The Salts
2016
“The Salts is music, dance, theater, performance art and social experiment all wrapped up in a chaotic and joyous hour of movement… Physical, earnest, diverse and inspired, The Salts is the kind of performance you’re lucky to see once a year.” - Newcity
Drawing inspiration from live music experiences, The Salts is an evening length, immersive contemporary dance work examining the intimacies of a public vs. private persona with the spirit, prowess and explosive performances of iconic front(wo)men. Through movement, text, sound and direct audience engagement, this work is an exercise in engaging dance audiences outside of the typical.
Sharing the bill with local bands and guest performers in an immersive atmosphere, The Salts perform a set of high-velocity dances to distorted guitar, driving bass lines, wild vocals creating a kinetic energy - like seeing a band’s performance from the inside of the kick drum. This completed work was developed over a year+ long process, much like a band, through long -game collaboration and experimental, pop up performances at bars, nightclubs, and intimate performance spaces before premiering as an evening-length production.
The Salts |
Concept + choreography: Erin Kilmurray
Directed in collaboration with Molly Brennan
Created with performers Josh Anderson, Katie Graves + Mikey Rioux
Sound design: Mikhail Fiksel
Lighting design: Heather Sparling
Set design: John Holt
Costume design: Eve Rydberg
Photo credit: Matthew Gregory Hollis
Video credit : Nic Jones
Run time: 60 minutes
In the Press |
Review : The Salts / The Inconvenience - Newcity Stages
“Rooted in non-conformity… the audience serves as an integral component in some of the night’s most memorable pieces. A hypnotic solo performance accompanied by Velvet Underground and Nico’s “Femme Fatale” finds dancer Katie Graves literally embracing the audience before finally enacting that timeless, spiritual gesture of punk rock: crowd surfing”.
The Salts really know how to party - Art Intercepts; blog
“I’ve never seen dancers who were so perceived as rockstars by us, their adoring fans…”
"Listen: Vocalo Radio Interview with Kilmurray on The Salts process
Showings|
Collaboration : The Inconvenience —- May 2015 (Premiere)
University of Chicago: Chicago Performance Labs —- August 2014
Creative Support Time WIP: Links Hall, —- Dec 2013
+ pop-up performances at Berlin Nightclub (2014), Salonathon/Beauty Bar (2014), Starving Artist / Chicago Artists Coalition (2015), among others.