Performances will take place at The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street, Long Island City.

Pouffy piles, wobbly stacks, loops, lists, gerunds, slaps, slips, crashes, splits, sobs, bad mother fuckers and shitty mommies.* Take that, and that, and that, and that, and that. “There is no such thing as repetition,” Gertrude Stein says. overly merry is a gift made for Mary Overlie from this shore to the other. It asks her, “did you mean this?” It is about all the things leading up to it and the dance itself. Because if you go deeper and farther and harder it is funny because schadenfreude rhymes with spectator.

Five episodes form a long performance, interrupted by a show. Since we really wish everything was shorter now, n’est ce pas? These episodes take their sweet ass time. These performers are in it for the long haul.** And then their fat stillnesses and quivering shapes are abandoned to fulfill an expectation—an experiment in brevity, this is a dance-within-a-dance where the rugs are ripped out from under one thing after another. Is it what we wanted? Did we do enough? The show dissolves or crumbles or cuts to the long shot, back into itself, the snake swallowing its own tail.

overly merry is a dance by Heather Kravas with Aretha Aoki and Cecilia Eliceche, illuminated by Madeline Best, hashed out with Jenn Joy, reflected by Rebecca Brooks.

*Tala Madani
**Kristen Kosmas