SEARCH PARTY created and performed by a group of women and queer artist that relentlessly challenges and reconstructs boundaries, investigating what is expected of us vs. what we are capable of. Existing somewhere between a dance floor and a sports arena, this work is wrought from defeat, endurance, defiance, compassion, competition, collaboration, and victory - as individuals, as a group, and together with our audiences.
SEARCH PARTY is a performance presented in the round in a social environment - it is intimate and alive with real-time chance making, engaging with our audience as spectators. Dancers play with rolls of neon tape, creating new dance floors, and challenge their own physical bounds -on the floors, the walls, and each other.
SEARCH PARTY
“Search Party makes, crosses, destroys, and recreates borders, to tear down. These dancers show us that with great physicality comes tenderness and care, empathy, and thus equality “
- Picture this Post
Created + Choreographed by Erin Kilmurray
Movement developed collaboratively with performers
Alyssa Gregory
Camila Rivero Pooley
Deandra Alaba
Kaitlin Webster
Maria Blanco
Tia Monet Greer
Lighting Design + PSM by Bran Moorhead
Costume Design by Samantha Allen
Sound Design by Mikhail Fiksel.
Presentations |
Shitimachi Arts Festival; (dB) DanceBox, Kobe, Japan —— October 2019 —- [tour + residency]
Pivot Arts Festival, Chicago IL. —— June 2019
PREMIERE CoMission Festival of New Works: Links Hall —— December 2018
Chicago Dancemaker's Forum Elevate Chicago Dance; The Chicago Cultural Center —— October 2018
Excerpts + In-Progress :
(2017) Chicago Dancemaker's Forum Elevate Chicago Dance; Arts AID America Exhibition: The Alphawood Foundation + Gallery; Mana Contemporary Chicago : HCL Invited Studio Showing; High Concept Lab’s Open House: Hairpin Lofts; Salonathon/Beauty Bar; ACTIVATE Chicago; Dance In the Parks - Chicago Park Districts; House Show (initial workshop draft) at HOMEroom studio
SUPPORT |
SEARCH PARTY was created through commission from Links Hall Co-Mission Residency (2018), Chicago Dancemaker’s Forum Greenhouse Grant (2018), and supported through 3arts 3AP program + ‘Make-A-Wave” award, a High Concept Labs' Sponsored Artist Program (2017).
SEARCH PARTY toured in cultural exchange to Japan with Dancebox (2020) and was recreated with 3 original + 3 local performers at Art-Theatre-Kobe.
in the Press|
Performance Review "SEARCH PARTY" -Mari Takeda; Art-Theatre-Kobe Japan
“Harsh, powerful and ceremonial choreography involves the solidarity and mutual respect of women dancers and mutual respect” - [Japanese - to English translation here]
Pivot Arts Festival Presents Erin Kilmurray in SEARCH PARTY review: Shattering Expectations - Picture This Post; 2019
“Search Party makes, crosses, destroys, and recreates borders, to tear down. These dancers show us that with great physicality comes tenderness and care, empathy, and thus equality “
Call Off the Search Party : These Femmes are Found- Performance Response Journal; 2018
“These bodies are strong, capable, queer, and kinky. As its title suggests, Search Party is both an ecstatic celebration and a thoughtful inquiry. Who holds power? And who is seen? These are performers who demand visibility. They do not need a search party. They are in your face, proud, and their ferocity is unassailable. Their power and rage are resonant, and I experience them sympathetically. Search Party is performance that makes me feel alive. If these are the femmes of the future, then I am on board”.