thINKpieces

A group of dancers performing in a high-energy dance class under purple lighting. A blonde dancer in a black crop top and heels strikes a low pose in the center foreground, surrounded by smiling group members dancing in high-heeled boots and athletic wear.
Photo: Lauren Berlin
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Healing in My Heels: On the Choreography of Womanhood

Lauren Berlin

A dancer reflects on womanhood, a twenty-year-old memory, and the difference between being watched and being witnessed.

In a dance studio with white walls, a light gray marley floor, and two large whiteboards along the back wall, situated above a double-stacked wooden ballet barre, eleven college students lay supine with their arms raised and legs parted in an “X” shape on the ground. They lay at different angles, breathing deeply, following the instructions of the teacher at the front of the room. The instructor, tD writer Jennifer Passios, faces the students. She wears a black Adidas jacket. Her hair falls in a half-up-half down updo as her arms reach skyward in the same “X” gesture that the students make on the ground.
Photo: Jacob Regan
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To You—who I think about all the time:

Jennifer Passios

A letter to my favorite student

Dancers stand close together, forming a clump. They face in all directions, their bodies back to back, front to back, and back to side. Each one grips a wooden post holding high attached white posters. They wear bright yellows, purples, reds, blues, pinks, teals, and oranges. Some are visibly sweaty. Dancers facing the camera look serious and a bit fatigued. Glimpses of blue sky, clouds, a street, and city buildings fill the cracks between their blank signs.
Photo: Amelia Candeub
  • Reviews, thINKpieces

Is Halprin’s postmodernism as radical today as it was in 1967?

Xander Cobb

Blank Placard Dance, Replay in Philadelphia

Photo: An evening with Simone Forti, K.J. Holmes and Daniel Lepkoff And a conversation with the artists moderated by Wendy Perron. "Sundays on Broadway" Cathy Weis Projects Performers: performance photographed: Sunday, June 4, 2017; 6:00 PM at WeisAcres in SoHo, 537 Broadway, #3 (between Prince and Spring Streets) NYC; Photograph: © 2017 Richard Termine PHOTO CREDIT - Richard Termine
Photo: Richard Termine
  • In Memoriam, thINKpieces

Simone Forti—A Remembrance

Eric Schoefer

"Notice what you notice"

A show poster with mostly purple tones and a purple banner below that reads RWP Fringe Knowledge 2025 Season TIMESTAMP by Karen Cecilia and Emilee Lord Dovecot Studios. Above is an image of two middle aged women in black tank tops, the one on the left with short curly red hair looking straight into the camera, the one on the right with long curly hairs looking up into the distance, Behind them is mirrored a reflected image of this same pose.
Photo: Emilee Lord
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Fringe Didn’t Kill Me!

Emilee Lord

A Guide to Not Losing Your Shit

An overhead shot of performers on a massive white stage or field holding up giant, elongated banners. The banners feature large red text outlined in white against a blue background, spelling out excerpts like "HAPPINESS" and "LIFE, LIBERTY". The performers wear numbered red vests over casual clothes and hold their arms high to display the fabric. Photo credit: Balich Wonder Studio.
Photo credit: Balich Wonder Studio.
  • thINKpieces

Heavy Canvas and the Performance of Patriotism

Lauren Berlin

Performing at the FIFA World Cup on July 4th in the City of Brotherly Love

Nia Love, Vincent Thomas, Miko Doi-Smith, Paloma McGregor, Will Bond, Leah Cox, Elisa García Radcliffe, and Ruby Morales in Wicked Bodies at Arizona State University, Gammage (2022). Organized in three staggered lines atop individual black stools, (three dancers, two dancers, three dancers), the performers each assume a “superman” position on their stomachs, back muscles taught as arms and legs lift off. The dancers wear an array of costumes (billowing pants, structured blazer, expansive gauzy skirt, a polka dot jumper) in shades of black, white, fuchsia, and red. Collectively, they cast their gaze stage left, the direction of their “flight” as haze descends over the top ⅔ of the stage height.
Photo: Tim Trumble
  • Book Reviews, thINKpieces

A witch, some kitsch, and a theory walk into a book

Jennifer Passios

On Liz Lerman’s "Shape and Momentum"

An empty well lit back stage space, with flats, and other equipment leaning to each side.
  • thINKpieces

The Adrenaline Cliff

Emerson Valentina

Surviving the Dance Gig Economy

Dancer KJ Holmes, leans onto her left hip, legs folded behind her, and both hands planted on the hard wood floor. She wears a blue t-shirt, white pants, and her grey hair is pulled back from her face. Newspapers are scattered about the floor around her, and she watches the pieces she has just thrown at the camera as they fly away from her. They are blurred by their motion and closeness to the camera.
Photo: Rachel Keane
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Serious Play

Brendan McCall

Cathy Weis prioritizes experimentation over commercialism in her “Sundays on Broadway” series.

Historic postcard image from the 1930s–1940s showing the Flagler Memorial Bridge illuminated at night, spanning the water between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, Florida.
Photo: courtesy of the Tichnor Brothers Collection, Florida Postcards Series
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Dancing Across the Bridge from Epstein: A Beautiful Place of Horrors

Lauren Berlin

A reckoning with girlhood, dance, memory, and power in Palm Beach County