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In 2018, The Creative Independent and National Sawdust will work together to present new works from independent musicians, dancers, and other types of working artists. The series will focus on process, collaboration, and the time and space needed to complete a creative project.

This performance features Unboxing The Compass by Sarah Kinlaw, a collaboratively choreographed work for stage exploring human synchronicity and kinaesthetics. Inspired by mnemonic imaging and memory theater, a series of chapters unfolds before a seated audience, each a therapeutic study in retentive memory, personal trauma, and relationships. Blending her background as a composer and choreographer, Kinlaw’s strategic use of light, sonic texture, and movement are each tools in magnifying how we process memory. She explores sound with a technical curiosity and tangible sensitivity, employing surround sound and microphones to amplify choreography, heightening the audience’s senses and empathic potential.

This work began as a therapeutic exercise in coping with panic. The stage becomes a vessel for control, slowing time in order to elongate and inspect moments of connectivity and estrangement, consciousness and perception. It is made possible by its cast, their emotional embodiment of each movement and theme, and the mutual generosity between narrator and listener. This is Kinlaw’s most personal work to date.

Cast:
Sarah Kinlaw
with
Kathleen Dycaico
Kellian Delice
Quenton Stucky
Tara-Jo Tashna

All compositions and recordings by Kinlaw.