sky-shattered

Premiered on June 14 & 15, 2024, at konverjdans’ HYPHA performances at The James & Martha Duffy Performance Space, Mark Morris Dance Center, Brooklyn, NY. (Above photography by Arnaud Falchier for konverjdans.)

Choreography: Tiffany Mangulabnan
Original Music Composition & Performance: Bradley Harris
Dancers: Antuan Byers, Tiffany Mangulabnan, Jordan Miller, JoVonna Parks, Amy Saunder, Łukasz Zięba
Costume Design: Reshma Patel-Cline
Lighting Design: Conor Mulligan

‘sky-shattered’ in Review:

Tiffany Mangulabnan’s sky-shattered starts the evening on a stunning note, set to live piano music composed and performed by Bradley Harris. A motif of rooting establishes itself in the opening image as six dancers lie on their backs, their legs raised skywards and feet treading. This grounded feeling lasts through the dance’s cascading moments of connection. sky-shattered draws inspiration from Rainer Maria Rilke’s collection of poetry titled Book of Hours, prompting longing, intimate duet-work. Unison trickles into partnerships, as swirling lifts and buoyant phrases occur. Imagery and ideas repeat: treading feet while lying on backs. Backwards walking, purposefully stomping while traversing, with backs arched and arms outstretched like the branches of a tree. Each stomp lends itself to the dance’s idea of planting a seed: an idea that blooms from the company’s mission itself. The dancing, technical and virtuosic, matches the brightness of the piano, as the dancers stamp, step, and swirl deliberately with its timing.

— Kristen Hedberg, Konverjdans: HYPHA, Six Degrees Dance

In deep nights I dig for you like treasure.
For all I have seen
that clutters the surface of my world
is poor and paltry substitute
for the beauty of you
that has not happened yet…

My hands are bloody from digging.
I lift them, hold them open in the wind,
so they can branch like a tree.

Reaching, these hands would pull you out of the sky
as if you had shattered there,
dashed yourself to pieces in some wild impatience.

What is this I feel falling now,
falling on this parched earth,
softly,
like a spring rain?

— II, 34 by Rainer Maria Rilke from the Book of Hours, translated from the German by Anita Barrows