Concrete Work (a dance film), 2024
Concrete Work is a film collaboration between Adele Nickel, Brian Lawson & Andrew Urankar, shot on site at the Chianti Foundation in Marta, TX, in conversation with Donald Judd’s 15 untitled works in concrete. It explores the relationship between the organic and inorganic, playing with the tension between human form, constructed form, and the natural form of the West Texas desert.
The Spell, 2024
The Spell is the latest in a series of "danced essays" by Adele Nickel and Brian Lawson investigating form as it relates to dance, especially classical ballet. It offers a polyamorous version of the famous “Rose Adagio” from The Sleeping Beauty, as a gesture towards reimagining what contemporary expressions of intimacy and partnership could look like on stage. Created in collaboration with the dancers of Sam Houston State University. Photo by @lynnlanephotography.
Men at Work, 2023
Men at Work celebrates the experiences of six young male dancers in the context of masculinity as a cultural construct. It seeks to expand our understanding of what "masculine movement" can or should look like, and to embrace a wider range of possibilities for male-presenting bodies, on stage and off. Created in collaboration with the dancers of Sam Houston State University. Photo by @lynnlanephotography.
Steps, 2023
Steps was created with the students of Skidmore College in 2023. It is the third in a series of "danced essays" by Adele Nickel & Brian Lawson that aim to celebrate and challenge traditional forms in dance, especially ballet; this dance takes the ballet class itself as its subject. When ballet was first codified in the 18th century it was built upon 7 simple steps: bending, falling, gliding, beating, turning, jumping and rising. Steps moves through each of these foundational steps as a way to investigate the enduring ritual of ballet class, its conventions and culture, and our expectations for what it should look like, using ballet's own origin story to (re)think how and why we still practice ballet in the 21st century. **Note that Steps includes a “false ending”
Women’s Work, 2022
Women’s Work explores a catalogue of gestures derived from social and domestic tasks that have imprinted female bodies and shaped how they move through the world. It suggests a vision of embodied feminism where power is distributed horizontally and challenges are met with collective care and responsibility. Created in collaboration with pianist Ilonka Rus and 17 female-identifying dancers from Sam Houston State University. Photo by @lynnlanephotography.
Loose Ribbons, 2022
Loose Ribbons is the second in a series of "danced essays" by Adele Nickel and Brian Lawson investigating form as it relates to dance. It embraces Jules Perrot's original choreography from the 1854 ballet Pas de Quatre as its "text," then dramatically departs to offer a 21st century reimagining of romantic ballet. Performed at Sam Houston State University in April 2022. Photo by @franciscograciano.
Bow & Curtsy, 2021
Bow & Curtsy is the first in a series of "danced essays" by Adele Nickel and Brian Lawson investigating form as it relates to dance. Bow & Curtsy aims to bend and "queer" the classical pas de deux form without breaking it, marrying Adele and Brian’s love of ballet with a post-modern process to (re)imagine what ballet is and who it's for. Pictured in dress rehearsal at the Mind the Gap festival at Dance Source Houston on November 30, 2021.
Natural Selection, 2021
Natural Selection is a group work for nine dancers and twenty 10-foot-long PVC pipes. It takes its inspiration from the eusocial structures of ant colonies, where members practice altruism and cooperation and defer individual “fitness” and dominance in favor of group survival and the success of the colony. It draws on the imagery of forests, fields, and nests to bring the organic and the abstract into conversation.
To Thine Own Self (a dance film), 2021
To Thine Own Self is a dance film version of a solo called Susan (see below) originally made for the stage, featuring the dancer Kennedy Adams. To Thine Own Self was shot on location in Kennedy’s hometown of Danbury, TX, and on the streets of New York City.
Susan, 2021
Susan is a solo created for Kennedy Adams. It uses abstract movement and gesture to tell a story of transformation and coming-of-age, set to the sounds of Dolly Parton, a Southern icon and unlikely feminist and LGBTQ ally. The title Susan refers to the alter-ego Kennedy used in rehearsal to explore the complexity and multiplicity of self. Less than the month after premiering this solo, Kennedy moved from small town Texas to New York City to pursue a career as a dance artist. She currently lives and works in NYC.
FIELDWORK, 2020
Fieldwork explores the physicality of teams coming together in common purpose, as in an ecosystem, a sports team, or a medical unit. A task-driven movement vocabulary unfurls to reveal the humanity and individuality underlying the appearance of conformity. Created in collaboration with videographer Heather Hardy and a cast of 12 dancers from Sam Houston State University.
Vita Activa, Meany Studio Theater, Seattle, WA, 2020
Vita Activa is a duet in collaboration with dance artist Alethea Alexander (plus twenty 10-foot-long PVC pipes and an 80-pound bag of concrete). It explores effort, task, construction and deconstruction, positing a feminist response to the notions of “labour, work, and action” articulated by philosopher Hannah Arendt. It is part of an ongoing research project into the possibilities of working with objects in a movement setting, and can be accompanied by a student workshop called Objectx.
Vita Activa (work-in-progress), Bellingham, WA, and Huntsville, TX, 2019
This earlier in-process version of Vita Activa shows the work standing alone without tech or lights, the way it could in a gallery or outdoor space. Vita Activa was developed in residences at the 7-Day Dance Festival in Bellingham, WA and at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX in 2019.
Forecast, Spectrum Dance Concert, Huntsville, TX, 2019
Forecast lives in the tension between chaos and order, between the things we can control and the things we can’t. In performance with Sam Houston State University students in December 2019.
Roxane, University of Washington, 2019
Roxane is a ballet-ish for 15 dancers and 3 step ladders. It explores properties of physics - weight, gravity, mass, momentum - in the context of a ballet vocabulary, and suggests that 21st-century feminism and ironic humor might have a place in helping us understand, and come to terms with, the complicated legacy of classical ballet. With music from Christoph Gluck, in performance at the University of Washington's MFA concert on May 19, 2019.
Flocks are Flying Avalanches, University of Washington, 2018
Flocks is a work for seven dancers and a percussionist, inspired by fractal theory and systems poised on the brink of transformation. Fractal theory suggests that such systems behave with the same mathematical logic that explains avalanches, crystal formations, and how birds flock. With a sound score by Paul Moore, this work premiered in Seattle at the University of Washington’s MFA Concert, May 15-18, 2018.
Shed Project, Seattle and Bellingham, WA, 2017-19
The Shed De/Re/Construction Project is an ongoing collaboration between visual artist Connor Walden, dance artist Adele Nickel, and a portable (AxBxC) shed that can be constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed in under an hour.
