The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Dance at Princeton University presents Apertures, an evening of two distinctive dance works by Princeton seniors Mei Geller and Jasmine Rivers that question ideas of (in)visibility and imagine alternative openings beyond dichotomous structures of control. Performances are April 18, 19 and 20 at 8:30 p.m. at the Hearst Dance Theater in the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. The Hearst Dance Theater is an accessible venue with wheelchair and companion seating in the front row. The April 18 performance will be open-captioned. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu.
Dancers Kristen Umbriac (front) and Faith Wangermann in rehearsal for a new work by senior Mei Geller. Photo credit: Felicity Audet
“please don’t touch” is a new work choreographed by Mei Geller in collaboration with dancers Aiko Offner, Kristen Umbriac, and Faith Wangermann. Inspired by her own academic and personal interest in the externally pristine yet internally turbulent world of museums, the work is a collection of four experiments in thought and dance. Each section asks and responds to a different question that is tied up both in the workings of museums and also in ourselves: Why does chaos need to be ordered? What stays and what leaves when we change? What is perfection and why do we need it? What is left when we are gone?
As a collective, the work contends with the concept of vision and visibility, necessary for museums to exist and so wrapped up in the way people exist in their physical selves. To possess a body that is both one’s own yet can be defined by others is a state of turmoil that is inescapable in the fact of being human. Informed by the choreographer’s complex experiences with occupying a body visible to others, and explored through the metaphor of museums, the work is underscored by one question: where do I end and where does the rest of the world begin (and do I get to draw the line at all)?
“both/and…” explores the challenges, joys, and complexities of multiraciality, as experienced by the four mixed Asian and white women that comprise the cast. Choreographed by Jasmine Rivers in collaboration with dancers Yukiko Chevray, Maya Sessions, and Camille Sevrain, this new work investigates the malleability of subjectivities across spatial, temporal, and cultural contexts. As the performance branch of Rivers’ autoethnographic anthropology thesis, “both/and…” critically reflects on how external racializations, varying degrees of the visibility of white privilege, and monoracist microaggressions have shaped the cast members’ senses of self.
The choreography is the culmination of an interdisciplinary year-long process that has included multimodal artistic expression, somatic explorations of intergenerational embodied knowledge, and research-framed group dialogue. “both/and…” features an original score that blends manipulations of Steve Reich’s “Six Marimbas,” live musicians, and audio from ethnographic interviews with the cast. The work compels viewers to consider the value of sitting with complexity, and to question the deeply ingrained dualistic lenses with which we have been socialized to view ourselves, each other, and the world.
Dancers (left to right) Camille Sevrain, Maya Sessions, and Yukiko Chevray in rehearsal for a new work by senior Jasmine Rivers. Photo credit: Felicity Audet
“both/and…” features Lewis Center Resident Music Director and Composer Vince di Mura as sound editor, additional composer, and pianist; Lilia J. Burtonpatel ’27 and Jenna Park ’25 as vocalists; Ryder Walsh ’26 and Cassadie M. Royalty ’25 on percussion; and Helen M. Brush ’24 on French horn.
Mei Geller is a senior from New York City. She is majoring in anthropology with a certificate in dance. Her academic research interests include museum ethics, the human body in culture, and structures of visibility, and she hopes to continue her exploration of museum ethics after Princeton. She began dancing as a child at Hariyama Ballet and the National Dance Institute and attended LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts for dance. At Princeton, she has performed in original and repertory works by Olivier Tarpaga, Peter Chu, Kyle Marshall, and Brian Brooks in Princeton Dance Festivals. She is a member of diSiac Dance Company and Princeton University Ballet.
Jasmine Minerva Rivers is a senior from San Francisco, majoring in medical anthropology with a certificate in dance. She has been dancing her whole life and trained primarily with ODC and Alonzo King LINES Ballet in high school. At Princeton, she is a member of BodyHype Dance Company and Princeton University Ballet. She has performed in repertory works by Urban Bush Women and Ronald K. Brown in the annual Princeton Dance Festival. She aims to continue engaging in interdisciplinary ethnographic/choreographic projects after Princeton, as well as pursue a career in dance movement therapy.
Rivers is being advised by Lecturer in Dance Davalois Fearon, and Geller is being advised by Lecturer in Dance Aynsley Vandenbroucke, who also serves as the choreographers’ joint production advisor. Lighting is by theater faculty member Tess James, and stage management is by Mary-Susan Gregson. Music direction and original composition for Rivers’ piece is by di Mura with costume design by Geller and Rivers in consultation with guest artist Mary Jo Mecca.
The Program in Dance, now in its 53rd year, and has grown to include five full-time and nine adjunct faculty and offers 23 different courses serving more than 400 students each year with a curriculum that includes introductory courses, courses suited for dancers at the pre-professional level, as well as courses in dance studies and interdisciplinary contemporary practices. Seniors earning a certificate in dance (a minor starting with the Class of 2025) undertake a course of study and performance, co-curricular classes, technical hours, and an independent project such as choreographing a new work, performing a new or repertory work by a professional guest choreographer or faculty member, or a work of dance scholarship.
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about the Program in Dance and the more than 100 performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, and lectures presented each year by the Lewis Center for the Arts, most of them free.
