Created by Joy Davis for joyproject in collaboration with Alexander Davis Maggie Costales Curtis Thomas Alyx Henigman Dorothy Cherry Eric Mullis (sound design) Sarah Craver (dramaturg) Rob Flax (musician) Culminating past creations with New Dialect, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Baran Dance, and Urbanity Dance. Working with Brian Swimme’s “The Universe Is A Green Dragon” & texts by Alan Lightman, Neil deGrasse Tyson & Mary Oliver on cosmological physics, poetry & beingness, this work incorporates luscious movement & gestures into wonder & contemplation of our place in the story of the universe. The source material is a series of 7 ensemble, duet & solo works created by joyproject since 2016, which have culminated in this new evening length project. These themes grapple with the phenomenon of life as flux: perpetually changing and staying the same - through the lenses of far reaching cosmic phenomena & personal experience of time. Although each original work is distinct, these recurring and driving conceptual themes of transformation create a narrative arc, much like the hero’s journey.

Working with texts such as Brian Swimme’s “The Universe Is A Green Dragon,” along with texts by Alan Lightman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Mary Oliver on cosmological physics, poetry and beingness, this work incorporates Davis’s lusciously sequential movement vocabulary and everyday gestures into an earnest contemplation of our place in the story of the universe while asking specific questions about presence, reality, and wonder.

The source material for this cosmological dance theater work is a series of seven short ensemble, duet & solo works created by joyproject and collaborators since 2016. These pieces are reworked and deepened for the creation of this new evening length project.