URCAD Sneak Peek!

“When Eve and Eve Bit the Apple,” is a duet choreographed by Teresa Whittemore, which premiered in UMBC’s 2018 Fall Dance Showcase. This work focuses on identity, its components, and the rejection of its permanence, specifically in the lives of queer people. It illustrates and challenges the perception that one characteristic or lifestyle-choice prohibits the presence another. The sound-score for my dance includes excerpts from an essay by Caitlin O’Keefe, in which she describes her experiences living as an evangelical Christian and a lesbian, and how she struggled to accommodate the union of church, homosexual love, and self. Through use of intricate partnering work and gaze, dancers Sarah Brewer and Michelle Ye embody this conflict. It opens with a solo performed by Brewer, whose movements represent a personal battle between what is expected and what is intriguing. Later, Ye enters, embodying the intriguing, liberated lifestyle that Brewer pursues. The dancers’ exchanges and movements allow an audience to observe the restrictions Brewer feels, drawn both to her faith and her sexuality. Labeling queer people as “different” serves as means to isolate and marginalize them, which influences both their experiences and agency in their own identity, as illustrated in this work.