Herstory of the Universe@Governors Island

Richard Move & MoveOpolis!

October 9 & 17, 2021

Nolan Park - Nolan Park - Building 17

Her­sto­ry of the Uni­verse was pre­sent­ed on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 9 and Sun­day, Octo­ber 17, 2021.

Con­ceived, direct­ed and chore­o­graphed by Richard Move, and com­mis­sioned by The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, Her­sto­ry of the Uni­verse leads vis­i­tors on a jour­ney across Gov­er­nors Island — from the ancient trees of Nolan Park to the seclud­ed lawns of Ham­mock Grove and the dra­mat­ic topog­ra­phy of the Hills — through a series of six site-spe­cif­ic dance performances.

Each per­for­mance is inspired by, and in con­ver­sa­tion with, its unique site, includ­ing the ecosys­tems, archi­tec­tures, mate­ri­als and species that dwell with­in. From the abstract to the fan­tas­ti­cal, the works embody var­i­ous bio­log­i­cal and nat­ur­al process­es in a kind of bio­mimicry — telling the sto­ries of Gov­er­nors Island through a series of kinet­ic, strik­ing­ly cos­tumed dance installations.

About Richard Move

Richard Move. Ph.D. M.F.A., is a TED Glob­al Oxford Fel­low, Artis­tic Direc­tor of MoveOpo­lis! and Assis­tant Arts Pro­fes­sor at New York Uni­ver­si­ty. Move’s chore­o­graph­ic com­mis­sions include pro­duc­tions for Mikhail Barysh­nikov and the White Oak Dance Project and two works for the Martha Gra­ham Dance Com­pa­ny, in addi­tion to numer­ous site-spe­cif­ic works cre­at­ed for the Euro­pean Capi­tol of Cul­ture (France), Guggen­heim Muse­um (New York), Par­rish Art Muse­um, Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, LMCC Site­lines Fes­ti­val, and the Asian Civ­i­liza­tions Muse­um in Sin­ga­pore, among oth­ers. In 2019, Move pre­sent­ed Martha@Terminal Barão Ger­al­do, in a bus sta­tion in Sao Pao­lo, Brazil. 

About the Cast

Her­sto­ry of the Uni­verse is per­formed by a diverse cast of female dance artists, includ­ing: Megu­mi Eda, Robyn Cas­cio, Lisa Giob­bi with Yoni Kallai, Celeste Hast­ings, Pei­Ju Chien-Pott, Natasha M. Dia­mond-Walk­er and Gabrielle Willis. The cos­tume design is by Karen Young. 

Her­sto­ry of the Universe@Governors Island is com­mis­sioned by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island with sup­port from the Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion and Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust. Made pos­si­ble in part with pub­lic funds from Cre­ative Engage­ment, sup­port­ed by the New York City Depart­ment of Cul­tur­al Affairs in part­ner­ship with the City Coun­cil and admin­is­tered by LMCC, the NYU TSOA Dean’s Fac­ul­ty Grant and a Hark­ness Foun­da­tion for Dance Project Grant. The project was devel­oped in res­i­den­cy at the Cat­walk Institute.