Anthem
Duration: 12 minutes
Performers: 6
Premiere: 2022, PICA
Choreography: Shaun Keylock
Lighting Design: Jenessa Raabe
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Set in the Dark Age of the future, Anthem is a ensemble work choreographed by Shaun Keylock to Alex Groves’ setting of Seven O Antiphon Preludes by the contemporary composer, Nico Muhly.
Anthem premiered as part of a mixed program, “Lovely Beautiful” performed on June 3, 2022 at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. The work was commissioned by White Bird Dance and created especially for SKC’s first live season since its closure in March 2020, due to the US’s nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
Keylock choreographed Anthem with the SKC dancers, creating and rehearsing the work under socially distanced conditions at the SKC studios in North Portland.
WITH
Duration: 12 minutes
Performers: 2
Premiere: 1995, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Keller Auditorium
Choreography: Josie Moseley
Lighting Design: Michael Mazzola
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Josie Moseley's "With" received acclaim from critics and audiences alike when it premiered in 1995 for Oregon Ballet Theater.
Described as “poetic” and “expansive,” the distinct moods of each of the four sections nods to Moseley’s own spirit and influences as a woman and a mother. The work was selected for inclusion in OBT's New York season at the Joyce Theater in 1999, and was also performed for the Dalai Lama's visit to to Portland in May of 2001.
A Small Pleasure
Duration: 10 minutes
Performers: 2
Premiere: 2019, New Expressive Works
Choreography: Shaun Keylock
Lighting Design: Jenessa Raabe
Sound Design: Evan Swope
"enticing and exploratory ... marked both by reticent moments and opportunities for deep discovery."
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A Small Pleasure explores the intimate act of gardening. Drawing inspiration from letters and correspondence written between women during the Second World War, the work reveals a troubled fascination with the beauty of nature overshadowed by a climate of violence and political contention.
Created through Keylock's unique approach to choreography and dance making, the work involves a physical deconstruction of both written and recorded source material. The movement vocabulary is explored by the dancers within a restricted and gradually shrinking performance space inviting the audience to perceive the feeling of being surrounded on all sides by an impending darkness. An original and driving electronic score by Seattle-based multimedia designer, Evan Swope, accompanies the dancers as they navigate this abstract meditation on the garden as a form of resistance.
Images by Jingzi Zhao.
bad! bad! bad!
Duration: 30 minutes
Performers: 5
Company Premiere: 2019, New Expressive Works
Choreography: Jordan MacIntosh-Hougham
Rehearsal Director: Shaun Keylock
Lighting Design: Jenessa Raabe
“delightfully comedic”
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Commissioned for Shaun Keylock Company’s first full-length show at New Expressive Works, Jordan MacIntosh-Hougham’s Bad! Bad! Bad! features a menagerie outfitted in pastel wigs and costumes. A camera placed onstage catches five dancers in moments of vulnerability, competition, anxiety, and redemption.
Bad! Bad Bad! was first premiered at Velocity Dance Center’s Bridge Project in Seattle, Washington in January 2018.
Alexa Stark x Shaun Keylock – “FOREST OF A THOUSAND POOLS”
Concept: Alexa Stark
Premiere: 2019, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Choreography: Shaun Keylock
Calamus
Duration: 30 minutes
Performers: 5
Premiere: 2018, New Expressive Works
Direction and choreography: Shaun Keylock
Lighting Design: Robin Greenwood
Sound Design: Evan Swope
"Bold and Intimate … A vulnerable and real look into the complexities of queer identity."
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Drawing inspiration from text of Walt Whitman and the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps, an American economic program that put men back to work conserving public land in 1933, Calamus is a portrait of intimate friendships between young men.
For this production, Shaun Keylock enmeshed themes from two of Walt Whitman’s landmark poems, Live Oak with Moss and Children of Adam, with elements of letters, essays, and journals of the recruits of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The frequent and intimate relationships between the men in the program were kept secret, revealed only through photographs and private diaries. The program led to a greater public appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources, while simultaneously providing a space for men to express their affection for one another. Calamus reveals the subversive nature of comradeship and provides an accessible look at the love and desire that occurred between the men recruited for this program.
This is Shaun Keylock’s first full-length work presented by New Expressive Works. It sees him collaborating with Seattle-based sound artist Evan Swope, who has created a specially commissioned score incorporating field recordings and electronic music.
Images by Intisar Abioto.
Anna Telcs x Shaun Keylock – “The Dowsing”
Concept: Anna Telcs
Premiere: 2018, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Choreography: Shaun Keylock
The Dowsing by Anna Telcs combines historical and technical research, sculpture, sewing and dying techniques, filmography and performance to create objects that quietly and powerfully question our relationship with clothing and the cultural elements it comprises. The objects and performed events are staged to demystify and de-isolate fashion for a wider audience.
TWO BOYS (4X4)
Duration: 5 minutes
Performers: 2
Premiere: 2017, New Expressive Works
Choreography: Shaun Keylock
A duet for two male dancers, Two Boys (4x4) was commissioned by Mike Barber and Subashini Ganesan for Ten Tiny Dances, an accessible performance experience for diverse audiences in non-conventional sites.
bloom
Duration: 5 minutes
Premiere: 2019, New Expressive Works
Choreography: Josie Moseley
Lighting Design: Jenessa Raabe
Originally performed as a solo by Shaun Keylock in 2016, Josie Moseley’s Bloom is a study on the choreographer’s signature, energetic style and reveals an investment in the lived human experience.
Same, but different
Duration: 12 minutes
Performers: 6
Premiere: 2014, Pacific University
Choreography: Shaun Keylock
Lighting Design: Tal Sanders
Driven by questions of binary digression, Same, But Different examines the nature of unspoken social constructions and their effect on the individual.
A reflection on the queer experience, Same, But Different functions as a commentary on dominance and repudiation of individual differences by addressing current issues of morality, as well as the awareness, closeting, and denial of sexual intimacy.