Performance Saturday, July 16 at 4 PM

We move and use the body in alternative ways in order to challenge its domestication. We inhabit socially abnormal behaviors, for example the body as animal, aging, multi-gendered, deformed and full of contradictions. We act in good faith with each other, creating space for each person to be recognized equally and this practice is healing. Our work is responsive rather than scripted. The performance we pioneer must carry in its root, shoot and flower the revolutionary priorities of people, place, and taking time.

Watchtower is a collaborative performance ensemble comprised of Rosé Hernandez, Ginger Krebs, Bryan Saner, Aurora Tabar and Sara Zalek. United by their desire to realize a fully collaborative and democratic creative process, the group met regularly from 2011 through 2012. Their work culminated in the performance video, Watchtower 12-12-12, which was performed, filmed and presented within one week at New Capital Projects. After a ten year hiatus, the members of Watchtower reunite for a one-week residency at Roman Susan, and will share their findings during a public performance offering on Saturday, July 16 at 4pm.

Rosé is a Chicago-based artist, curator, director, and healing arts practitioner performing through practices of butoh, theater, music, ritual, and reiki. Rosé attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They were awarded residencies at Links Hall, ACRE, and were a sponsored artist at High Concept Laboratories. They are the co-founder of Burning Orchid, a performance collective and production company. They have presented work in Chicago at Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Chicago Cultural Center, S+S Project, Sullivan Galleries, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Western Exhibitions and New Capital. They have also exhibited work at JACK (NYC), The Judson Church (NYC), El Museo de la Ciudad (CDMX), X Annual Performance Biennale (Russia), Oliver Francis Gallery (Dallas), MOCA (Los Angeles), Human Resources (Los Angeles), Aux Performance Space (Philadelphia), and Little Berlin (Philadelphia). For more info, please visit theenergeticbody.org.

Ginger Krebs’s performance work has been presented recently in Chicago at The Arts Club of Chicago, the Chicago Artists Coalition, the Storefront Theater, the Hyde Park Art Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and as part of the IN>TIME festival. She has been awarded residencies at The Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at the Florida State University-Tallahassee, the National Center for Choreography – Akron, High Concept Labs, The Chicago Artists Coalition, MacDowell, Ucross, and Djerassi. She was recognized with Artist Fellowship Award in Performance-Based Arts by the Illinois Arts Council in 2019, a MAP Fund grant in 2015, and a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award in 2014. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Performance and Contemporary Practices at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught since 2004. For more info, please visit gingerkrebs.com.

Bryan Saner is an interdisciplinary art practitioner focusing on the creation of performances, activist art events, neighborhood evolution and appropriately designed objects. He is a founding member of Bluestem Building and Restoration, a worker owned coop of makers and craftspeople working with architecture, urban forest wood and furniture. He is a rehearsal coach for residents at Links Hall. From 1995 to 2009 Bryan worked as a performing artist with the Goat Island Performance Group. During this time, the company toured internationally, performing at venues including the Venice Biennale, Bristol’s Arnolfini Theatre, the Eurokaz festival in Zagreb and the New Territories Festival, Glasgow. He is currently performing with Every House Has a Door. He is making a kayak with Erica Mott, Precious Jennings and Jose Aguilar.

Aurora Tabar is a Chicago-based performing artist, occupational therapist, and toddler-wrangling mom. Her professional and creative practices examine the process of healing and the potential for transformation. Recently, Aurora had the pleasure of performing in Freedom From Freedom To, an improvised movement and sound series curated by Cristal Sabbagh and presented by Elastic Arts Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Aurora’s ongoing project, The Existential Coat Check, is an interactive popup booth that invites participants to shed their psychic baggage via writing and drawing activities. She presented a solo project Tiny Vibrating Strings at the Curious Theater Branch’s 2020 Rhino Festival. Shortly afterwards, and under COVID lockdown restrictions, Aurora gave birth to her son Arden, embarking on her favorite project yet!

Sara Zalek is an interdisciplinary artist, Avant-garde maker of situations and curious objects. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, poetic. They create learning situations, workshops, and sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections. Zalek performs often in both live and online situations; they most recently took residence at Elastic Arts Foundation with their ongoing quarterly series, Hot Mess! Through Butoh Chicago, they connect national and international teaching artists with Chicago art makers across genres in the independent and fringe arenas. They were a Ragdale Foundation Fellow in 2018, recipient of 3Arts Make a Wave Award in 2017, and Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist in 2015. They have performed and curated at the Chicago Cultural Center, Elastic Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, Links Hall, Chicago Architecture Biennale, Defibrillator Gallery, El Museo de la Ciudad, Elevate Chicago Dance, Lumpen Radio, OuterSounds, OuterSpace Studios, Headwaters, and more. They are an active board member of the Runaways Lab Theater. For more info, please visit www.saratonin.com.

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Tags: Aurora Tabar, Bryan Saner, Chicago, GINGER KREBS, Rogers Park, Roman Susan, ROSE HERNANDEZ, Sara Zalek, WATCHTOWER