Force Fields was a project I toured cross-country in 2019 with collaborator Ru Emmons. It consisted of performances and workshops at venues from Pennsylvania to California and back.
Press Releases
Performance:
Force Fields is a collaborative dance performance created and produced by artist Ru Emmons and H. Gene Thompson. The duo uses movement and wearable sculptures to perform transformations and protection routines seeking ways to unstick themselves in a physical and energetic way. Using imagery of portals and transformations, the performers work towards reclamation of personal power. They explore the human response to living in and around the poisons of capitalism, environmental destruction, and systemic oppression.
Emmons and Thompson are interested in exploring themes of land, water and the dangerous isolation they see humans experiencing in the world. Their work is actively questioning how to reclaim personal power. This is a story of adaptation, grief, protection and transformation in an age of fear. In a world where religion has co-opted spirituality, our creative energy lives in danger of being lost.
What factors constrain us from freedom? How do our bodies mirror our environment? How do we move forward in power together? Gene and Ru seek to open these questions and their complex solutions in this traveling performance piece.
Creative Movement Workshop:
H. Gene Thompson and Ru Emmons of Force Fields
This workshop will lead participants through creative movement exercises using both their bodies and fabric sculptures as tools. The sculptural elements such as fabric loops and tubes will enhance the group’s knowledge of planes in relation to body and space and help us explore resistance as an element of performance. Participants will watch and react to sections of the collaborative movement performance Force Fields engage with the conceptual themes of “the void” and energetic protection. We will model our process of moving from concept to artistic creation and allow participants to do the same, utilizing writing, drawing, and movement practice.
Through guided visualizations and imaginative play, participants will navigate physical and imaginary landscapes through movement “textures,” allowing them to experience their bodies in a new way. The workshop will help individuals connect to their own personal flavor of protection and identity separate from the commodities and concepts that are sold to us from the outside world.
Social Media Campaign
