Year: 2020-2021
DanceForce Member: Paz Tanjuaquio
Artist: Marie Lloyd Paspé
Community Partners: Queens Council; Topaz Arts
Audience: 350
County: Queens

“Topaz Arts Dance Residencies” supported a new work by
choreographer/movement artist Marie Lloyd Paspe – PARA [For] a piece that is deeply ingrained in community, ancestry, and lineage.

Performed in two parts:

May 31, 2021 at 3-5pm: in-person outdoors at Hunter’s Point South Park in Long Island City, Queens. Performed for outdoor event “Be the Cure” performance by 8 artists who have been collaborating closely to perform art for collective healing. Supported in part by Queens Council on the Arts.

June 17, 2021 at 8:00 PM: virtual live stream performance on Zoom with TOPAZ ARTS.

Marie Paspe was joined with collaborators s. lumbert (movement/indoor camera-dancer), Treya Lam (music), Jason Chew (outdoor film), Raquel Cabrieto (poetry), and Melani De Guzman (facilitator) in creating PARA. Based on the live performance, the virtual piece took on new forms as the camera/mover became the audience’s perspective, in an intimate duet with Marie. A live improvisation took place with poet Raquel Cabrieto (8am in the Manila, Philippines) with violinist Treya Lam (8pm in Brooklyn, NY) as poetry and music worked simultaneously to bring a new experience across globe. A post presentation talk-back with the audience on Zoom was engaging as active participants that further informed the piece. Audience members tuned in locally, nationally and internationally, from the Philippines to US cities Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Brooklyn, Queens, NYC and were multi-generational.