ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The artists are hunting elephants in the room by rolling the classic American variety and game show into a raucously satirical take-no-prisoners performance. The work puts some of the world’s most inconvenient elephants on parade and harnesses the anguished pain bubbling underneath. From this room, no one gets home feeling comfortable.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ariel Freedman (she/her) was born in Philadelphia in 1983. After graduation from The Juilliard School, she danced in projects of Baryshnikov and Aszure Barton, followed by the Batsheva Ensemble and Company under the direction of Ohad Naharin. She taught Gaga and Naharin’s repertoire from 2007–2015. In 2011 she returned to freelancing, touring with Kidd Pivot. She has originated roles with Ella Rothschild, Bobbi Jene Smith/AMOC, Zack Winokur and Michelle Mola/The Troupe in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Helen Simoneau Danse, zoe | juniper, Talia Beck, Idan Sharabi, Keigwin + Company, and Liz Magic Laser. Since meeting Roy Assaf in 2013, she has originated roles in, performed and staged his works, and accompanied Assaf as artistic associate. A duet danced with Meredith Webster, co-created with Webster and Ben Wardell, premiered in 2017, paving the way for another pairing with Webster by Charlotte Griffin. In 2019 she created with and for her kibbutz community, where she went on to lead outdoor workshops and jam sessions in collaboration with Shani Tamari Matan and graduates of The Maslool. She participated in Suzanne Dellal Centre’s 1|2|3 program for emerging choreographers with the creation of a solo and duet in 2022.
Corey Scott-Gilbert (he/him) aka vAL was born in Washington, D.C. in 1983. After graduation from the Baltimore School for the Arts and The Juilliard School, he became a soloist with the Lyon Opera Ballet, receiving the Princess Grace Award in 2009. He has been featured in the 84th Academy Awards (2012) and Louis Vuitton Shows (2021–2022). Following his mentorship by Alonzo King and an ankle injury, Scott-Gilbert’s path shifted to that of an independent artist based in Berlin, engaging in collaborations with Eszter Salamon, Sasha Waltz, Julian Rosenfeldt and Ligia Lewis and developing an adopted creative identity in the form of ‘vAL.’ With an inherently Queer perspective and off-grid aesthetic, vAL’s agenda is to further understand the mental state from which creation springs; concerned with sketches of possibility unconfined by genre, gender, demographic or any other limitation placed on the individual by society. The artist’s personal history of movement serves as a vehicle for interrogating their own breath, a process in which collaging word-play and physical utterance often serve as the foundation for their multidisciplinary playgrounds.