• 1-5 performances of works selected from the repertory
• Master Class(es) with Alexandra Beller and members of the company for professional/pre-professional dancers. Open to the public
• Open company rehearsal
• One post performance discussion
• Lecture/demonstrations at local schools
• Symposium about fusion of genres and the collaborative process
• Master Class with Alexandra Beller: Speaking and Moving for Non-Dancers
  
  
  
  

We are currently touring three full evening works:

You Are Here
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Click here to see a video clip from our video gallery
(premiered at Dance Theater Workshop April 3-8, 2006)
You Are Here, created through The Company Residency at The Yard, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art, and HERE Artist in Residency Program, is an evening length quartet for Alexandra Beller/Dances. “You Are Here,” is a haunting world in which a scuba clad concierge, a tap dancing lesbian, a mute soldier and a murderous debutante are forced to learn from each other. Using characters from Sartre’s “No Exit,” You Are Here investigates how we are defined to each other by our society.  Which definitions do we choose and which are chosen for us? How do we know, for a fact, that we are here? Do we make money, make love, make art? Do we feel “less here” when no one is watching? Is performing proof of existence?  Is pain proof of reality?  Do psychology, religion, social definitions or political parties really help delineate our boundaries from one another? Using their personal histories to map themselves physically and emotionally in time and space, the performers use humor and terror to arrive at a destination that defies definition, but which marks a sense of connection to each other. The work explores movement, text and music with equal intensity and considers the possibility that each can be not only acts of communication, but ultimately, acts of both survival and subversion.

us
Click here to download Press Pack PDF
Click here to see a video clip from our video gallery
(premiered at HERE Art Space June 20 - 24, 2007)
us, created through a UWMilwaukee Fellowship and HERE Artist in Residency Program, is an evening length solo work. “us” is a critique of contemporary American politics and the psycho-social fallout from legislative decision-making. In various duets with objects (including an American flag, an inflatable sex doll and a mop), Beller confronts the threat of the anti-choice movement, the hypocrisy of gay marriage opposition, and the state of disrepair of the arts. We follow one woman in her struggle to defend her body, mind, liberty and inspiration from government assault. Beller, "a seductive mix of bravado and despair" (Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice ), uses rich theatricality and vigorous physicality to challenge the phenomenon of blind patriotism. The development of "us" is sponsored in part by The Puffin Foundation Ltd.

what comes after happy
Click here to download Press Pack PDF
Click here to see a video clip from our video gallery
(premiered at Dance New Amsterdam October 18 - 21, 2007)
What comes after happy cracks open our cultural obsession with happiness.
More than almost any country, America is driven by the search for a state we
consider "happy." As if happiness were a state of the Union rather than a
state of being, we seem to be constantly mapping out the route towards a
place, rather than experiencing the journey and taking in the states along
the way. While other countries give deep value to the states of sadness,
anger, passion and fear, we often whitewash our everyday lives to announce
to the world and ourselves that we do not covet, that we are not filled with
unrest, that we do not mourn. What comes after happy features 300 fortune
cookies, an eclectic score and a ferocious physical vocabulary.

To request a video or more information about any of the above works please email tara@alexandrabellerdances.org with your mailing address and/or inquiry. We would love to hear from you.