A Celebration of all things Gibney, I <3 Gibney is our annual performance showcase, presenting works by Gibney’s vibrant community of staff, renters, teachers, colleagues, and supporters. 

Senior Curatorial Director Eva Yaa Asantewaa sat down with the presenting artists and hosts to hear more about how dance is a form of love. Below is her interview with Gibney’s Research & Projects Manager and Artistic Director of freshcoast movement, Tessa Brinza.

Get your tickets for I <3 Gibney on February 11, 2020 at The Theater at Gibney 280 Broadway.


Eva Yaa Asantewaa: Who is your most loved dance ancestor?

Tessa Brinza: Anna Halprin.  She was one of the pioneers that kept redefining what dance could be to people: socially driven, revolutionary, accessible, healing…Plus, I am so envious of her dance deck.

EYA: What do you love most about dance?

TB: It is the only language that moves me beyond words. I can tell you in a sentence how I feel while looking out to the lake that I grew up on or when I miss my train in the morning, but with dance, there are times when I watch a performance and I just feel the piece in my gut and in my bones.

EYA: How is dance a form of love?

TB: This may be naive, but I think that love is being fully committed even though the future is unknown. As artists, we are well acquainted with the idea that we may not know where our next paycheck comes from or when we might get an opportunity, yet we do our best to keep at it. In art and in love, you have to be willing to take the risk and to give a part of yourself that may not be returned.

EYA: What do you think could help more people love dance?

TB: There is a need for more points of entry throughout the country. In New York, we are pretty spoiled in that we can see and participate in great art all over. Of course, this is simplifying the financial and social barriers that people who live in the city come up against daily and which prevent them from experiencing the best that the city has to offer. However, I grew up in metro-Detroit during the recession, and there really weren’t many, if any, affordable community dance performances or movement workshops that people who had never interacted with dance could engage in. This is now beginning to change with Detroit’s recent upswing, but there is still a long way to go there, and in so many other places in the US.

EYA: What do you love about Gibney?

TB: The people. There are days when the sheer number of people in the hallway can be a little overwhelming, but overall the energy that each person brings to their craft is just contagious. We are so lucky to have a place where so many different people can be whoever they are, and do something that they love.

Photo of Tessa Brinza by Gail Schulman.


I HEART GIBNEY
FEB 11, 7:00 PM
TICKETS: $10
THE THEATER AT GIBNEY 280 BROADWAY
GET TICKETS





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