Wicked Bodies

THE ALCHEMY OF RELATION

October 2022 marks the third anniversary of YBCA’s time with Liz Lerman and Brett Cook in their role as senior fellows with YBCA. It has been a time of momentous change for the institution, a fractal of the broader shifts in this country and our world. Being in relation with Liz and her creative practice, her wisdom and genuine care, makes the change feel alchemical, magical—with the possibility of conjuring new systems, new ways of being.

Liz once offered that we should move from the idea of “Artist in Residence” and “Experience in Residence.” That residencies and deep relationships with artists could become a place for challenging and healing. At the end of an arc of time together we can reflect on the evidence for memory, for blessing, for endings, for beginnings, for ritual, for continuity.

Gathering together for this experience of Wicked Bodies, the movements of the dancers are not as important as the things they caused and will cause to happen. Liz’s masterful choreography guides us, nudging us to consider our own bodies, our stories, and how we are in relations that move us toward healing and connection.

I am the witch of … and you can tell my story if …

ANGELA CARRIER Director of Artist Engagement & Impact

Front cover: Photo by Brennan Spark

A NOTE FROM LIZ LERMAN

Wicked Bodies was first inspired by an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, entitled Witches and Wicked Bodies, featuring 500 years of prints and drawings by some of the greatest illustrators of the western world. The pictures ranged from the explicitly sexual to the wildly mysterious, but the depiction of women’s bodies—with some portrayed as male, two spirit, or nonbinary—as lethal, poisonous, powerful, and strange was persistent, regardless of the historical period. That show made me crazy. I cried. I swore. I gaped.

What provokes me still is that those images express issues about women and our bodies that have existed for centuries. Fear of bodily functions, horror at what knowledge women possess, and disgust at the crumbling of beauty as women age were portrayed directly and metaphorically, with animals, celestial objects, weapons, and peculiar ceremonies playing significant roles.

Wicked Bodies brings together the invisible ways and means of feminine thinking and action that have been celebrated, erased, or criminalized; legal systems that attempt but often fail to bend our actions toward a fairer and more just world; and how we as a group of intergenerational artists bring our personal lives to the stage within characters that are imagining futures.

A program note cannot adequately explain the way a piece like this comes into existence. I am beyond grateful to the performers and designers who put themselves in this cauldron with me.

And I stand in gratitude to YBCA: staff, board, and senior fellow Brett Cook, for all that you have done to support this inquiry and my work at this stage of my life.

Photo: Lise Metzger

Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, educator, and speaker, and the recipient of numerous honors, including a 2002 MacArthur “Genius Grant,” a 2011 United States Artists Ford Fellowship in dance, and the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to various publics, from shipbuilders to physicists, resulting in both research and outcomes that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others. She founded Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led it until 2011. Liz conducts residencies on Critical Response Process, creative research, the intersection of art and science, and the building of narrative within dance performance at such institutions as Harvard University, the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, Wesleyan University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the National Theatre Studio, among others. Her third book, Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer, was published in 2011 by Wesleyan University Press, and her latest book Critique Is Creative (coauthored with John Borstel) will be released in July 2022. As of 2016 she is an institute professor at Arizona State University.

SPELL ALTAR

Made in collaboration with Brett Cook, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Liz Lerman, and Wicked Bodies

Spell Altar, created by YBCA senior fellows Liz Lerman and Brett Cook, is a witch’s work creating spells to help everyone through hard times. Located in Gallery 1 of the Brett Cook & Liz Lerman: Reflection & Action exhibition and the Blue Shield of California Theater lobby, Spell Altar welcomes visitors into the sorcerer’s practice of offering sacred invocations. Using paint pens and plexiglass rectangles, participants are invited to write a spell of awakening and share it in a public space. The resulting light of individual contributions form a constellation of written insights, with mirrors as the flash of the spirit—where participants see themselves within rather than apart from supernatural agents for transformation. Spell Altar has traveled across the country and gathered communities together at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University; Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, MA; ASU Gammage at Arizona State University; and YBCA in San Francisco, CA.

Brett Cook & Liz Lerman: Reflection & Action is a retrospective in forward motion—a deep dive into the past, present, and future of these artists’ revolutionary practices. Visual artist Brett Cook and choreographer Liz Lerman turn YBCA’s galleries into a space for collective creation and inspiration guided by their intuitive desire to forge new paths in their respective fields.

This exhibition is the culmination of Cook and Lerman’s three-year residency as senior fellows at YBCA, centering artists as leaders inside the organization and in the communities they serve. The exhibition’s title, Reflection & Action, simultaneously references their deeply held belief that to be an artist in the world means creating a space for contemplation—opening oneself to the experience of another—while acknowledging the urgency of the work itself.

Featuring video, dance, installation, paintings, and ephemera, audiences are encouraged to explore Cook and Lerman’s artistry as catalysts for enacting the change they want to see in the world.

Experience the exhibition Thursday through Sunday, 12–6 pm in YBCA’s galleries from October 20, 2022–April 2, 2023.

Photos: Brennan Spark, Jamie Kraus, Caitlin O’Hara, LexMex Art, and Brett Cook Artwork: Brett Cook, The Black (W)hole, 2020. Courtesy the artist.

PERFORMER BIOS

Will Bond is a founding member of SITI Company. Credits include FALLING & LOVING (with Elizabeth Streb), A Rite (with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance), Chess Match #5, Radio Macbeth, Death and the Ploughman, Persians, Antigone, bobrauschenbergamerica, War of the Worlds, Cabin Pressure, The Medium, Culture of Desire, Orestes, Seven Deadly Sins and Lilith at the Lincoln Center, and a Drama Desk Award nomination for BOB. Festivals include Peak Performances, Bonn, Irish Life, and BAM Next Wave. In New York: Abingdon Theatre, New York Live Arts, PS 122, Public Theater, and Joyce Theater.

Leah Cox is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She was dean of the American Dance Festival (2015–22) and worked with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (2001–14) as a dancer, rehearsal assistant, and the company’s first education director. Cox is a frequent adjudicator for the American College Dance Association and was a member of the New York Dance and Performance Award Committee (the “Bessies”). Her choreography has been presented in New York City and commissioned by dance programs nationwide.

Miko Doi-Smith, originally from Southern California, began dancing while attending the University of Hawaii. She has performed and worked with various choreographers and companies including Charles O. Anderson, Ballet X, Hope Boykin, Grisha Coleman, Dawn Marie Bazemore, Ralph Lemon, Liz Lerman, and Philadanco.

Elisa García-Radcliffe is an arts administrator, educator, and movement artist who lives in Tucson. They are currently the arts learning manager at the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Prior to their current position, they worked as a dance educator for twelve years in the Phoenix Union High School District. García-Radcliffe serves as a board member for RE:FRAME Youth Arts Center, a place for and by young folx to artistically resist the decentering of their power, rights, and identities. nia love is a mother, grandmother, activist, alchemist, and third-generation artist. Awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Performance with skeleton architecture, and Outstanding Music Composition for g1(host):lostatsea, she has received the MAP Fund, the Herb Alpert Award, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts award. A former Fulbright Fellow in Ghana, she is currently an Embodying Anti-Racism Fellow at Wesleyan University. love teaches at Queens College and the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School, and is the artistic advisor to the BAX Artists In Residence and NYLA Fresh Tracks program.

Paloma McGregor is a Caribbean-born, New York–based dance-maker who makes Black work with Black folks for Black space. A former newspaper reporter and Bessie Award winner, McGregor brings a choreographer’s craft, a journalist’s urgency, and a community organizer’s framework in the service of big visions—from the Bronx River to Christiansted, St. Croix. McGregor is cofounder and artistic director of Angela’s Pulse and founder of Dancing While Black. McGregor has collaborated with Liz Lerman for more than a decade as a performer and co-facilitator of Lerman’s Critical Response Process.

Ruby Morales is committed to equity, facilitating life-affirming spaces, and cultivating relationships rooted in reciprocity, trust, and love. She received a BFA from Arizona State University, completed Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute, and The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism Training. She’s working with Liz Lerman, CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist

Dance Theater, and Yvonne Montoya. Morales is currently developing her grant-funded eveninglength show, Breakin’ Pachanga; is a 2021 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Advocacy Leadership Fellow; and a 2021 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow.

Vincent E. Thomas is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. He has danced with Dance Repertory Theatre (FSU), Randy James Dance Works (NY/NJ), EDGEWORKS Dance Theater (DC), and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (MD). His choreography has been presented at various national and international venues. He is the artistic director/choreographer of the national touring project What’s Going On. Thomas is the founder/artistic director of VTDance, an Urban Bush Women BOLD facilitator, faculty member for the UBW Summer Institutes (NY), and professor of dance at Towson University (MD).

Keith Thompson danced internationally for the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1992–2001— serving as Brown’s rehearsal assistant from 1998–2001—and is currently associate professor and assistant director of dance at Arizona State University. He performs and rehearsal directs for Liz Lerman; teaches globally; and his company, danceTactics performance group, has been featured at the Montpellier International Dance Festival, Dixon Place in New York, Dance Place in Washington, DC, Triskelion Arts Split Bill Series in Brooklyn, the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, and the Hokusai International Dance and Theater Festival in Tokyo.

Martha Wittman has spent seventy years as a performer, choreographer, and teacher— bookended by her earliest years in the Juilliard Dance theater company under Doris Humphrey and her recent twenty-four years with Liz Lerman. She has held many guest artist or company member roles during the intervening years, including associate choreographer with Dances We Dance, led by Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin. Wittman has taught as faculty or a guest artist at Bennington College, Universities of California in Long Beach and Santa Barbara, Ohio State University, and Indiana University Bloomington.

PERFORMERS FOR

At each Wicked Bodies tour location, local dancers have been invited to collaborate in the performance experience of Act 1. For the performances at YBCA, a group of intergenerational dancers in a variety of movement styles were gathered to accompany and join the witches.

Giuliana

Cecilia

PRODUCTION BIOS

Erin Donohue is an arts practitioner with a background in dance and performance. She has spent the past seven years working with Liz Lerman, and managed Lerman’s Arizona State University initiatives at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Previously, Donohue was the education director at Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa. Working with and for other artists to achieve their vision is where she finds joy, and she believes wholeheartedly that every body can and should dance.

Sarita Fellows is a New York–based costume designer. She has continued to enjoy extensive travel for theater from Europe to the Caribbean and across North America. She first experienced the stage while living in Kampala, Uganda, when she answered a call for singers for an amateur drama society. It was there she discovered that she enjoyed being backstage more, crafting the magic people experienced onstage. Fellows has her MFA in design from Tisch School of the Arts, and is a lecturer at Princeton University and an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch.

Meg Kelly is a production manager, stage manager, and arts administrator based in Brooklyn. Previous works with Liz Lerman include Healing Wars, The Matter of Origins, and Ferocious Beauty Genome. Kelly has also worked on projects with the Public Theater, the TEAM, Woodshed Collective, Ripe Time, Phantom Limb Company, Dance Exchange, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Kelly holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from the University of Arizona.

Matthew Lott is a New York–based costume and set designer for theater, opera, and dance.

Originally from Omaha, Lott received his MFA in design for stage and film at NYU Tisch and an MA in Theatre—Critical Theory and Dramaturgy from University of Nebraska Omaha. Credits include the world premiere of Lucy Thurber’s play A Daughter and Some Sons, director Lisa Rothe; An Ideal Husband, director Janet Zarish; Pro-ceed / Pro-gress, choreographer Pamela Pietro; Opera Now, director Sam Helfrich. Favorite productions include Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Big Maggie, and Red Hamlet.

Alex Nelson attended Arizona State University where she received a BFA in dance and gained a love of technical theater and production. She completed a production internship at the American Dance Festival and has worked as an assistant stage manager for several Phoenix-based dance companies. Nelson currently works in arts administration as deputy director at the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She has also worked as a museum educator and teaching artist, and holds an MA in Creative Enterprise and Cultural Leadership from ASU.

Vittoria Orlando is a lighting designer based in New York. She received a BA in theater design and production from Fordham University, as well as a BA in visual art. In New York, Orlando has designed projects at Repertorio Español, Ars Nova, JACK, The Tank, and Dixon Place. Her work has also been shown internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Vittoria was a 2021 Santa Fe Opera Electrical Apprentice.

Olivia Sebesky is an award-winning multimedia art director and motion graphics designer specializing in live entertainment. She has designed for some of the world’s most notable artists and brands including James Taylor, Aerosmith, Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker, Simone Biles, Nike, Bloomberg, Peloton, Soho House, TEDTalks, NY Fashion Week, and more. Sebesky was chosen as one of Live Design’s 30 Under 30, and most recently her work was featured in Like a Woman, a documentary about women who are breaking barriers working in maledominated professions.

Taylor Verrett is a visual artist based in Maryland, originally from Louisiana. She received her MFA in projection and media design from the University of Maryland in 2022. Other notable credits include assistant media designer of the 2019 Hootie & the Blowfish tour, and assistant projection designer for the off-Broadway musical Between the Lines

Darron L West is a Tony and Obie award-winning sound designer whose thirty-three-year career spans theater and dance, on Broadway and off. Wicked Bodies is his fifth collaboration with Liz Lerman. His work has been heard in over 650 productions all over the United States and internationally in fifteen countries. Additional honors include multiple Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award, the AUDELCO Award, and the 2012 Princess Grace Foundation Statue Award. His soundscapes for Photograph 51, Paradise Blue, and Coal Country can be heard on Audible.

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is an award-winning designer for theater, opera, dance, musicals, music performances, installation and immersive experiences. As a designer she aims to create a visual environment that is organically integrated into the landscape and language of the production. Her works have been seen across US cities and internationally in Havana, Lima, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris, and Bloemfontein, South Africa. Yew is an associate arts professor and head of lighting design training with NYU Department of Drama’s Production & Design Studio.

YBCA CONTRIBUTORS

YBCA Production Department

Chris Griffin, Director of Production

Minerva Ramirez, Production Manager

Greg Wilson, Theater Head Technician

Michael Starobin, Forum Head Technician

Thank you to IATSE Local 16 Stage Crew!

YBCA Program Staff

Meklit Hadero, Head of Creativity and Impact

Angela Carrier, Director of Artist Engagement & Impact

Anna Lisa Escobedo, Senior Manager of Artist Engagement & Impact

Martin Strickland, Director of Curatorial Projects & Public Experience

Fiona Ball, Manager of Curatorial Projects & Public Experience

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Liz Lerman’s senior fellowship at YBCA is made possible through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Bernard Osher Foundation.

YBCA Programs are made possible in part by MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, California Arts Council, #StartSmall, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Tambourine, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Marilyn Conrad Trust, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, William G. Irwin Charity Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the Bernard Osher Foundation, In memory of Kevin King, the Sato Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Gaia Fund, and YBCA members.

Generous support provided by Blue Shield of California. Blue Shield of California is an independent member of the Blue Shield Association.

YBCA is grateful to the City of San Francisco for its ongoing support.

The development of Wicked Bodies is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Lead commissioning support comes from Arizona State University and its department of ASU Gammage and the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University. Wicked Bodies (Sonoma) was created with funding from a Hewlett Foundation 50 Arts Commission. Additional support has been provided through residencies by the research fund of Martha Minow, Harvard University; Bethany Arts Community; Harvard ArtLab; the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Social Impact’s Office Hours Residency program; Pillow Lab through Jacob’s Pillow Dance; Scripps College; the Moss Center at Virginia Tech University; and a NCCAkron Satellite Residency. Major individual support provided by Anonymous, Jane Brown, Sandra Garner, Bob and Paula Hardison, Diana Pinover, and the Pullman Family.

Performers, designers, researchers, and dramaturgs involved in the process include: Ariel Anbar, Lois Brown, Jude Lee Bursey, Rachel Cooper, Nico Franz, Kate Freer, Martha Gonzalez, Dan Gower, Adriana “Bibi” Harris, Sam Horning, Kevin Hultine, Matt Hubbs, Dan Hurlin, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Jill Johnson, Ted Johnson, Jian Jung, Takela King, Martha Minow, Erika Moore, Kerry Nicholls, David Olarte, Tamara Hurwitz Pullman, Jessica Rajko, Angelina Ramirez, Makeda Roney, Kyla-Rose Smith, Anna Spelman, Beckett Sterner, Phil Weaver-Stoesz, Nina Trotto, Maggie Waller, Trent Williams, Martha Wittman, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Additional research influenced by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Iowa, Virginia Tech, ASU Natural History Collections, Scripps College, and Sonoma State University. Thanks to ASU Vislab for the video of the ASU Natural History Collections.

Photo: Jamie Kraus

Photo: Brennan Spark

Back Cover: Photo by Jamie Kraus

ABOUT YBCA

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is San Francisco’s center for art and progress. Opened to the public in 1993, YBCA was founded as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena gardens neighborhood. Our work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the community it serves. Our mission is to generate culture that moves people.