Pearl in the shell is a dreamlike meditation on the places - and the people - that we inhabit. Dancers hitchhike on each other’s backs like rodeo ants; a dozen performers lip-synch to a single soprano while their bodies attach and divide like cells; a sound score emerges, of synchronized breathing and breath held in waiting. Through these vignettes, viewers are invited to contemplate the porous borders between self and other, the flux of identity, and the timeless cycles of caretaking, where bodies are tugged and reconfigured by forces of tenderness and gravity. 

PERFORMANCE

Hilberry Gateway: the Stage -2024

commission for WSU 95th Annual Spring Dance Concert

Detroit, MI

Direction: Leah O’Donnell

Choreography: Leah O’Donnell with the cast

Performance: Meghan Allen, Aria Brown, Madison Collier, Annie Dingwall, Cadence Ference, Becca Ferragut, Hunter Martin, Rachel Meloche, Katelyn Oliver, Emiley Pegley, Olivia Perry, Erin Potvin, Catey Selemba, Kara Smith

WSU Spring Dance Artistic Director: Hannah Anderson, Jessica Rajko

Scenic and Projection Design: Matthew Sparrows

Light Design: Justin Gibson

Sound Design: Brian Cole

Costume Design: Joel Shinavier

Stage Manager: Harmoni Thompson

Photography: Lady Red Photography