2023 / co-habilitation

At the convergence of choreography and blind/low vision rehabilitation, this research proposes ‘co-habilitation’ as a way to reconfigure the patient-therapist relationship. Dance flooring (Marley) is taken as a duet partner, as a prosthetic, as a patient and a therapist, while audiences are invited into a deconstructed studio-clinic where bodies directly implicated in the systems of dance and disability perform together.

runtime: 45 minutes | credits: choreography, performance and sound design by Alyssa Gersony, collaborators: Gabi Vanek (lighting & audio mastering) | video thumbnail description: A wide-angle overview of the performance space, shaped in a triangle with audience on three sides. Alyssa is laying down near the center of the frame holding a microphone attached to a long cable. There are rolls of dance flooring positioned around the space. Photo by Fabien Silvestre Suzor Video by Mladen Bundalo

context notes: This research was shared as a part of the final a.pass end communications alongside fellow artist-researchers Marian Rosa van Bodegraven, Marko Gutić Mižimakov, and Andrea Brandão. End Communications (title of the evening) invited audiences to attune to the specific intensities produced by these research entanglements as they were shared and made public. End Communications was co-curated by the artists together with artist-researcher Vijai Maia Patchineelam. Production support was provided by a.pass (advanced performance and scenography studies), an international platform for artists and theorists who are engaged in artistic research practices, based on the principles of self-organization, collaboration and transdisciplinarity. 

 
 

2020 / Flesh Brush Skin Show

This solo project focused on creating a suite of fictional characters that crossed thresholds of autoethnographic and fictional storytelling. Thematically this work engaged the medicalization of the body, and the intersections of anthropomorphism, neoliberalism and debilitation. This work researched the possibilities and limitations of choreographing within a queer lineage of experimental solo performance practice.

runtime: 60 minutes | credits: choreography, performance and sound design by Alyssa Gersony, collaborators: Gabi Vanek (lighting) Jennifer Vess (visual art & costumes) Mariana Tejeda (stage management) | video thumbnail description: Alyssa is laying on her side wearing a leather jacket and smiling. Marley dance flooring is rumpled behind her and the framing crops at her knees. Photo by Mark Lanning.

 



2019 / Junk King

Junk King was created and performed in collaboration with poet Paloma Yannakakis for gallery and theatrical venues. The project explored ways that our two practices could meet, leading us to the topics of embodiment and temporality as they relate to injury, enclosure, and interactivity. Our research process was experimental - opening to the emergence of performance through improvisation in text and movement.

runtime: variable | credits: concept & performance by Alyssa Gersony and Paloma Yannakakis, choreography, video sound and costume design by Gersony, the series of poems Journal of Discontent by Yannakakis | video thumbnail description: Alyssa is in a gallery with a projector and colored lights. She stands draped in white garments with her upper back curved and her arms gesturing. Shadows are cast on the wall. Photo by Miranda Meyer.

 



2019 / untitled (Marley)

A durational installation which featured (4) 25 ft x 8 ft rolls of recycled Marley (vinyl) dance flooring rematerialized into sculptural form. This work addressed the history and materiality of Marley dance flooring (Marley Inc. was a British company that developed the product in 1948) to reconsider its contemporary application in defining spaces for dance.

runtime: variable | credits: installation by Alyssa Gersony | video thumbnail description: In a gallery a large structure of Marley dance flooring is standing in isolation. It is twisted and folded into a three-dimensional shape. There is gaffer tape on the floor in overlapping patterns Photo by the artist.

 


2018 / this hole that is a wall that is a well

This solo project focused on developing object re-signification through novel modes of fabricating gaffer tape and various headwear. This work used the solo form as a practice in defining and subverting how “the subject” is read in performance. Personal episodic memories were tracked in a choreography of affective embodiment.

runtime: 10 minutes | credits: choreography & performance by Alyssa Gersony, poem To allow entrance by Jessica Gersony | video thumbnail description: Alyssa stands on stage covered in white gaffer tape wearing a white hard hat. Her face is in shadow and her spine is slightly curved. Photo by Miranda Meyer.

 



2017 / Watching the Clock

Inspired by the poetic and visual art work of Surrealist artists Kay Sage, Simone Yoyotte, and Sheila Legge, this work applied handmade masks, puppets and lighting design to function as a metacommentary on aesthetics and self-coercion. Methodologies in this process included dream tracking, found text assemblages and choreographic-collage.

runtime: 40 minutes | credits: choreography & performance by Alyssa Gersony, outside eye Carmen Scott | video thumbnail description: Alyssa is standing with her arm stretched out the side. Her face is covered by a flowered mask and she is illuminated by orange light beneath her. Photo by Ian Douglas, courtesy of Movement Research.

 


2015 / this place with the pretty-sounding name

The work’s primary influences included personal and historical accounts of the tenure (1947-1987) and subsequent deinstitutionalization of the Willowbrook State School, a state-supported live-in facility for children with disabilities located in the Willowbrook neighborhood on Staten Island. Performed in various contexts over the 2-year development period, this place was shared with multiple audiences including parents of children with disabilities and artists engaged with questions around institutional harm.

runtime: 20 minutes | credits: choreography & performance by Alyssa Gersony, outside eye Carmen Scott | audio mixed live and sampled from "Unforgotton: 25 Years After Willowbrook" directed by Jack Fisher in 1996; and "Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace" produced by Albert T. Primo and Geraldo Rivera on ABC in 1972 | video thumbnail description: Alyssa is kneeling on the floor with a computer and audio mixer smiling and speaking into a microphone. She is in a spotlight. Photo by Alex Escalante, courtesy of Gibney Dance.