dance for the camera
Stones to Rainbows | Gay to Queer Lives
Stones to Rainbows/Gay to Queer Lives is a process-to-performance project, developed into dynamic pop-up multimedia - sound, lights, video and images - within an installation of closet doors, both inspired by and developed from the intergenerational and cross-sectional dialogues of Boston-area LGBTQ+ artists and community.
In the project’s first phase, queer artists and community alike engaged in a series of cocktail parties, paired dialogues, and individual interviews. These dialogues were augmented by materials from the archives of project partner The History Project, self-identified as “the only organization focused exclusively on documenting and preserving the history of New England’s LGBTQ communities.”
The inspiration for the project was sparked in rehearsal with a dancer in his 20s, another in his 30s, and DiMuro, in his 60s. A simple question was asked: “What was the AIDS crisis like to live through? I’ve only read about it in books.” The conversation evolved into an discussion of the terms “gay” and “queer”, their usage over time; and they asked, isn’t our current era’s killing of young trans women of color an epidemic of its own? The project further developed with the emergence of the coronavirus, which ultimately altered the course and scope of the developmental research. To date, nearly every event has been held online, which has enabled conversations not just in Boston, but across the globe, with participants from Texas, Washington, D.C., France, New Zealand, and more.
Stones to Rainbows/Gay to Queer Lives seeks to build upon the archives of the past and these conversations in the present, satisfying a need for present day celebration and articulation of the spectrum of LGBTQ+ lives lived, in all their glorious diversity.
Built on a foundation of our first-gay/now-queer histories in the hopes of creating a more intersectional voice for the future, the project is, in itself, a commission to all visitors and contributors to the dialogues who add to our collection of stories each day and to all performing artists defining the current queer world in Boston: Celebrate your queer and accumulated selves, be inspired by the past but not a slave to it; use your humanity, your dialogue, your talents to make a bridge for future queer lives.
our first live in-progress sharing of the project!
June 19 & 20, 2021
live and live-streamed from Arlington Street Church
351 Boylston Street Boston, MA
Postcards from the Front
Our first responders are on the ever-shifting front lines of a war they never signed up to fight, and yet are fighting with all their will. In these astonishing weeks since mid-March, they have made courageous efforts to keep us safe, to mend us, to feed us and to give us solace and hope. They have helped us exhale into another day, and for that we are grateful.
Public Displays of Motion is a company of collaborators that uses movement to illuminate the extraordinary in the everyday. And we are at a uniquely dynamic point of history where we are experiencing everyday actions as intensely extraordinary - more so than most of us have ever experienced before or will again.
As a means to mark this shared time in all our histories, we have conceived of Postcards From the Front, an exercise in storytelling, memory-keeping, embodied empathy and understanding.
With an invitation to a range of first responders, Postcards From the Front pairs the recorded experiences of those on the shifting front lines of the COVID-19 Pandemic with the movement responses of PDM collaborators.
Translated into video “postcards”, these short performances will build bridges of understanding and togetherness from home to home while creating a time-capsule of what will be our shared history. Presented first through social media, then as a collaborative single online exhibit, Postcards From the Front will eventually become a series of printed postcards - tactile, illuminating memorabilia.
With a collective intake of air and its consequent exhalation, Postcards From the Front honors humanity’s grief, fears and frustrations simultaneously with simple joys of the moment and hope as we shift forward and move beyond.
For audiences interested in following the progress of the project, please be sure to engage with us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter!
Summer Sundays with the Sisters
3 variety shows featuring artists in the city of Boston.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG_Y8LjfNVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHqUzoW-6DA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVmAe1dMNg&feature=youtu.be
Making Mill Town
THE MAKING MILL TOWN VIDEO DOCUMENTS THE CREATION OF MILL TOWN, AN IMMERSIVE MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION THAT ANIMATES THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF MILL LIFE THE 19TH CENTURY. THROUGH A LOOSE IMAGISTIC NARRATIVE REFERENCING PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, MILL TOWN CONJURES NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR VACANT MILL BUILDINGS THAT ONCE PROVIDED THE LEWISTON-AUBURN COMMUNITIES THEIR BACKBONE AND CHARACTER. MAKING MILL TOWN WILL SERVE AS A LASTING DOCUMENT OF THIS POWERFUL AND EPHEMERAL PERFORMANCE THAT RE-ANIMATED THE WORK AND LIFE OF ONE MILL COMMUNITY AND INSPIRED AUDIENCES WITH A HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE, SITE-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF THE ICONIC SPACES.