati Garcia-Renart and Sabrina Aviles. She trained with Maureen Fleming, SU-EN, Katsura Kan, Atsushi Takenouchi, Eiko and Komo, Tadashi Endo, Mari Osanai, Akira Kasai, Moeno Wakamatsu and Ko Murobushi. Hortense created the commissioned performance works, AMPUTATION for Project Guggenheim, AMERICAN ROSE, for American Friends Service Committee and Smith College, and DRUMS OF A COMMON LANGUAGE for Brookline’s tricentennial. Recent works include, MEAT (WaterFire and Frazier Festival) COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR (Perishable Theatre and Green Street Studios), AREOPAGITICA, THE NAIAD’S LAMENT, and LUNCHED at the ArtsAlive Festival and Indie Arts Festivals. MEDIA|MEDEA at the Massachusetts College of Art, SCRUB, at the New England Fringe Festival and the IX° International Performance Art Festival in Monza, Italy, ENCORE|UN COEUR at the INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, BOSTON, MOORING VENICE (2011 Venice Biennale), CARYATID at the Arts Alive Festival in 2013. Hortense performed in Le Grand Continental by choreographer Sylvain Emard at Copley Square as part of the Celebrity Series in 2014, and in The Moses(s) Project: A Local Investigation choreographed by Reggie Wilson Fist and Heel Company at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Her durational performance installations include: RAZE THE BAR (Fence International Network in La Charité-Sur-Loire) SHADOW | PROOF HOUSE, GLASS HEART SOLOS and CRAFTING HIGH ART (Nuit Blanche, Toronto.)
Head Over Heels is a short, movement-informed film that documents the artist’s journey to the world’s most isolated inhabited land, Easter Island, to fulfill a life-long fascination with moai, the mysterious giant, stone sculptures of stylized human heads discovered there in 1722. The work explores the divide between the academic exploration of the origins and devolution of the moai of Easter Island, the narratives of the indigenous people, and the story told by the land and the archaeological remains of the sculptures themselves.
“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.
