RoseAnne Spradlin’s dances often take place in a specific environment that she meticulously creates. beginning of something takes place on a long, narrow elevated platform situated inside the Chocolate Factory’s performance space, with the audience surrounding the platform in extremely close proximity. Sketching portraits in movement of each of her four female performers, Spradlin attempts to perceive each of the women from a previous life; she then constructs a “dance within a dance,” a stirring, rhythmic mix of dance vocabularies, referencing folk dance, ballet, minimalist dance and other post-post modern performance concerns. Although the work does ultimately abound with imagery, beginning of something is an expression of Spradlin’s desire to shift the focus of her creative process from an investigation of imagery to an investigation of energy – how the energetic imprint of things ultimately creates their form.

Choreographed by RoseAnne Spradlin. Performed by Rebecca Serrell Cyr, Natalie Green, Molly Poerstel and Rebecca Wender. Lighting design by Madeline Best. Costumes by Jennifer Goggans. Scenic painting by Craig Carlson. Set construction by Janet Clancy. Recorded music by Krzysztof Penderecki and Burt Bacharach. Additional sound design by Justin Luchter.

beginning of something was nominated for a Bessie Award and was remounted at New York Live Arts in September 2012.

“Taking the Audience Up Close and Personal, and Beyond Skin Deep” – Gia Kourlas, New York Times