92Y Harkness Dance Center Presents The New York City Premiere Of AMOC's WITH CARE

The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center's 2021-22 Mainstage Series continues with the New York City premiere of AMOC's With Care, created by Bobbi Jene Smith in collaboration with Keir GoGwilt. With Care is a visceral, moving work for two dancers (Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, both former stars of the Batsheva Dance Company) and two violinists (Keir GoGwilt and Miranda Cuckson). Building on the cross-disciplinary work of Smith's and GoGwilt's A Study on Effort ("chilling, thrilling rawness" - The New York Times), With Care investigates the dynamics of caregiving, carelessness, and loss through a theatrical fusion of dance, music, and spoken word.

"The original impetus for With Care came out of the last section of my previous work with Keir, A Study on Effort," comments Bobbi Jene Smith. "This piece consists of seven efforts, the last of which is the effort of taking care. We thought to expand this study of emotional and physical labor into a theatrical context, investigating the dynamics of caregiving and taking between four characters. Adding Or and Miranda opened a world in which the dynamics of care spiral from empathy to apathy. The more our characters attempt to break free from this cycle, the more they become lost in the maze of their commitments to each other. Yet ultimately the only solace they find is in each other. Never stop caring."

With Care was co-commissioned by ODC Theater and AMOC (American Modern Opera Company) in 2018. All four artists are core members of the multi-disciplinary ensemble AMOC. It was announced last month that AMOC received a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation "to support visionary artists in collaborative processes that re-envision a long-enduring art form in an artist-centric and contemporary manner."

Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber have been named artists-in-residence at L.A. Dance Project, for a two-year appointment commencing in August, and they have been invited by the Paris Opera to create a work with original music composed by Celeste Oram.