ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
In To Begin With No End, spirituality is used as a vessel of connection and the common denominator between two different yet similar religions, empathy, trust and intimacy is shared within the multitudes of relationships that we embody with each other. To release into the complexities gives us access to be with each other and to see from the other side.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tushrik Fredericks, originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award (Chris Helman dance honor), nominated by TRIBE (Founding Artistic Director, Shamel Pitts) in 2021. Growing up, he found himself drawn towards the style ‘KRUMP.‘ He graduated from the Peridance Certificate Program in NYC in June 2015 and has had the opportunity to work with Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY (Danielle Agami, Artistic Director), Sidra Bell Dance New York (Sidra Bell, Artistic Director) and UNA Productions (Chuck Wilt). Fredericks was an assistant lecturer to Sidra Bell at The University of the Arts Philadelphia for Sophomore students (2016–2018). In May 2021 Fredericks received 3rd prize for dance at the SoloTanz Festival in Stuttgart for his first rendition of his self choreographed solo (territory) of the heart and in May 2023 he showcased the completed rendition of the solo at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, NY.
Rebecca Margolick is a Canadian choreographer and dancer based in NYC. Her works have been presented in Turkey, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Mexico, Israel, and across the U.S. and Canada. She was named one of Dance Magazine‘s “25 to Watch” in 2021. She has received fellowships from the New Directions Choreography Lab at Ailey School, Conney Conference, and a LABA Fellowship at the 14th St Y. She was Dance Artist in Residence at The Banff Centre for the Arts, and has had residencies with Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance, Dance Deck Vancouver, La Galerie Choreographique France, BC Movement Arts and Derida Dance in Bulgaria. Margolick has been commissioned to create original works on UNA Danza Joven at La Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, LITVAKdance, Ballet B.C.’s Annex, Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, Michiyaya Dance, and DancePORT Derida. She is creating a new work for Oregon Ballet Theater’s 2023/2024 season. As a freelance dancer she has worked with a number of artists including UNA Productions, Belinda McGuire, Kayla Farrish, Allen Kaeja, Patricia Norowol, Jerome Bel, Derrick Belcham, among others. She was a company member with Sidra Bell Dance New York from 2012–2016.
BAC OPEN STORY
By Tsohil Bhatia
For years, we didn’t see a sunrise There
were prayers that had gone too long,
breathlessly to keep the sun from setting
As It rose in the sky and fell.
For if these prayers were to end, we might have seen the night.
A night that swallows the sun down the horizon
A night too long for we hadn’t seen any at all. We had never seen the end
The prayers continued,
And in these prayers we forgot our bodies.
In all this light, we couldn’t see.
We punctuated our days in ritual
A cleanse for prayer that marked a beginning
Hands, arms, face, feet
The hands surveying the boundaries of the body.
Until eyes met eyes, on
a surface so fragile
This surface of water,
With an image of the body.
Curious fingers reached to touch this ephemeral mirror, this ephemeral body.
Lifting its image to cover the body, To wear oneself, to return into one
This image, its haunting persistence
For this image is if I am.
This image only broken by my desire to itch its skin
Its surface so thin—this mirror.
The skin so thin,
stretched across, wrapped and tightened on bones like the membrane of a drum, This
membrane that knows desire and touch,
This membrane that holds weight and is weight
This membrane that contains.
The body in its object,
Remembered its decay
This body the reason why we prayed.
And we began again, in prayer So that darkness never came
And now our bodies knew bodies,
They danced in unison, they got tired
They found rest without darkness Our
bodies, the performers of labor and care
could feel and breathe together Our bodies
now weren’t afraid of a sunset.
Funding was provided from Trust For Mutual Understanding and Derida Stage.
Top photo by Maria Baranova.