Alexa West

, a new work choreographed by Alexa West. Performed by cove barton, Maxi Canion, Ayano Elson, Gwendolyn Knapp with music and scoring by Lucy Lie. Organized by Leah Newman.


In Alexa West’s quartet, a group of four dancers transition through varying states of boredom and routine. Moments of rest; sitting, standing, and waiting, are interrupted by sequences of campy gestures and repetitive walking phrases. This non-virtuosic pedestrian movement is paired with technically acute step patterns that range from concert dance to those characteristic of cheerleading routines.


West excerpts motifs from American Broadway and from jazz classics like “Bye Bye Birdie” (1963), Gwen Verdon (1963), and Robert Banas (1964), seamlessly placing them within her own idiom. Taking this 1960s repertoire out of its original context, West nods to its idiosyncrasies and possibilities in contemporary dance. Similarly, the four dancers complete parts of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ iconic performance to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” (1990).

By mixing found dance with the kinds of everyday movements seen on the street, West articulates a style of dance that reflects contemporary culture’s obsession with appropriation while simultaneously nodding to modern dance’s interest in the “pedestrian”. Borrowing this term from post-modern dancers like Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, and Anna Halprin, 

 engenders a way of dancing that adapts and recontextualizes. West's movement vocabulary, developed in close contact with her peers who founded the Brooklyn performance venue Pageant, signals a return to post-modern dance and heralds a new epoch in contemporary dance.

Through her interest in banal and quotidian steps and motions, West subverts the intended purposes of everyday spaces and objects to show their performative potential. This is highlighted by the piece’s set: a non-descript space formed by red vinyl tiles and punctuated by an aqua banquette, glass cocktail table, and analog wall clock. This room could be viewed as a hallway, a waiting room, a club, a lounge, or a lobby. It is a site to show that West's dancers are not merely dancing, but embodying aspects of everyday pain and anxiety.

Alexa West (b. 1991, Houston, TX) is a dancer and choreographer in New York, NY. She is a current resident at SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY. West’s work has been performed at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Untitled Art Fair, Miami, FL; Performa Biennial, New York, NY; 99 Canal, New York, NY; and Pageant, Brooklyn, NY among others. West is a co-founder of Pageant, an artist-run dance space in Brooklyn, NY. West received her MFA from the Milton Avery School of Art at Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY and her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY. Alexa West trained professionally at the Martha Graham School, New York, NY.

*No tickets necessary. Free and open to the public until we reach capacity.