Picture
   A Representative Sample of Creative Works​
   - Photos, Video Excerpts and Artistic Statements

​A SOLO WORK
Presented at Margolis Method Conservatory Showcase, Oct 2017
This is a solo work centered on themes of shame and vulnerability. It follows a character's journey towards resilience and the capacity to overcome life’s greatest challenges. Inspired by personal experiences and the work of social-scientist & author, Brene Brown. The video clip below, it a short piece created during the Margolis Method Conservatory 2017. ​Part II - emerging by summer 2020!

alluvial shore...a dance film
Premiered in october 2015 at Your Move: New Jersey’s Modern Dance FestivaL 
at the DeBaun Performing Arts Center in Hoboken, NJ.

Alluvial Shore is an exploration of climate change data applied to performance parameters.
Alluvial – from alluvium, “clay, silt, sand, gravel, or similar detrital material deposited by running water” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

​The project illustrates the contrast between naturally occurring rhythms and the consequence of humanity’s exploitation of the earth’s natural resources      
Choreographer/Dancer: Anna Sycamore DeMers
Film Edit/Processing: DeMers & Lawson
Music Composition/Designer: Erik T. Lawson
Harpist: Emily Hopkins
Photographer: Joseph Henry Ritter
Website: www.theMercurySurvey.com, www.ErikTLawson.com 
Special Thanks: Snow and Ice Data Courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center

Erik T. Lawson is a composer, theatre sound designer, and sound artist. His designs and original scores have been exhibited in the Czech Republic at the 2011 and 2015 Prague Quadrennial, and at the 2013 World Stage Design Conference in Cardiff, UK.
MFA: Carnegie Mellon University. www.ErikTLawson.com
Process | Editing: Both the musical score & the video were created by filtering it through algorithms within the software program, Max/MSP. The full score was performed and recorded by a harpist for manipulation and playback. The algorithms determined the length of musical phrases, the sequence of the phrases and the rate of speed/playback. 

Similarly, the video was processed with the “climate data” to adjust the frame rate and editing points. The resultant video was essentially a chance procedure in terms of what the output of the film would look like to us. After processing all the different camera angles the video was imported into Adobe Premiere to develop the split screen effect and color adjustments. This step is where we made more “aesthetic” choices. Here, we chose the sequence of camera angles and the layering/opacity rates. 

Look this way... dance w.media
Look This Way is a dance-theatre project that investigates how media can interact onstage with corporeal performers to create a live performance. The piece has developed over the past three years, with each new version expanding on two main questions: firstly, what is the relationship between the performer and the media? And secondly, what is the role of the spectator within this digital performance? The piece investigates the challenges to and differences between the spectator’s attention on a 2D mediated image and a 3D corporeal performer. It also explores the notion of “liveness” and debates on “presence” suggesting that media/technology can be considered a character or player onstage alongside corporeal performers.

Speaking of...
~a dance theatre performance

Photo Credit: Peter Richter
This dance-theatre piece explores the relationship and differences between movement and speech as modes of communication. The piece investigates the moments when our physical bodies’ can speak for themselves and the moments when/if we must use speech-words. 

I am interested in pushing the limits of “communication” through movement between performers and performer-audience. How do we communicate? What is the most powerful mode to express oneself? 

Performances:
Photos from: YOUR MOVE: Jersey City Dance Festival. November 7 - 10, 2013.   
Video from: NuWorks produced by Pan Asian Rep in NYC June 9-15, 2014.

the human variations
~blueprint theatre, nyc

Photo Credit: 
The Human Variations began as an experiment with one goal: to create original art. It is a theatrical symphony in four parts (Scherzo, Largo, Allegro and Rondo), which examines those moments when human beings are right next to each other and still deeply alone. Characters collide and share intimacy and closeness, while their small, seemingly innocuous, everyday interactions become more and more exposed, shaping who they are and what they obsess about. 

The Human Variations employs a theatrical style all its own, “theality,” a new brand of theater that juxtaposes expressive movement with hyper-realistic, docu-theater techniques. With each movement, The Human Variations explores feelings of aloneness, under this distinct style, in different site-specific locations.    

phobias 
~a movement-theatre Piece

Produced by Empty Spaces Theatre Company
Devised/Choreographed by Anna Sycamore DeMers
Original Music by Kevin G. Becker

PHOBIAS is a movement theatre performance exploring how fear manifests itself in the body. Do we Retreat? Collapse? Hide? Expand? Excite? Freeze?

This was an ensemble creation with Empty Spaces Theatre Co. We explored varying techniques from Viewpoints to Postmodern Composition, Jacques Lecoq and Improvisation to tear through the layers to discover honesty within. We are all strangers to one another unless we risk exposure, risk facing our fears.

jack'd in
~Dance w.Media

Choreographed by Anna DeMers
Original Music by Kevin G. Becker
Video by Seth Kubersky

Jack’d In is a dance exploration of technology and the way it affects human relationships. The characters are video game players who warp into the virtual world of a game. They soon become trapped by the Server, who takes control over their actions and thoughts. They each struggle to escape or be trapped forever.

Dancers: Elaine Hoxie, Yzaura Vanegas, Sarah Lockard, Meryl Lodge, 
Casey Saxon, Michelle Bishko and Anna DeMers