Calendar
Drastically falling...behind...

Drastically falling…behind…

As this past year has been unbelievably busy and I haven't had the chance to update this site. So, for now, I will offer you links to my last newsletters and future projects as windows into my work.
VESSEL

VESSEL

The Chocolate Factory
Oct 26-29 2022

Something personal. 
A means of transmission. 
Bearing witness.  
Hellzapoppin': What about the bees?

Hellzapoppin’: What about the bees?

New York Live Arts
Oct 5-8, 2022

In this new adventure Rainer juxtaposes text, dance and excerpts from the two classic films—HELLZAPOPPIN’, a 1941 Hollywood musical, and Zero for Conduct, 1933, by French auteur Jean Vigo—as backdrop and inspiration for some of her choreography.  
Nothingbeing

Nothingbeing

Portland Institute of Contemporary Art
TBA Festival: 22
Portland, OR
Oct 5-8, 2022

A collaboration that investigates ways to embody the conundrum of nothingness and "being." 
Morning Light

Morning Light

The New York Choral Society presents Morning Light, a multidisciplinary digital performance of composer Kevin Siegfried’s new arrangement for a cappella chorus of the Shaker song Morning Light in collaboration with artist and choreographer David Thomson.
the ecology of care

the ecology of care

The ecology of care is a discussion on how we can reenvision care and structures for artists and the field. Reimagining our art ecology using organic models in nature to build a more resilient and sustainable field that embraces the person and the art with care. These are some questions that have emerged through his...
In the process of re-imagining the site...thanks for your patience

In the process of re-imagining the site…thanks for your patience

Marble House Project Residency

Marble House Project Residency

I had the delicious pleasure of a summer residency here with two studios, one for writing and one for dancing.
Vs.

Vs.

Vs. can be considered part tribunal of evidence — guided and constrained by the statutory powers of the “Interrogator” — and part psychodynamic investigation of a sovereign polity, a collective of accused citizenry. 
The Sustainability Project in schools

The Sustainability Project in schools

J. Bouey interviewed me for a short article for DanceTeacher online regarding The Sustainability Project and my course Artists Sustainability.
Marking the Occasion

Marking the Occasion

Marking the Occasion, the book, represents the final movement in a year-long engagement with the question, "Can a performance be a rough draft of a written work?" This publication also marks the events of 2020, and traces their reverberations through each artist's practice as time, movement, action, and collaboration take on new meanings. ...
patch the sky                       with 5 colored stones

patch the sky with 5 colored stones

Conceived by Daria FaÏn as a multilayered as a collaborative journey in celebration of her 60th birthday,  and the culmination of 40 years of research into the body/mind embodiment within architecture, language, spirituality and communal action.  
Last Audience:                           a performance manual

Last Audience: a performance manual

With Last Audience: a performance manual, a canary torsi reimagines performance for an era of social distance. A series of printed manuals developed in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Trisha Brown Archives

Trisha Brown Archives

In September 2020, the New York Public Library's Performing Arts Division acquired the archives of Trisha Brown. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Cori Olinghouse and later Ben Houtman, as the TBC archives technical consultant, designing the database that housed the interrelated information for the ephemera of Brown's archive.
Our Labyrinth

Our Labyrinth

MetLiveArts in partnership with New York Live Arts, commissioned a unique, site-specific iteration of Taiwanese-American artist Lee Mingwei's durational performance work OUR LABYRINTH.
ECHO EXHIBIT

ECHO EXHIBIT

I had the pleasure of participating in Asiya Wadud's Echo Exhibit. My collaboration with Chia-Lun Chang chosen as one of the poems exhibited in Lower Manhattan.
Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born: Sitting On a Man’s Head

Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born: Sitting On a Man’s Head

One of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus‘s central questions “How do we weave a collective song?” builds on the ideas behind Okpokwasili’s and Born’s durational piece, Sitting On a Man’s Head.
Going Spaces and Other Worlding

Going Spaces and Other Worlding

Going Spaces and Other Worlding is the culmination of two years of residencies, research, and experimentation. Through film, performance, and sculptural installation, Tripp uses forms of reenactment and rehearsal to conjure alternative modes of freedom, utopia, and civil disobedience at the crossroads of globalization and cultural hybridity. Sept 21 - Dec 1, 2019
Anna, Darrin, David, Eleanor, jess, Katie, Leslie & Weena: The Door’s Unlocked

Anna, Darrin, David, Eleanor, jess, Katie, Leslie & Weena: The Door’s Unlocked

Foley Gallery 59 Orchard Street, NYC 10002 Monday through Friday 2pm-10pm | Saturday and Sunday 12pm-9pm
Parts of some Sextets

Parts of some Sextets

Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center 15-17 November 2019 DUMBO, 29 Jay Street, Bklyn A piece centered around 12 mattresses, a 17th century American diarist and the madness of action.
Last Audience

Last Audience

The Last Audience is a work embodied by its audience–a live laboratory for the communal work of conjuring. New York Live Arts 219 W 19th St, New York October 16-20 6:30pm
Restagings No. 3: Fall (C.A.)

Restagings No. 3: Fall (C.A.)

Fridman Gallery is honored to present Abigail Levine’s Restagings No. 3: Fall (C.A.), a 10 ½ hour performance and collective ritual for a community of performers, writers, and their witnesses. Sunday, October 13th 2pm-12:30am
Continuous Project: 60 Years

Continuous Project: 60 Years

Remai Modern
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Saturday, October 5, 7 PM
Sunday, October 6, 2 PM

Sorry I Missed Your Show: Adrienne Truscott

Sorry I Missed Your Show: Adrienne Truscott

Sorry I Missed Your Show: Adrienne Truscotted by makers David Thomson and Melanie George, will present and talk about excerpts from a show that has caused her nothing but trouble—from the humorously banal to the deeply consequential, both personally and professionally. Gibney Dance 280 Broadway, entrance 53A chambers Sept. 18th 6:30
ASSEMBLY

ASSEMBLY

Saturday, June 22, 6:30pm

Part of series of performances before the closing of The Kitchen for a 2 year renovation.

Marking the Occasion

Marking the Occasion

Mt. Tremper Arts Center

Watershed Lab 2019

Curated by Jaime Shearn Coan and Tara Aisha Willis. Bringing seven artists together to explore the intersection of text and performance.

Movement Research Gala 2019

Movement Research Gala 2019

Judson Memorial ChurchThursday, June 6th  I have the pleasure of being honored with the wonderful Stephen Facey this year at the Movement Research Gala on June 6th.  Movement Research is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms, now celebrating it’s 40th year.  It’s an organization that is near and dear to my heart for...
Danspace Gala 2019: Rebel Angels: Honoring Simone Forti & Okwui Okpokwasili

Danspace Gala 2019: Rebel Angels: Honoring Simone Forti & Okwui Okpokwasili

St Marks Church

Tuesday, May 7 at 6pm

Danspace’s 2019 Gala honors visionary artists Simone Forti and Okwui Okpokwasili, whose embodied grace and radical generosity inspire across generations.

Yanira Castro | a canary torsi : Live Feed In-Process: Last Audience

Yanira Castro | a canary torsi : Live Feed In-Process: Last Audience

New York Live Arts

April 26, 2019

Last Audience is a piece made with the audience. It grapples with questions of agency, manipulation and the complexity of choice inside a theatrical context.

Albertine Prize Launch 2019

Albertine Prize Launch 2019

French Embassy

972 Fifth Avenue

New York

April 3, 2019

I had pleasure of being invited to read a excerpt from Small Country by Gaël Faye, one of the five finalists for the prize. Translated by Sarah Ardizzone

Dance Union Podcast

Dance Union Podcast

The Dance Union Podast

Episode 42: Sustainability in Dance

Melanie and Jay met with David Hamilton Thomson to speak about his Sustainability Project that helps dance artists explore sustainable practices of making art.

What is Black Space?

What is Black Space?

Dancing While Black, Inaugural publication March 2019
Even the Stars Look Lonesome

Even the Stars Look Lonesome

Sharjah Biennial 14, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Collaboration with Caecilia Tripp 5-screen film installation, copper sculpture

Tracing Beyond

Tracing Beyond

Museum of Modern Art

January 24, 2019 6:30p

This Studies Project traces the legacies of dance beyond Judson Dance Theater, considering the complex web of influences and developments in the years before, during, and in the many decades since.

Extended Life Dance 3 Year Development Residency Fellowship

Extended Life Dance 3 Year Development Residency Fellowship

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

2019-2021

Dark and Stormy, when the going gets tough grab pussy

Dark and Stormy, when the going gets tough grab pussy

A raucous post-modern parody of Trump and Stormy Daniels played off of Tina Turner's Proud Mary. Sex, gender, power and privilege. Everything is upended!

Sundays on Broadway

4 November 2018 6p

Movement Research at Judson

12 November 2018 8p

Revealed: The Nude Body in Performance

Revealed: The Nude Body in Performance

A conversation

Barnard College

Monday, October 22, 2018 7 PM

The 34th Annual NY Dance & Performance Bessie Awards

The 34th Annual NY Dance & Performance Bessie Awards

The Skirball Center at NYU

Monday, October 8th, 2018 6p

The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as The Bessies, is a yearly event celebrated the work of artists who have performed in New York City during the course of the past season. he his own mythical beast received a Bessie...

Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done

Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done

The Museum of Modern Art

September 16, 2018–February 3, 2019

MoMA opens a retrospective exhibition of the groundbreaking work, ideas and artists that came out of Judson Dance Theater.  In conjunction with this exhibition are a series of performances.

Spinning a Yarn

Spinning a Yarn

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Sunday, September 23, 2018 12:30 pm

For the closing of Contra la Pared, David Thomson collaborated with exhibiting artist Analia Segal to create a solo.

Dance and Process at The Kitchen

Dance and Process at The Kitchen

Dance and Process @ The Kitchen

June 9, 6pm: Athena Kokoronis and Angie Pittman

Working with Athena Kokoronis|Domestic Performance Agency and a cast of beautiful performers

TEDx Asbury Park | Life is a Dance

TEDx Asbury Park | Life is a Dance

May 19, 2018

9am

Paramount Theatre

1300 Ocean Avenue

Asbury Park, NJ

The 6th edition of TEDxAsburyPark will be themed ‘Passion.

DEEP: The Sustainability Project

DEEP: The Sustainability Project

Gibney Dance 280 Broadway

Tuesday, May 8

6:30-8:30p

For this Gibney event, we are focusing on younger artists of color and how they perceive a sustainable life. Each artist would present strategies and ideas that they have been using to build and guide their goals as artists within this context.
The Kitchen L.A.B.

The Kitchen L.A.B.

April 17, 6:30pm

Free

The sixth gathering in this year's L.A.B. series, featuring Chloë Bass, Andrianna Campbell, and David Thomson, revolving around the term relation.

Rauschenberg Residency

Rauschenberg Residency

RESIDENCY 30: MARCH 5-APRIL 6, 2018 The Rauschenberg Residency is a creative center that welcomes artists of all disciplines from around the world to live, work, and create. The residency is located on Robert Rauschenberg’s former property on Captiva Island, Florida, where he lived and worked for nearly four decades. The facility, which includes the 8,000-square-foot studio Rauschenberg built in 1992 and a collection of historic homes and...
he his own mythical beast (premiere)

he his own mythical beast (premiere)

Performance Space 122 | COIL Festival 2018

150 First Avenue, at the corner of 9th Street

New York, NY

Jan 31 – Feb 2 7:30pm

Feb 4 3pm

The culmination of a series of performance installations that Interrogates the suppositions of neutrality of presence, and the black body in a postmodern world.
Yvonne Rainer | The Concept of Dust: Continuous Project-Altered Annually

Yvonne Rainer | The Concept of Dust: Continuous Project-Altered Annually

Early Works & DUST Marseilles, France Porto, Portugal Barcelona, Spain 14th-19th December 2017
Sorry I Missed Your Show: wondering who we are

Sorry I Missed Your Show: wondering who we are

Gibney Dance 280 Broadway

(Enter at 53A Chambers)

Wednesday, December 6 / 6:30 – 8:00 pm / FREE

David Thomson, in discussion with Okwui Okpokwasili, connects his work with Poet/theater artist and musician Sekou Sundiata’s 51st (dream) state to his current performance research project, he his own mythical beast
OPEN SPECTRUM: CREATIVE SUSTAINABILITY - How do we invest in ourselves as artists and human beings?

OPEN SPECTRUM: CREATIVE SUSTAINABILITY – How do we invest in ourselves as artists and human beings?

New York Live Arts Studios

219 West 19th Street

DEC 4, 7PM

Do you take time to invest in yourself? Do you have access to the resources, tools and advice you need to plan a sustainable life as an individual?
Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth | New Orleans

Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth | New Orleans

Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans

New Orleans, LA

Thursday, November 9, 2017 - 7:30pm

Friday, November 10, 2017 - 7:30pm

Saturday, November 11, 2017 - 7:30pm

Saturday, November 11, 2017 - 11:00pm

Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth | Cairo

Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth | Cairo

Cairo International Festival for Contemporary & Experimental Theatre

Cairo, Egypt

Wednesday, September 27 at 10PM

Thursday, September 28 at 10PM

Maya Ciarrocchi | A Remedy for a Constitutional Crisis

Maya Ciarrocchi | A Remedy for a Constitutional Crisis

Abrons Art Center

September 17, 2017 (Constitution Day)

12pm-8pm

A Remedy for a Constitutional Crisis is an eight-hour celebratory reading of the United States Constitution. This event is free to the public and will occur in the outdoor amphitheater at Abrons Art Center on September 17, 2017 (Constitution Day)
a canary torsi | CAST, STAGE, AUTHOR

a canary torsi | CAST, STAGE, AUTHOR

Abrons Arts Center

The Chocolate Factory

The Invisible Dog

September 7-23, 2017

CAST, STAGE, AUTHOR is a trilogy of new works by interdisciplinary artist Yanira Castro and a team of collaborators.
Collapsable Hole Residency

Collapsable Hole Residency

Westbeth

NYC 10-21 July 2017

A short intensive period of work

Yvonne Rainer & David Michalek | SlowDancing/TrioA

Yvonne Rainer & David Michalek | SlowDancing/TrioA

St Marks Danspace Project

New York City

June 23 - July 1

Danspace Project premieres SlowDancing/TrioA, a new video installation by artist, David Michalek, in collaboration with choreographer, Yvonne Rainer!
Marta Renzi | In search of lost time

Marta Renzi | In search of lost time

Stamford, VT

June 2017

Marta Renzi invited Aislinn MacMaster, Charles Caster-Dudzick and myself up to the beautiful and cozy home of Marta Miller in Vermont for 5 days to shoot a little something.
The Yard | Bessie Schonberg Choreography Residency

The Yard | Bessie Schonberg Choreography Residency

The Yard

Martha's Vineyard

Chilmark, MA

22 May - 11 June 2017

A three week shared residency with Raja Feather Kelly and his company, the feath3r theory. Continued development of the final section of he his own mythical beast, with two performances at the end of the residency.
Gustave Akakpo | Skins and Hoods (Even Knights Get Forgotten)

Gustave Akakpo | Skins and Hoods (Even Knights Get Forgotten)

Skins and Hoods (Even Knights Get Forgotten) Mini-lab

Abrons Arts Center

3 May 2017

4p

As part of the French Play Series, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in association with Abrons Arts Center sponsored a mini-lab and a public reading of the play.
Mt Tremper Residency

Mt Tremper Residency

Mt Tremper Arts Center

20-25 February 2017
RADICAL BODIES: Anna Halprin; Simone Forti; Yvonne Rainer in CA and NY 1955-1972

RADICAL BODIES: Anna Halprin; Simone Forti; Yvonne Rainer in CA and NY 1955-1972

UC Santa Barbara

Hatlen Theater

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 - 9:00am to Saturday, January 28, 2017 - 7:30pm

Radical Bodies reunites Halprin, Forti, and Rainer for the first time in over fifty-five years.
a canary torsi | PERFORMANCE | PORTRAIT

a canary torsi | PERFORMANCE | PORTRAIT

DECEMBER 3 – 30, 2016 and January 5 – 15, 2017
Barnard College | Tone

Barnard College | Tone

Creation of new work at Barnard College, Performances at New York Live Arts, December 1-3
Leslie Scalapino Award Reading | The Triumph of Crowds

Leslie Scalapino Award Reading | The Triumph of Crowds

New Ohio Theater 5 December 2016 I had the pleasure of performing in the reading for Third annual Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Playwrights. Brigid McLeer is the recipient of the third annual Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Playwrights. In memory of Leslie Scalapino and her “commitment to the community of experimental writing...
The Commons Choir | BROOKLYN REZOUND (work-in-progress)

The Commons Choir | BROOKLYN REZOUND (work-in-progress)

BROOKLYN REZOUND, created by The Commons Choir in collaboration with composer Darius Jones, is an investigative musical and dance performance that delves into the history of diversity and displacement in Brooklyn.
The Voyeurs | Madison Square Park

The Voyeurs | Madison Square Park

The Voyeurs

Madison Square Park

23rd Street and Broadway

New York City

15, 16 September 2016

6p

18 September 2016

2p
Mt Tremper Arts Watershed Lab Residency | Performance

Mt Tremper Arts Watershed Lab Residency | Performance

he his own mythical beast

Residency

5-11 September 2016

Performance

Saturday, September 10, 8:00 pm / Tickets $15

This process version of he his own mythical beast uses new and material accumulated from prior performance installations to build a multifaceted experience engaging the edges and issues of identity, power, myth and America.
a canary torsi | CAST, STAGE, AUTHOR

a canary torsi | CAST, STAGE, AUTHOR

This summer I had the pleasure of working on a new project with Yanira Castro.  We began with a series of extended interviews in the Spring and workshops in the Summer. CAST, STAGE, AUTHOR is a trilogy of works to premiere for three weeks in September 2017 at three commissioning NYC venues: The Chocolate Factory,...
The Voyeurs | Brooklyn Bridge Park

The Voyeurs | Brooklyn Bridge Park

The Voyeurs

A performance installation by David Thomson

July 23 at 5:30 & 6:30 pm

Empire Fulton Ferry at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Art AIDS America | Bronx Museum

Art AIDS America | Bronx Museum

The first comprehensive overview of 30 years of art made in response to the AIDS epidemic in the United States

Opening night performance

Wednesday, July 13th

2nd floor North Wing

7:15pm

Look up here, I'm in heaven

Look up here, I’m in heaven

BRIC Arts Media

July 6, 2016 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

“A thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve.”

Performances by exhibition artist David Antonio Cruz, and artists Jaamil Olawale Kosoko and David Thomson that explore contradictions in identity, freedom, and materiality of the black/brown body.
Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth

Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth

River to River Festival | LMCC River to River Festival

The Arts Center at Governors Island, Building 110

Thu, Jun 16 from 4:30–5:30pm

Fri, Jun 17 from 4:30–5:30pm

Sat, Jun 18 from 2:30–3:30pm

Sun, Jun 19 from 2:30–3:30pm

“…a (fine) place to consider existence beneath and beyond the earth, “Go Forth” finds an immediate and visceral strength in ancient codes of mourning.” –...
Yvonne Rainer | The Concept of Dust: Continuous Project-Altered Annually

Yvonne Rainer | The Concept of Dust: Continuous Project-Altered Annually

The Kitchen

2-4 June 2016

8p

ADI/NYC PremiereThe Concept of Dust: Continuous Project-Altered Annually” is an ongoing work-in-progress that interweaves formal dance and personal themes of aging and mortality with humor and diverse texts
Yaddo Residency

Yaddo Residency

3 - 30 March 2016

The Corporation of Yaddo

Saratoga Springs, NY
Maria Hassabi | PLASTIC

Maria Hassabi | PLASTIC

February 21 - March 20, 2016

Museum of Modern Art

Artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi’s PLASTIC is a commissioned live installation in which dancers perform throughout MoMA continuously during opening hours.
Process Space Residency | Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Process Space Residency | Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

1 - 29 February 2016

125 Maiden Lane Studio
Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth

Kaneza Schaal | Go Forth

7-12 January 2016

Westbeth Center

Drawing inspiration from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, GO FORTH is a performance and photo installation that considers how we create space in our lives for the presence of the absent.