remaining tender
remaining tender is a solo ritual performance abstractly exploring embodied grief practices. The performance asks us to believe: If the dead are watching, I want them to see that we still reach to each other.
Premiered: December 9, 2016, Mills College
Performed at The Gutsy Series, Supper Edition on December 11, 2016
and
Concept Series by RAWDance, November 2017
Collaborators:
Choreographed and Performed by:
Bhumi B. Patel
Sound:
Helios
Lighting Design:
Hamilton Guillen
Costumes:
Bhumi B. Patel
There are many ways to make a dance about grief. This solo is a mess of conflicting impulses woven together to ask the questions about reflection and moving forward, not sadness and fear. I didn’t want to make this dance until there were no hard feelings, no sharp ones; I do not have that luxury. But, remaining tender is living in the warm parts, the parts where the dead are watching and see us as we are.
remaining tender | 2016
"A brief but compelling solo, remaining tender was equal parts visceral and introspective; tactile and primal."
- Heather Desaulniers, DanceTabs
"If the dead are watching, I want them to see that we still reach to each other."
- Program Note
