Stefanie Batten Bland created a new series of pieces which dive deep into core personal life thematics. With whom does society deem it appropriate to be intimate? To share our lives with? The first of this series began in the woods of Horton Bay, Michigan at Benjamin Cheney’s artist residency, Crojik’s Croft, and at Juilliard for New Dances 2018.
Inspired by the 1967 Stanley Kramer film starring Sydney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, the work pays tribute to those who paved the way toward acceptance in love and life. Set around a transformative dinner setting, seven dance-theatre artists excavate interlaced universal traumas through imagery and ritual as they seek a seat at the table.