CHARLOTTE VINCENT’S “MOTHERLAND” RECEIVES AMERICAN PREMIERE AT PEAK PERFORMANCES, OCTOBER 17-20
When the 20th century visionary Sigmund Freud threw up his hands and famously asked “What does a woman want?” he probably couldn’t forecast British choreographer Charlotte Vincent’s 21st Century response: “What does a women really want? And what on earth do we hope for now?“ These very relevant questions—and various answers— are posited in Vincent’s wittily poignant “Motherland,” which receives its U.S. premiere at Peak Performances, October 17-20 at the Alexander Kasser Theater in Montclair, NJ.
The dance dismantles the dream that modern women can have it all. Applying equal doses of humor, emotion and intellect expressed through an integration of live music, movement, spoken word and song, Vincent’s intergenerational cast of 10 men, women and children vibrantly argues against today’s over-sexualized definition of femininity, hypocrisy, and time-resistant inequality.
BACKGROUND
Charlotte Vincent, Artistic Director
Celebrated as one of the most challengingly theatrical choreographer-directors in the UK, Charlotte Vincent, Artistic Director of Vincent Dance Theatre, has been making and touring collaboratively devised dance-theater work with VDT since 1994. VDT’s work includes text, song, and live music, as well as theater and movement. The company tours extensively both in the UK and abroad.
Vincent regularly produces and facilitates intensive research projects, mentors emerging practitioners, works as a dramaturg and artistic adviser, and choreographs commissions for companies in the UK and abroad. She has choreographed for Gravity & Levity (UK), x-IDA Dance Company (Austria), Senza Tempo (Spain), Teeside Dance Initiative (UK), Taipei Crossover Dance (Taiwan), Welsh Independent Dance (UK), Anjali Dance Company with TC Howard (UK), Bare Bones (UK) and Cloudgate 2 (Taiwan). In March, 2012 she was commissioned by Leeds Canvas to work with Phoenix Dance as part of experimental filmmakers, The Quay Brother’s, Overworlds and Underworlds project for the Artists Taking the Lead 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Vincent has produced and choreographed multiple large-scale projects in community settings with young offenders, the long-term unemployed, women, and people with disabilities. In 2012 she conceived and curated Juncture 2012 with Yorkshire Dance – four weeks of residencies, performances, workshops, and critical debates in Leeds, programmed with an emphasis on female-led work and experimental, cross-disciplinary practice. Vincent also collaborates with writer Claire Macdonald to make new work and facilitate The Table, a cross-disciplinary platform for artistic exchange between established female practitioners (www.thetable.org.uk).
Vincent, who completed a Clore Leadership Short Course (2010) and the Clore Program for CEO/Artistic Directors (2011), is an active member of the Artistic Advisory Steering Group and Artistic Partner at Yorkshire Dance. She is Resident Artist at South East Dance and Associate Company at Brighton Dome. Charlotte lives in Brighton.