GENTLE HUMAN
Ballet Co.Laboratory is a family of dancers who suddenly found themselves removed from the dance community they knew; so they built one for themselves. Out of a time of tumultuous uncertainty, they were able to look within and find where purpose and belonging actually come from. They saw in themselves untapped potential, and seized an opportunity to rise, to reevaluate, and to renew.
Gentle Human is a vulnerable exploration of human emotion as a reaction to adverse outside forces. Inspired by true events in the lives of the company dancers and the wise words of Nikita Gill’s poetry in her book Wild Embers, Gentle Human is a portrait of young artists finding meaning against the odds.
Remember what you must do
when they undervalue you,
when they think your softness is your weakness,
when they treat your kindness
like it is their advantage
You awaken
every dragon,
every wolf,
every monster that sleeps inside you
and you remind them
what hell looks like
when it wears the skin
of a gentle human
Nikita Gill, Wild Embers
The Gentle Human project has been in creation since September 2018. Artistic Director Zoé Emilie Henrot started the work with the BCL Company Artists and continued to develop different movements of the work with students in the Five College Dance Department and students from the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists.
Ballet Co.Laboratory is thrilled to be performing with seven students from the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists in the full work.
Thank you to Charles Flachs and SPCPA photographer