ANTHEM (2017)

Choreography by Milka Djordjevich
Performed by Laurel Atwell, Jessica Cook, Dorothy Dubrule and devika wickremesinghe
Music by Chris Peck
Lighting by Madeline Best
Costumes by Naomi Luppescu

“Form generates power: power to rise above, power to hold ground. ANTHEM, a dance for four women by Milka Djordjevich, builds upon units of social and folk dance moves via a rubix cube-like spatial logic. Layers of repeated forms shift the bodies up gear. There is a new groove made here—a groove made by commitment and giving no-fucks, a groove for women to ride rough, to represent, to feel themselves.”  - riting.la

Questioning contemporary dance’s predisposition towards neutrality, authenticity and the de-sexualization of the female body, ANTHEM embraces theatricality, virtuosity and sass. The work weaves together existing and imagined vernacular dance styles to explore labor, play, and feminine-posturing. Four women execute a repetitive yet complex movement vocabulary that evolves as they rotate hypnotically within the confines of a square. Over time, the meditative rigor of their steps dissolves into a tangle of commotion, blurring the distinction between the mundane and the glamorous.

ANTHEM premiered October 2017 at the LAX Festival and is commissioned by the Chocolate Factory Theater and Los Angeles Performance Practice. ANTHEM was made possible in part by the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, a Pennington Dance Group SPACE GRANT @ ARC Pasadena and the Z. Clark Branson Foundation.

Press
All Together Now, ARTFORUM
Review: Unleashed in Queens, Groovy Chaos From Los Angeles, NY Times

Presentation History
Philadelphia Thing: Trade School, June 2019
Santa Ana Sites, November 2018
PICA’s TBA: 18, September 2018
LA Dance Platform @ Ghebaly Gallery, June 2018
Chocolate Factory Theater, May 2018
LAX Festival, October 2018