IN SPITE OF, BECAUSE OF…THE WALLPAPER (2020)

Choreography: Alison Cook-Beatty
Music: Jonathan Howard Katz: Ipseities, No. 6
Dancers: Nika Antuanette, Sasha Rydlizky, and Vera Paganin
Costumes: Ali Taghavi & Mary Noonan
Videographer: Nick Morgulis
1st Assistant Cameraman: Jeremy Teran
2nd Assistant Cameraman: Christian Schlicht
Film Editor: Jeff Keller
Corporal Movement Coach: Steven Colluci

The short story The Yellow Wallpaper, written by American feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine, inspired Alison Cook-Beatty’s “In Spite of, Because of…The Wallpaper”. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature to illustrate women’s mental and physical health in the 19th century. Alison choreographed this work during COVID-19 on Zoom; many people were experiencing quarantine and how that affected their mental health, on how fiction somewhat blends with reality. The piece was then shot in a green screen studio and edited by Jeff Keller.

Photo credit: Paul B Goode