Juliana F. May | Optimistic Voices (work-in-progress)

Optimistic Voices probes the intractable contradictions of family, eroticism, and motherhood. Influenced by Postmodern dance, musical theater, and Bob Fosse’s sexed-yet-sexless movement idiom, May continues to refine her signature song/text cycles, using repetition and off-kilter rhythms in hot pursuit of a new kind of performative language. The world premiere of Optimistic Voices will be in the fall of 2025.

Choreographed, written, and directed by Juliana F. May
Performers: Justin Faircloth, Wendell Gray, Lucy Kaminsky, Gwendolyn Knapp, Kayvon Pourazar, Anh Vo
Sound Design: Clara Hunter Latham
Lighting design: Chloe Z. Brown
Costume design: Mariana Valencia
Dramaturgy: Hilary Clark
Producers: Miranda Brown and Shana Crawford

Optimistic Voices is supported by a NYSCA support for artists grant and a NYSCA organizational grant in addition to residencies at Mercury Store, The Invisible Dog and The Chocolate Factory Theater.

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A Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, has created nine works since 2002, including eight evening-length pieces with commissions and encore performances from Dance Theater Workshop, New York Live Arts, The Chocolate Factory Theater, Barnard College, The New School, Joyce SoHo, The American Realness Festival and Abrons Arts Center. May has been awarded grants and residencies through The Map Fund, The Jerome Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Gibney Dance In Process and The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. In 2002, May received her BA in Dance and Art History from Oberlin College, and, in 2012, she received an MFA in Choreography from the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. May served as the Artistic Advisor for New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks Residency Program from 2017-2019 and has been on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College since 2017. May’s work Folk Incest was nominated for a 2019 New York Dance and Performance Award for outstanding production as well as touring to ImpulsTanz in Vienna, Austria. Juliana’s most recent work Family Happiness, co-commissioned by The Chocolate Factory Theater and Abrons Arts Center, premiered in May of 2023 and had encore performances in 2024 at The Chocolate Factory Theater.

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Accessibility: The Arts Center Residency Studios are accessible via the last entrance to the Arts Center on Andes Road. This entrance is accessed by a set of 5 small steps or an ADA compliant ramp. Accessible restroom facilities are located on the first floor.

Performance duration: 1 hour

Content considerations: adult language

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