PRESS
figures on a field:
“In a brilliant move, choreographer Dean Moss translates Ali's knotty concerns to the stage (with Ali as adviser) by scrutinizing the act of translation itself. The exquisitely constructed "figures on a field" asks: What happens when you frame real people as if they were flat, fictive figures? It moves with stealthy grace between the political and aesthetic meanings of ‘frame’."
— New York Newsday - Apollinaire Scherr, Dance Critic
Kisaeng becomes you:
“kisaeng - made me weep. The entry point for the audience into the work through the vessels of the audience participant members was so wrought with “real” energy and vulnerability - both for the work (will this work?) and for the participants (will they survive this? are they okay?) - that I was buzzing in my chair. They made the experience of the “Other” so alive for me. This could be the experience of the courtesan, the contemporary artist, the traveller, the immigrant. “I’m new here” - “What are the rules” The care and detail taken with those moments was so effective as a work that allowed the audience member to experience a work from the inside - which is something I know I’ve been interested in as an artist.
Also, as someone who for years worked on developing cultural exchange residencies and projects (both as an artist and a facilitator) between American and, mostly, SE Asian artists - I’m very attuned to the way that these deeply profound experiences and desires to share become trite, sentimental or nostalgic. ‘kisaeng’ - did none of that but made me totally aware of it as a work created by a collaboration between artists who have come from very different places. It made me ache for korea where I spent a month many years ago and for those eureka moments of connection between two human beings who were a moment ago strangers.
It also made me feel very lonely. ”
— WNYC - Maura Donohue, Dance Scholar
Nameless forest:
“Though not quite a metaphor for birth, Nameless forest echoes the arbitrary, overwhelming reality of where and how we emerge into life, and how we then muddle through the isolation, pain, and crisis that weaves throughout it. Thus Moss describes the effect of the work on these participants as “a wounding and examination of the audience.” Up to twelve audience members are seated onstage and called upon to interact directly with the performers, while the remainder of the audience watches from the traditional, removed perspective. This separation creates two vastly different experiences of Nameless forest: a full immersion into the events unfolding onstage and a more distant, consumptive experience, in which we empathize with our fellow audience members from afar. The brilliance of Moss’s work lies partly in this emotional mixture of compassion and confusion we feel while watching the metamorphosis, as audience members engage in situations that are by turns awkward, unpleasant, intimate and instructive. “Be with me,” the performers whisper at one point to the audience participants, and no matter our level of spectatorship, we have no desire to do anything but—Moss’s work draws us in, invites us not just to be, but to become.”
— Studio Museum of Harlem - Abbe Schriber, Curator
johnbrown:
“I'll admit, I was more than a bit skeptical as to how a "dancer" would deliver a work based on such an enigmatic character and deal with the now unfortunately taboo subject of American slavery. But through "johnbrown" it's evident Moss isn't a dancer, but an intellectual of great depth who displays his intellect through the medium of dance. Moss holds a mirror (literally) to society and asks, "Do you really like what you see?"
To say Moss' scene with performers using double-sided mirror/projector screen boards displaying images from prerecorded nudes of Moss and performer Kacie Chang synced with live movement along with on-the-spot video shot by members of the cast (who in this case were Twin Cities-based), was visually stunning would be quite the understatement. Yes, I needed all those words to describe the brilliantly choreographed scene that was as powerful as it was entertaining. "johnbrown" is worth seeing for that scene alone.”
— Insight News - Harry Colbert Jr., Culture Critic