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Catherine Gallant/DANCE click here for PROGRAM
Escape from the House of Mercy
June 12, 2021 104th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues
CATHERINE GALLANT/DANCE presents a live outdoor performance of Escape from the House of Mercy, which embodies the ongoing struggle for equity and stares in the face of deceptive and impassive authority. This 21st century women's view of our social/cultural systems measures both ground gained and distance yet to be traveled.
Abra Cohen, Erica Lessner, Cecly Placenti, Kelli Chapman, Megan Minturn, Halley Gerstel, Jessie King and Catherine Gallant
Costumes: Ivana Drazic
photo: Corinne Shearer
Escape from the House of Mercy
June 12, 2021 104th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues
CATHERINE GALLANT/DANCE presents a live outdoor performance of Escape from the House of Mercy, which embodies the ongoing struggle for equity and stares in the face of deceptive and impassive authority. This 21st century women's view of our social/cultural systems measures both ground gained and distance yet to be traveled.
Abra Cohen, Erica Lessner, Cecly Placenti, Kelli Chapman, Megan Minturn, Halley Gerstel, Jessie King and Catherine Gallant
Costumes: Ivana Drazic
photo: Corinne Shearer
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Escape from the House of Mercy is inspired by the infamous institution from the turn of the 20th century once located in Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan, NYC. We are in the process of research and development to create a site-specific work in Inwood Hill Park that references ideas and questions about social stratification, confinement and isolation, rehabilitation, work, poverty and homelessness. Using a combination of choreographic episodes and a sound score which shifts in tone from bombastic to soothing,
The House of Mercy was a home for “abandoned and troubled women”, in fact, it was closer to a prison or workhouse to which most inhabitants were brought against their wills. Here a young woman could be locked up for years for an offense such as dancing in public or walking alone at night. Inhabitants were routinely punished with gags to the mouth, starvation diets, and leg irons. This inhumane and demoralizing treatment, in the guise of rehabilitation, was part of an era when the rights of the poor, especially women, were completely denied. Related institutions in NYC included the Magdeline Asylum (part of the Magdeline Laundry system run by the Catholic Church in both Ireland and the US) and the House of Rest for tuberculosis patients. Why are these now invisible places from the past important in the present? How is honest self-expression still punished in our own time? Mining the persistent feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness in the face of deceptive and impassive authority, Escape from the House of Mercy was created through improvisation, score building, personal histories, poetry, literary references and vocalization/singing to integrate an embodied connection to women's history.
The House of Mercy was a home for “abandoned and troubled women”, in fact, it was closer to a prison or workhouse to which most inhabitants were brought against their wills. Here a young woman could be locked up for years for an offense such as dancing in public or walking alone at night. Inhabitants were routinely punished with gags to the mouth, starvation diets, and leg irons. This inhumane and demoralizing treatment, in the guise of rehabilitation, was part of an era when the rights of the poor, especially women, were completely denied. Related institutions in NYC included the Magdeline Asylum (part of the Magdeline Laundry system run by the Catholic Church in both Ireland and the US) and the House of Rest for tuberculosis patients. Why are these now invisible places from the past important in the present? How is honest self-expression still punished in our own time? Mining the persistent feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness in the face of deceptive and impassive authority, Escape from the House of Mercy was created through improvisation, score building, personal histories, poetry, literary references and vocalization/singing to integrate an embodied connection to women's history.
