Emmaly Wiederholt : Pick Me (Apart)
Performance
NO LAND
54 1/2 E. San Francisco St. #7
November 9 - 10, 2019
Events
Evening Performance: Saturday, November 9, 8pm
Matinee Performance: Sunday, November 10, 2pm
$10 - 20 Suggested Donation
Failure and disappointment, success and recognition—what do each of these circumstances feel like, and how do they change us? In “Pick Me (Apart),” Albuquerque-based choreographer, dancer, and writer Emmaly Wiederholt navigates the treacherous psychological terrain of success and failure in a 25-minute performance piece that draws on both her classical training as a dancer and her interest in experimental dance. “Pick Me (Apart)” comes to No Land for its Santa Fe debut on Saturday, November 9th at 8PM, followed by a matinee performance on Sunday, November 10th at 2pm.
In “Pick Me (Apart),” Wiederholt enacts the long-term and daily struggle to be her best self. “I was thinking about the phenomenon of when a person has a stated goal or ambition, but somewhere along the line an inner monster sabotages that goal,” Wiederholt says. “It could be something like quitting smoking, or weight loss, or even just the goal of, ‘I want to be better!’ It’s something most people can relate to on an individual and sometimes daily level.”
The piece is a new direction for Wiederholt by integrating a multimedia video component that acts in tandem with her performance. “I’ve been thinking about the gaze; somehow attention validates the worth of an artist,” Wiederholt says. “It’s not enough to do a creative act in your living room and let it sit in isolation – you’re supposed to put it in front of people. I’m playing with what it means to be seen.” Acting as the protagonist in the piece, Wiederholt finds herself confronted with failure and disappointment, in some ways of her own doing, in other ways as a result of forces beyond her control. Through this desperate failing state, she explores the mind traps that hide in success and in the approval of others.
Wiederholt finds this quagmire of self-perception and self-scrutinization relevant to larger ambitions in life, such as career or personal goals. “Pick Me (Apart)” borrows from her own complicated relationship with success as a dancer. Having grown up in Albuquerque, Wiederholt trained intensely as a ballet dancer through her 20s in San Francisco, a tightrope-walk dependent on having the right combination of training, exposure, and luck. Acknowledging her complicated desire to succeed in an environment rife with eating disorders, misogyny, racism, and ableism, Wiederholt muses, “Why the hell did I want that life so badly?”
Life eventually led her back to Albuquerque, where she maintains a practice in dance, choreography, writing, and poetry. She is the founder and editor of Stance on Dance, an international online publication that “expands conversations beyond studios and theaters to illuminate the breadth and impact of dance as a practice.” In 2016, Wiederholt published Beauty is Experience: Dancing 50 and Beyond, a 200-page book involving the stories of more than 50 dancers from the ages of 50 to 95 and seeking to dispel the notion of success and accomplishment in the world of dance as being dependent on age. She is currently working on a new book looking at disability in dance. Wiederholt’s current practice as a dancer, writer, poet, and editor all signify a wider practice of questioning and chipping away at the perceived boundaries and conventions of contemporary dance.
Emmaly Wiederholt is a dance artist, writer, and editor. She received her MA in arts journalism from the University of Southern California and her BFA in ballet and BS in political science from the University of Utah. She further studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and performed extensively around the Bay Area, including with AXIS Dance Company, Little Seismic Dance Company, Alyce Finwall Dance Theater, and Christine Cali and Co. She is a founding member of the dance theater company Project Thrust, and toured its one-woman show Cover Girl, choreographed by Malinda LaVelle, in 2016 and 2017. Her own choreography has been presented in Albuquerque at Maple Street Dance Space and Aux Dog X-Space, and in Santa Fe through the Strangers Collective at Form & Concept, the Center for Contemporary Art, and the Santa Fe Community Gallery, as well as at the Railyard Performance Center through Fierce Feminine Risings. Emmaly has contributed to several publications in addition to founding and running her international online publication, Stance on Dance. Her first book, Beauty is Experience: Dancing 50 and Beyond, came out in 2017 and is available on Amazon. She is currently working on a new book examining the ways disability is discussed in dance. She also leads the Saturday Albuquerque contact improvisation jam and Danceability improvisation classes for seniors, and is a proud founding member of the Albuquerque Dance Exchange.