Invisible Touch ║ Drama Tops, This is For You
An Alembic Co-Production
Allie Hankins and Elby Brosch
new dance/new performance
Friday & Saturday, November 22 & 23, 8pm
Doors 30 minutes prior to showtime
Tickets $12-$20
Advance Tickets:
https://falling.bpt.me

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Invisible Touch, by Allie Hankins, is a work-in-progress performance that centers deconstruction as a means of meaning-making. Hankins wonders how melody, nostalgia, and sentimentality contaminate movement exploration—what residue does it leave? And how do I move it around? Throughout the piece, four audio tape recorders record aural moments from the piece (such as footfalls, singing, a squeaky floor, the audience’s response), and these recordings are played back, recorded over, and played back again. The recurring sounds get paired with new actions, creating an ever-evolving soundtrack, which layers and distorts the audience’s associations and experience of time and memory. It takes many comb-throughs, and admitting things are tangled, but that’s all.

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In Drama Tops, This is for you, Elby Brosch, a trans masculine dancer and choreographer, tells his story through duets with a cis man, Shane Donohue. Toxic masculinity is splayed open and gutted using queer humor. The potential beauty of masculinity is revealed through tenderness and empathy. Past, present, and future are woven together with strands of memory and longing. Identity is embodied through relationships between parts of a whole.

Creator and Performer: Elby Brosch
Co-Choreographer and Performer: Shane Donohue
Co-Director: BenDeLaCreme
Creative Producer: Tonya Lockyer

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Elby Brosch began dancing at age 10 when his mom signed him up for take ballet class. Dance quickly became a safe haven, a way to connect to a body that felt hard to understand. As gender became confusing, movement became clear. He gained control and intimacy with his body, and learned to process emotion and trauma through movement. Dance has become a vital part of his existence. Now, he choreographs to build connections and understandings from a marginalized view point to greater community. He distills the trans experience down to what makes us human and offers that to his audiences. He presented his work at On The Boards in Northwest New Works, at Velocity in a co-produced show, This That & The Other, and in Velocity produced shows, Fall Kick Off, and Next Fest Northwest. Seattle International Dance Festival and Mo-Wave also presented his work.

Shane Donohue is a Seattle based dance artist currently working with zoe | juniper as a dancer and rehearsal director. He has set work with, and for, Zoe Scofield at the University of Washington, Strictly Seattle, and most currently, Whim W’him. He is co-choreographer with the Drama Tops under direction of Elby Brosch. He also works as an artistic collaborator and performer with Kim Lusk, Kinesis Project, and has been a Creative Resident at Velocity Dance Center. Shane has professionally performed works by Laura Rodriguez, Mike Esperanza, Dylan Ward, Liz Houlton, Alyssa Casey, Kate Wallich, and David Harvey and holds a degree in dance from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.

Allie Hankins is a dancer and performance maker based in Portland, OR. She is an inaugural member of FLOCK, a dance center and creative home to Portland’s experimental dance artists spearheaded by Tahni Holt, and in 2013 she co-founded Physical Education, a cooperative comprised of herself, keyon gaskin, Taka Yamamoto, and Lu Yim. Physical Education hosts open reading groups and lectures, curates performances, and teaches workshops nationally. Her current projects include teaching her all-levels movement class TRANSCENDENTAEROBICOURAGE, learning American Sign Language, and creating two duets–We Don’t Trust Suddenness with Rachael Dichter (SF), and [ə ˈsɪŋgəl pɪŋk klaʊd] with Linda Austin (PDX). Most recently, Allie has performed with Milka Djordjevich (LA), Morgan Thorson (Minneapolis), Julien Prévieux (Paris), and Ruairi Donovan (Ireland). She has been an Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Caldera, and the Wassaic Project.