Flesh House, which premiers February 20th - 25th at Kestrels in Gowanus Brooklyn is a dance theater work by Poerstel that highlights three veteran dance performers Monte Jones, Molly Poerstel, and Eleanor Smith. These three dancers inhabit the rooms of Kestrels by exposing personal mythologies, old truths, and interlapping experiences. In doing so, Poerstel interrogates the immediacy of embedded memory through improvisational scores, text, and visual imagery, and reveals how the mythologies, stories, and experiences of our past come with us into the present. Each solo gives value and voice to a dancer’s story. Revealing the silent labor of a dancer’s work within the choreographic process, as a live tenable force that breeds and populates the work of the maker. This work is an extension of I am Also (2020), a series of improvisatory works that interrogate forgetfulness, failure, and bodily recall.
Choreography and Direction by Molly Poerstel
Text and Movement by Molly Poerstel, in collaboration with Monte Jones and Eleanor Smith
Song lyrics by Sam Taylor
Sound Design by Chris Seeds and Michael Tritter
Costume Design by Lawanda Raines and Jane MacDonald
This project was made possible by a Graduate Student Grant from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and a VCU Adjunct Grant. This work is co-produced with support from Katie Workum and Kestrels Studios.
Special thanks to Katie Workum for offering me the opportunity to join her community, and to let Flesh House unfold in the halls of Kestrels. It has opened up new creative possibilities and I am deeply grateful. To Darrin Wright for his expertise, and support as we put the pieces of our puzzle together. To Mandy Ringger for her eight years of collaboration, and her ability to frame my feelings, wear a thousand hats, and enter any space and make it poetic. To Chris Seeds who can make magic out of bits and scraps. To Trina Jeffer who infused life, courage, and organization into the administrative aspect of dance making. To Anna Adams Stark for the speakers! And to Toby Golick, Ben Taylor, and Mary Zacchetti-Poerstel for their generous donations to this work. To Maria Gillespie and Mair Culbreth for their insights, support, and long conversations, and to Tess Dworman and Jeanine for their feedback, whom I trusted enough to show this work at its most vulnerable stage. To Jeanine Durning, whose work: Exmemory: waywewere (2009), and To Being (2026) shaped my interest in recalling the past into the present. And to the choreographers who shaped this specific work, and whose work lives on in me, including Jeanine Durning, Susan Rethorst, David Dorfman, Roseanne Spradling, Larissa Valez-Jackson, and Juliana May. To Rebecca Wender, Michelle Schultheis, LaWanda Raines, Hilary Clark, and Ivy Baldwin who reminded me this year of the power of old friends, and to Monte Jones and Eleanor Smith who show up with all of themselves and whose stories populate this work. To Sam, Jojo, and little Bella…thank you for letting me slip away for a bit. Lastly, to our collective friends and family, and ghosts whose lives live on in our bodies. Particularly Greggory Quionnes, AKA BBoy Cream, Lawrence Cassella, Elizabeth Franzik, Brandon Badman, and Sam M.
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Molly Poerstel
Choreographer
Molly Poerstel is a dance artist whose New York Dance career spans twenty-five years. A powerful performer, she has gained recognition over the years for her work with an array of artists such as the Mark Jarecke, David Dorfman Dance Company, Alex Escalante< Susan Rethorst, Larissa Valez-Jackson, Hilary Clark, vy Baldwin, Roseanne Spradlin, Juliana F. May, and Jeanine Durning, among others. In 2018 Poerstel was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Sustained Achievement. Poerstel’s choreographic works have been presented in New York City by New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks (2012), Movement Research Spring Festival (2013), Brooklyn Arts Exchange Upstart Festival (2014), Fridays at Noon 92Y (2014), Danspace Project’s Food for Thought (2014) curated by Ben Kimitch, Gibney Dance Center’s Double Plus, curated by Donna Uchizono (2014), and Making Space (2016). She was a 2015 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2018 BAX Parent Space Grant Recipient. Poerstel has taught dance technique practice, improvisation, and composition since 2007 at various institutions including The Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, SUNY Purchase Dance Conservatory, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, The Nanyang Fine Arts Academy in Singapore, and most recently Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently a Distinguished Honors Student Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where she is pursuing her MFA.
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Monte Jones
Dancer and Collaborator
Meoleaeke Jones (Monte), received a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. And has worked in New York City with Ron K. Brown, Marleas Yearby and Niles Ford. Monte has performed with Holly Bass Dance Theatre Company in Washington, DC and performed Solo Works at Dance Place also in DC. He studied and danced at VCU with national and international artists. He has performed with international Cuban percussionist: MELENA, A Cultural & Musical Journey intoAfro-Cuban Roots. He has also appeared in numerous Hip Hop and R&B videos in New York, Washington DC and Richmond, VA. He was a teacher and performer at many schools in Virginia through the educational programs of the Latin Ballet, "Be Proud of Yourself". He has been a member of the Latin Ballet Of Virginia, Drums No Guns. Mr Jones is back working on his Solo Choreography & With Claves Unidos, RVA Dance Collective and Elegba Folklore Society.
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Eleanor Smoth
Dancer and Collaborator
Eleanor Smith is a choreographer, teacher, and childcare provider based in Brooklyn. This is Eleanor's 5th project dancing for Molly. She is so happy to be working together again and dancing with these incredible artists. Eleanor has also danced in works by Anna Azrieli, Ivy Baldwin, Levi Gonzalez, Julie Mayo, Katie Workum, and Ash Yergens. She has a MFA in Dance from Hunter College, CUNY. As a choreographer, Eleanor has been making work with Molly Lieber since 2006. Their practice is in continuous dialogue with building a sustainable life as working artists in New York. Currently, they are Extended Life Residency Artists through Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and have an upcoming chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Memory.
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Mandy Ringger
Amanda K. Ringger (Lighting Design) has been designing locally, nationally, and internationally for over 20 years with artists such as Faye Driscoll, Cynthia Oliver, Doug Elkins, Leslie Cuyjet, Molly Poerstel, Ivy Baldwin, Laura Peterson, Darrah Carr, Antonio Ramos, Alexandra Beller, Sean Donovan, and cakeface, among many others. She received a BA from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD and an MFA from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She is the recipient of a Bessie award for her collaboration on Faye Driscoll's 837 Venice Boulevard at HERE Arts Center.
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LaWanda Raines
LaWanda Raines has a MFa in dance and creative Practice from St. mary's with a Professional Certificate in Production for Dance-Design for dance. She has been designing and constructing costumes for theatre and dance since her years in undergrad At VCU. Her designs range form the mild and understated to large avant garde statement work. Her work has been worn by Vcu Dance Department senior concert students, Dance studio competitions, RVA Dance Collective, Claves Unidos, and various dance studios. She uses her background in dance to create costumes and properties that work with the body while achieving the vision and intent of the work. LaWanda enjoys the engineering challenges that come with new designs.
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Chris Seeds
Sound Designer
Chris Seeds composes and performs music for contemporary dance artists. In New York City, he has previously collaborated with choreographers including Juliana F. May (Gutter Gate, 2011; Commentary = Not Thing, 2013; Adult Documentary, 2015), Molly Poerstel (I Am Also - Monte, 2022), and Michelle Boulé (White, 2015). He played in indie and experimental bands in NYC throughout the 1990s and 2000s and brings a sense of improvisation and live performance to his compositional work.
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Micheal Tritter
Sound Designer
Make a donation.
Molly Poerstel is a sponsored artist with The Performance Zone Inc (dba The Field), a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving the performing arts community. Contributions to The Field earmarked for (You/Your Company) are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field contact: The Field, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 906 New York, NY 10038, phone: 212-691-6969 or for our national charities registration, see details. A copy of our latest financial report may be obtained from The Field or the Office of Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
