Bethany Arts Community Presents Apparatus of Repair, the Final Installment of ‘The Decarceration Trilogy’ by Flyaway Productions in Conjunction with From Love Exhibition

Image: Jhia Jackson photographed by RJ Muna. 

Bethany Arts Community is proud to announce the presentation of Apparatus of Repair, the culmination of Flyaway Productions’ Decarceration Trilogy, an ambitious series of site-specific aerial dance and public art events addressing the devastating effects of mass incarceration in the United States.

With a cast of five female dancers, Apparatus of Repair engages ideas of restorative justice as an alternative to the prison system. The work is grounded in the lived experiences of survivors of assault as well as perpetrators of assault.

“Restorative justice is a fast-growing social movement offering effective solutions to harm,” said Flyaway Artistic Director Jo Kreiter. “To quote activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons, it is ‘love with accountability.’  Restorative justice causes less damage and holds more hope than our current legal system.”

Apparatus of Repair was developed in part at Bethany Arts Community in April of 2022, when Jo Kreiter, composer Maddy “MADlines” Clifford”, and four dancers met with a group of 5 men currently incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. In community circle shaped by the principles of accountability and healing, each participant shared personal stories and reflections.

Jo Kreiter shared that “in circle with 5 residents of Sing Sing, we named cultural and physical artifacts that we want to pass on to our families, and artifacts that we want to leave behind.  One participant wrote, ‘I come from a long line of very aggressive men, which I internalized as a natural behavior.’  Naming what has shaped us sets us up to let go of what is no longer useful to us. This is one of the blessings of Restorative Justice, and one that we enacted together, in preparation for the Apparatus of Repair.”

Many of the dancers also consented to bring their own deeply personal experiences to the project.

Apparatus of Repair transforms the intimate healing process of restorative justice into a public performance, danced in the air and on the vertical surfaces of buildings. It is designed for presentation in proximity to prisons and communities disproportionately impacted by the legal system. At Bethany Arts Community, near the grounds of Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Westchester, New York, Bethany and the artists aspire to bring together a diverse audience of local community members, justice involved individuals and families, and those seeking to create safer communities. Post-performance conversations will be held following the Friday and Saturday performances.

“Bethany was founded on a deep conviction that the arts help deepen our understanding of ourselves and each other. We are thrilled to present Apparatus and host post-performance conversations,” said David Lyons, Founder and Executive Director, Bethany Arts Community.

Over the last two years, Flyaway has worked in coalition with Community Works based in Oakland, California. The organization has been a leader in the field of restorative justice, serving to advance policies and practices that promote diversion away from prisons as well as successful reentry for those who serve time. Led by restorative justice practitioner Kevin Martin, Community Works connected Flyaway with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people as part of the research for the piece.

Apparatus of Repair was choreographed by Kreiter in collaboration with the dancers: Alayna Stroud Duarte, MaryStarr Hope, Jhia Jackson, Megan Lowe and Saharla Vetch. Additional collaborators include composer Maddy “MADlines” Clifford, set designer Sean Riley, lighting designer Jack Beuttler, costume designer Jamielyn Duggan and technical director Dave Freitag.

Bethany Arts Community worked closely with community partners Hudson Link for Higher Education, Sing Sing Prison Museum, and the Sing Sing Family Collective to present a beautiful and dramatic work that is informed by the men and women who live in our community.

Performances are presented as part of Bethany’s 2022 Season of Justice.

Performances at Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, NY, October 6 – 8, Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Attendance is free with advance reservations strongly encouraged as space is limited.

For more information visit: https://bethanyarts.org/residencies/flyaway-productions-2022/

Performances of Apparatus of Repair are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project, Association of Performing Arts Professionals – Arts Forward, New York State Council on the Arts, ArtsWestchester, Humanities NY, Hudson Link for Higher Education, Sing Sing Prison Museum, and numerous individual donors

ABOUT BETHANY ARTS COMMUNITY

Bethany’s mission is to create a space and environment where the many forms of art can be learned, produced and flourish. Artists of all ages and levels of experience are welcome to explore and create art that the community can experience and be engaged in while enhancing their perception and perspective of the world. BAC aims to inspire sharing, connection and collaboration in a culture designed for the benefit of the local community and beyond. Since Bethany’s founding, the belief that engaging with the arts expands people’s perceptions and broadens their perspectives on the world has been central to its mission. This idea was important in 2015 when Bethany was in formation. It is an urgent calling today, at a time when society is increasingly polarized and the pandemic and economic hardships are fueling fear and anxiety.

During the 2022 season, Bethany presents a series of programs that endeavor to deepen understanding of some of today’s most pressing societal issues, including the American justice system, the criminalization of “otherness” – color, ethnicity, religion … – and explore themes of isolation, healing, and hope. By engaging artists working in different media who have personal and lived experience, or who collaborate closely with those who do, the 2022 Season of Justice is both deeply personal and accessible. The Season of Justice showcases the power of artistic work and the creative process to deepen our understanding of ourselves and each other, promote healing, and reimagine our world. Bethany is excited to welcome Jo Kreiter, Artistic Director of Flyaway Productions, and her company back to Bethany to present Apparatus of Repair as part of the programming.

ABOUT JO KREITER 

Jo Kreiter is a San Francisco-based choreographer with a background in political science. Through dance she engages physical innovation and the political conflicts we live within. Her company, Flyaway Productions, explores the range and power of female physicality. Kreiter creates a sense of spectacle to make a lasting impression with an audience, striving for the right balance of awe, provocation and daring. Recent awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Rauschenberg Foundation Artist-as-Activist Fellowship, the Rainin Foundation Open Spaces Award, two National Dance Project Creation Grants and two Creative Work Fund awards. In her book, Moving Sites: Investigating Site-Specific Dance Performances, author Victoria Hunter cites Kreiter as a leader in the field of site-specific dance.

ABOUT FLYAWAY PRODUCTIONS 

Flyaway Productions makes dances in unlikely places, activating the sides of buildings above bleak city streets. Our dances impact neighborhoods because they unfold at the very place  where conflict lives. For Flyaway, a building is a witness. It holds the complexity of a neighborhood’s history in its “hands,” I-beams or concrete walls. Flyaway’s tools include coalition building, an intersectional feminist lens and a body-based push against the constraints of gravity. They’ve spent 25 years building coalitions with women marginalized by race, class, gender and workplace inequities. Noted partners include Essie Justice Group, UC Hastings College of the Law, Tenderloin Museum, Code Tenderloin, Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center and Tradeswomen, Inc. Directed by Izzie award-winning choreographer Jo Kreiter, Flyaway is supported by Guggenheim and Rauschenberg Fellowships, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Work Fund, Wattis and Rainin Foundations, the California Arts Council, San Francisco Grants for the Arts and the San Francisco Arts Council.