mourning dances

program notes.

The foundational piece for the evening mourning dances, You Know Where To Reach Me, is a performance of shifting identities. As Alson-Milkman re-enacts her mother's death, she transforms the death into a different event. She encourages the emotional traces of that death to become present as her identity as daughter and caretaker become obsolete. Performing her mother's death, Alson-Milkman performs her own disappearance. It was later shown as part of the Craftswoman showcase series in Los Angeles. 

Entombed Afterlife and Ending After were conceived by Alson-Milkman in collaboration with designer Piper Mavis. They form a suite of dances set in a waiting tomb and pose two possibilities for long-term committed couples. In Entombed Afterlife, a couple attempts to hold on to one another even as death looms, performing ever more complicated sequences of lifts and leans until they are separated by death. Ending After follows a couple as they build a path of dirt together downstage through an accumulation phrase until their cooperation deteriorates and they find themselves destroying the sets and burying each other as they try to move through their divorce. 

Ready to__? is a comedic take on the symbols of death, as a trio of coffins come to life in chase sequences and kicklines.