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Loom Ensemble: Tell Me How You Breathe
This summer, Loom Ensemble is bringing together a racially diverse team of professional dancers, musicians and theatermakers, to invite you into an outdoors experience of Dance Theater for Collective Liberation. Loom’s newest piece “Tell Me How You Breathe,” is a new musical about climate catastrophe that brings us to a world where the climate crisis has progressed slightly more than our present day, to play out the interrelationship of institutional power structures and ancestral healing practices. Playful humor, live music, and beautiful storytelling help us lean in to meet these pressing issues.
Performances will take place in Vermont city parks and outdoor venues this July, including the College Green at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, The Junction Dance Festival in White River Junction, New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, as well as Leddy Park in Burlington, and Essex Theatre Company in Essex, NY.
The story centers on the lungs, as the site of interconnectedness and the organ of grief. “Who gets to breathe freely, fully, with ease,” is a necessary question for our time, right at the intersection of eco-activism, social justice, and public health. With the nourishment of participatory ceremony and song, Loom grounds this political conversation in the physical body, to incite the radical act of collectively imagining a more just and beautiful world.
The powerhouse creative team includes artists Hanna Satterlee (ANIMAL Dance), Raphael Sacks (Sandglass), directed by Neva Cockrell (Piloblus), along with a team of New York City professional actors, and Vermont ensemble dancers. The performance features a racially diverse ensemble of performers, and BIPOC Vermonters are especially invited to attend this explicitly anti-racist event, with a special BIPOC ticket price of “pay-what-you-want” (including $0).
About Loom Ensemble
For more than a decade, Loom Ensemble has been devising interdisciplinary theater for culture shift, using their performances to open difficult conversations, and then facilitating community discussion to unpack the emotional vulnerability and cultural taboos of each show. In that shared space, the social value of art made from a place of deep integrity becomes clear: our actions matter, new ways of living are possible, together we can build a more loving world. As a direct response to broken patriarchy, lonely individualism, and shame-inducing capitalism, Loom’s performances call audiences home to themselves and their communities. Artistic Director Neva Cockrell says “Our work is to reconnect with the earth, with emotional integrity, and with each other. Come, let art remind you of your inherent goodness and our collective ability to heal and create change.”
Funded in part by New England States Touring (NEST) and New Work New England of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA). NEST is made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies. New Work New England is made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seedlings Foundation, the Fund for the Arts at NEFA, the American Rescue Plan, Anonymous Foundation, and from individual donors.
The Montpelier event is funded in part by a grant award from Montpelier Alive, with funds from the Montpelier Downtown Improvement District with additional support from The Everything Space and Vermont College of Fine Art.
Tickets, accessibility, and info:
Tickets are available online, through www.LoomEnsemble.com
For telephone assistance to purchase tickets, call 845-379-1851
$20 General
“Pay what you want” for BIPOC audience
All ages are welcome. Audience is invited to bring their own picnic blanket or chair. Some folding chairs are provided for those in need. All venues are wheelchair-accessible from the parking lot to the performance location.
With more specific accessibility questions, please contact [email protected]
Montpelier, VT
The show is ON, despite the flooding. This performance is our direct response to the grief of climate catastrophe. This is a space for healing.
** NEW LOCATION: College Green at the Vermont College of Fine Arts**Produced by ANIMAL Dance
Performances 6pm
Thursday July 20 and Friday July 21
Rain Date: Tuesday July 25
*Please note Friday July 21 is canceled due to rain. If you already bought a tickets, come attend either tonight’s show or Tuesday’s show & no further action is required — we will honor the ticket you already purchased.*
Brattleboro, VT
New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA)
Performances 6pm
Saturday July 22 and Sunday July 23
Rain Date: Monday July 24
Essex, NY
Essex Theatre Company
Performances 6pm
Thursday July 27 and Friday July 28
Rain Date: Monday July 31 (will either be in Essex or Burlington, TBA on Sunday evening, July 30th)
Burlington, VT
Leddy Park
Produced by ANIMAL Dance
Performances 6pm
Saturday July 29 and Sunday July 30
Rain Date: Monday July 31 (will either be in Essex or Burlington, TBA on Sunday evening, July 30th)
After Vermont, the tour continues to MA and NYC.
