Works & Process at the Guggenheim Presents the Premiere of the Four-part Docuseries
ISOLATION TO CREATION
By filmmaker NIC PETRY of DANCING CAMERA
Featuring Bubble Residency Artists
EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE
LES BALLET AFRIK WITH OMARI WILES
THE MISSING ELEMENT WITH CHRIS CELIZ AND ANTHONY RODRIGUEZ "INVERTEBRATE"
MUSIC FROM THE SOLE WITH GREGORY RICHARDSON & LEONARDO SANDOVAL
JAMAR ROBERTS
SEVEN DEADLY SINS WITH JOSHUA BERGASSE, JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND, JEFFREY GUIMOND, MARC HAPPEL, & SARA MEARNS
Airing on WNET's ALL ARTS
Streaming nationwide January 27 and February 3, 10, and 17, at 8 p m. EST
EPISODE ONE: A WAY FORWARD
January 27, 2021 8 p.m. EST
January, 2020. The start of an amazing new year full of creativity, invention, performance, and surprise. Or so thought WORKS & PROCESS at the Guggenheim. Of course, we all know what happened. Seemingly overnight the COVID pandemic took over the world.
With their performers stifling in self-isolation, WORKS & PROCESS forged a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform. After months of research and consultation, in the summer of 2020 they pioneered a series of “bubble residencies”. Under a protocol developed with medical counsel Dr. Wendy Ziecheck, and ethical oversight by Dr. Robert Klitzman, artists isolated by the pandemic gathered in quarantine in the Hudson Valley. In partnership with Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Mount Tremper Arts, and Petronio Residency Center, through jointly subsidized residencies, eight creative bubbles were born.
Episode One chronicles the process of “bubble” creation. Individual COVID testing, ensuring that every venue was “sterile”, finding a safe bus and driver to take them all to their “bubbles”. Quite complicated, quite thorough. Amazing, really. It is a joy to see the smiles on their faces. Freedom to interact and create! In front of a live audience!
Now to create and develop their performances. Styles include beatbox, krumping, flexing, Afro-Brazilian tap, New York street and club dance, vogue ballroom, and a revival of the 1933 musical “The Seven Deadly Sins”. The next episodes in the series will follow their progress. A must-see for anyone who loves the arts. Out-of-the-box, onto the stage, it is enchanting to see the drive, energy, and spirit that flows through these performers.
A big thank you to the Emmy-winning ALL ARTS, the New York arts and culture hub created by WNET, for documenting what can be accomplished, even in the worst of times.
-Karen D’Onofrio-