Tend

Directed by Julia Rae Antonick

This work will be presented by The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in the Yates Gallery of the Chicago Cultural Center in June & July 2024 and The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in January 2025.

Tend is a service-based performance experience fulfilling a socially requisite and biologically exigent allogrooming need. Structured as a one hour appointment, the self-care informed dance and music scores simultaneously envelopes the audience while leaving space to allow your nervous system to settle, contemplate the inherent power differentials in human interaction, and allow the somatic possibility of conflict resolution in true social grooming form. Colliding necessity, extravagance, and irrelevance, it imagines a world where your monthly dance appointment is a legitimate need, a necessary line item in your personal budget. A haptic, phatic, and kinetic service providing a much-needed place to rest, recharge, reflect, reconcile. An environment supporting small talk, catching up, grooming bodies and relationships in turn.
In short, come ready to chat, be touched/touch, and watch a performance made especially for you.
 
For FAQs/more information click here.
To meet the Technicians for the performances, click here.
To apply for an appointment for Tend, click here.
To find scheduled events visit our calendar.
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A idea of what you might experience:

An audience of two checking in at a reception desk
A choreographed service for tending hair and skin to activate c-tactile nerve fibers
Vellus through androgenic
Scalp through neck
Arms through fingertips
The other attendee(s) sitting in the lounge area and lightly chatting together and with the receptionist
Occasionally watching the movement of the service being performed
Or flipping through a devised magazine or research materials sitting on a coffee table
Being guided through an experience of small talk as social glue
Observing and being observed
Body positive chitchat
Reflective
Reassuring
Sending you back into the world
Socially stimulated
Somatically organized

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Tend is one half of VICINITY DIPTYCH, and was developed in tandem with Jonathan Meyer’s project as though your body were right. These pieces were conceived as a performance diptych able to be experienced independently or as a double feature. Both works intend to significantly challenge the audience and simultaneously practice radical care for each attendee, inviting people into a safer space to delve into inherently uncomfortable but rewarding material.

Artists who are currently working on this project are:

Julia Rae Antonick – choreographer/director
Jonathan Meyer – environmental construction/design/lighting/project discussion
Gina Hoch-Stall – project discussion/main cast performer/care contact
Chih-Hsien Lin – project discussion/main cast performer
Enid Smith – project discussion/main cast performer
Helen Lee – project discussion/main cast performer
Kristina Diaz – project discussion/main cast performer
Maggie Vannucci – project discussion/main cast performer
Joe St.Charles – composer/project discussion
Jeff Hancock – environmental construction/costuming/project discussion
Heather LaHood – architect/project discussion/environmental construction/design
Kristin Weinberg – photography

 

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Artists who have contributed to the project in the past are:
Ali Lorenz – project development cast/project discussion
Phillip Wood – project development cast/project discussion
Jordan Reinwald – project development cast/project discussion
Kellyn Jackson – project development cast/project discussion
Jenn Freeman – project discussion/graphic development/project development cast
JmeJames – project discussion/project development cast
Precious Jennings – childcare
Jamila Kekula Kinney – project training/discussion
Jyreika Guest – project training/discussion
Francine Kelley – project training/discussion
Suzi Coates – project training/discussion
Jenny Oelerich – project discussion/project development cast
Charlie Vail – project discussion/project development cast
Maddy Joss – project discussion/project development cast
Amanda Maraist – project idea exploration

Ian Vecchiotti – photography/videography

 

Photography – Ian Vecchiotti
Pictured – Amanda Maraist, Ali Lorenz, Enid Smith, Chih Hsien Lin, Charlie Vail, Kellyn Jackson, Jordan Reinwald