zoe | juniper: the other shore

Their work is an intersection of embodied design, physicality, visual space, and directional sound. They approach the creation and presentation of their work with a belief that dance is a visual art form and visual art is a physical form. The reframing of these forms is the basis of all their work and can be seen in how they create a synergistic “third space” where the design, physical movement, set, and sound combine to create something unique and singular to their combination. The choreography is not fully realized without the containment and shaping of these physical elements. This is seen in A Crack in Everything (2011), where dancers performed with red string extending from their mouths, causing them to change their physicality as they tried to do the choreography while attached to the taut string. This device framed, exaggerated, and thwarted the dancers’ physicality, creating a new dance that could not exist without the specific interaction of these physical elements.

Cross-disciplinary research is another way they access this “third space.” Often they use photography and painting to locate and distill the nexus of an idea before it becomes movement. In the development of BeginAgain (2014) they created large paper casts of the dancer’s body that informed the movement and set, allowing the ephemera of choreography to linger in space as a tangible artifact. For Clear & Sweet (2016), they used video editing to manipulate the material they made in rehearsal through cutting, reverse, and slow motion, and then they brought it back to the studio to adapt it into live performance. Considering the movement as though they were seeing a sculpture, film, or painting allowed them to expand the medium of classical ballet vocabulary and how it functioned in performance.

While their work is not recognized as ballet, the genesis of the choreography is strongly rooted in formalized technique. The rigor and articulateness as understood through the dancer body allows them to access and express a physicality of the most raw human experiences. In BeginAgain they worked to convey a particularly nuanced expression with soloist Ariel Freedman, creating movement that deviated wildly from classical form while still honoring and engaging the technique. In nous/us (2015) they juxtaposed classical ballet timing and form with vocabulary from J-Setting, a style practiced by university dance teams. This is at the heart of what distinguishes their choreography: they use ballet in relationship to other elements and techniques, transforming it into something entirely new and expansive in its expressive capacity.

Their works are responsive to the play between each of the elements and the audience. Often zoe | juniper works exist both as a proscenium performance and an installation, which allows play with duration, proximity, and shifting visual worlds in unique ways, offering multiple routes into the work. Limitations are often a major source of inspiration. In No One to Witness Study #4 (2012), space limitations led them to invite audiences to lie on the floor, erasing separation between the art and the viewer to create a profoundly intimate experience. In this way, reconfiguring pieces for each venue keeps the work alive. The zoe | juniper process has evolved from recreating an exacting initial vision into nurturing creative exploration where mistakes and disruption reveal new, exciting avenues. The malleability built into the work fosters a continual play and deeper creativity, allowing them to make work in a perpetual process of becoming rather than from a fixed place and mindset. Through constant reframing and reinvention they access this liminal state that can only happen at this moment in time and space through the convergence of each element. Their art is a glimpse into this place of fleeting magic.