Pearson Widrig Dance Theater

Repertory

•	Company Works

	–	Unmoored (Love Letters to New Orleans)
	–	Thaw
	–	The Return of Lot’s Wife
	–	HereAfter
	–	Ordinary Festivals

•	Solos & Duets

•	Site-Specific/ Site-Adaptive

•	Community Performance Projects

•	Video Works

•	Lecture Demonstrations

•	Young People’s Concerts

•	Repertory List 1986-2007

Andrei Codrescu
Primary Collaborating Artist

I think what people in other cities find hard to understand is just how much New Orleanians love their city. There is a velvety sensuality here at the mouth of the Mississippi that you won’t find anywhere else. New Orleans is an essence, something that if bottled would be so pungent you’d think that a perfumed boil on the Devil’s forehead had burst open. That’s how we are, but right now we feel every feeling, anger and sadness, sorrow and terror, and guilt. Especially guilt. Louisiana isn’t called the “dream state” for nothing: Katrina found us dreaming. Our politicians, like our citizens, lived in the moment, a beautiful, fragrant, delicious, sexy moment. The hard work, mañana. But we are in for it now. The American dream came unmoored in New Orleans.

Excerpt from New Orleans,
Mon Amour (Alqonquin
Books of Chapel Hill)

Lower Ninth Ward • Patrik Widrig

A LIVE DOCUMENTARY

“Heart-wrenching and wryly comic.”

The Washington Post

“Contagiously joyful .”

Dance Magazine

• Unmoored (Love Letters to New Orleans) is a full-evening dance/theater/video “live documentary” which addresses and embodies the unfathomable loss and love felt by so many, as well as chronicling the historical, political and personal decisions that are affecting the recovery of individuals and the city itself. All text and video are continually evolving as the work tours from city to city.

• See Video Excerpt

• Video footage of Unmoored (Love Letters to New Orleans) production at the Kennedy Center, Millenium Stage. (Link opens a new window.)

• New Orleans Journal — February-March 2006 (Requires acrobat reader. )

Previews • Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, March 10-12, 2006 • University of Texas, Austin, TX, March 18, 2006

Premiere • Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA, March 2007

Tour • Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington DC, May 18, 2006 + September 16, 2006 • Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, February 16+17, 2007 • Seven Stages, Atlanta, GA, September 2007 • Dance Place, Washington, DC, October 2007

Funding for the creation and tours of the work has been provided by • The National Endowment for the Arts • The New York State Council on the Arts • The National College Choreography Initiative • Tulane University • The National Performance Network • The American College Dance Festival Association

Audience Responses

• “Six months of watching the news didn’t come close to showing me what you did in one incredible hour onstage. Now — I get it!”
Austin Shirley, graduate student at University of Texas

• “You have woven all elements together to such a beautiful piece of art, and
I am hoping that you will be able to tour not just the United States, but the
world with it.”
Christine Washington, Cultural Attaché, Swiss Embassy, Washington, DC

• “I was moved to tears by the piece and I feel it is an elegant and important effort using artistic practice to reclaim the devastated soul of New Orleans.”
         Ray Eliot Schwartz, dancer, choreographer, somatic movement educator, and arts activist

• “I don’t know when I have been so moved and so touched by a performance.”
         J. Jacobson, South Central Regional Representative, American College Dance Festival

• “My 9-year old is still very distraught over the experience of the hurricane. Please come back to our schools with your piece - we need it.”
         Audience member, New Orleans

• “I just wanted to let you know that I was very moved by your work last Sat evening. So moved, in fact, that I am planning a trip to New Orleans this August to volunteer my services as a Registered Nurse at a free clinic.”
         Wendy Westerman, Tivoli, NY


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