“ON DISPLAY/CitiSummerStreets,” by Heidi Latsky Dance

Over three Saturdays, 26 Federal Plaza, transformed into a stage. Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD) performed ON DISPLAY/CitiSummerStreets, a choreographed art installation, using the human body as its medium.

Forty dancers, dressed in white garments, create a living “sculpture court” by statically positioning themselves in classically-inspired positions throughout the plaza. During the installation, Citi Summer Streets participants wereable to walk around the “court” and observe each dancer to, “see the unseen, notice the unnoticed and appreciate the underappreciated.” By putting the human form “on display” by means of creating a human sculpture court for Citi Summer Streets participants to survey, the installation aims to shed light on society’s obsession with body image and the objectification of the human form. However, rather than scrutinizing the human form, the installation celebrates it with all of its’ wonderful eccentricities, oddities and imperfections. Set within the backdrop of the plaza shrubbery, fountain, benches and marble floor, this installation creates a calm space from the cacophony of the Citi Summer Streets route for a moment of reflection.

This filming shows two performances on the morning of August 20th, 2016.  The first one the audience watched from around the "sculpture court" and in the second they audience moved among the dancers.

Artist Bio:

Heidi Latsky (Artistic Director/Choreographer/ Performer), originally from Montreal, first received recognition as a celebrated principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1987-1993).Her experience there profoundly influenced her style and her philosophy of dance as she developed a reputation in her own right as a choreographer for stage, theater, and film.   In 2001, she founded her own company Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD) that has performed both domestically and internationally. During the fall of 2006, Latsky began an intensive period of creation with bi-lateral amputee Lisa Bufano.  This marked a significant shift of focus for HLD and a period of immense growth during which she more fully developed the company’s mission and vision. In 2015, in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in partnership with Lincoln Center, Victor Calise, the Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, and Dance/NYC, “ON DISPLAY” was presented at the NYU Skirball Center. In the same year, HLD also presented “ON DISPLAY” at the United Nations to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a simultaneous installation in Australia with Second Echo Ensemble, a physically integrated dance company.  Latsky is a founding member of the Dance/NYC’s Disability and NYC Dance Task Force and serves on the Artist Advisory Board of Danspace Project. She has a BA in Psychology with Honors from Carleton University (1979), receiving the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement and The Ottawa Ladies College Scholarship. HLD has received support from organizations like Creative Capital, the NYC Mayor’s Fund and the Harkness Foundation for Dance.