An Exhausted Pause (2019)

An Exhausted Pause is a physical theater work set to a bilingual spoken word poem by Yoko Tawada. This physical demanding dance explores the idea of how we form associations to attempt to understand unknown words, syllables, and sounds. Each step was created based on an initial association and then strung together into a solo. Each time the poet speaks English, the dancer remains still. Therefore, the performer only narrates the Japanese speech. The audience trusts the performer to tell the story of the poem which may compliment or contradict the events unfolding on the stage. 

An Exhausted Pause was performed for Second Avenue Dance Company’s opening concert in 2019 at NYU.