SUGAR HOUSES

Overview

SUGAR HOUSES is an evening-length dance theater piece created by Rosanna Gamson. This work is inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel, the fairy tale’s historical underpinnings, coded antisemitism, and violent imagery. Through a deconstructed narrative and jump-scares from horror movies, the choreography explores the extremes of physicality, evoking the grotesquery and violence of fairy tales, and the ferocious intimacy of siblings.

The presentation of Sugar Houses was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Production residency funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

About the Artist

A native New Yorker, Rosanna Gamson studied composition with Hanya Holm, Bessie Schonberg, and Phyllis Lamhut and earned a BFA and MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts under the chairmanship of Lawrence Rhodes. She performed internationally as a member of Andrew DeGroat & Dancers, and in the dances of Yvonne Rainer, workshop performances of Robert Wilson, and in many others’ dance projects. Additionally, Gamson studied with poets Charles Simic, Louise Glück, and Thomas Lux and her poetry has been published in a number of literary magazines and journals. Since moving to Los Angeles, Gamson has created eleven evening-length dance theater works as Artistic Director of Rosanna Gamson/World Wide (RGWW). Gamson's continuing investigation of improvisation and group-authored performance practices has developed into Gamson's game system GO, which she began teaching internationally in 2017. Gamson has served as dramaturg, mentor and consigliere to both young and established choreographers and directors, and actively supports the development of the Los Angeles dance community through her Terra Nova Choreographic Residency program. Gamson is on faculty teaching composition at CalArts at the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance where she serves as the Interim Dean of the Dance Department and Program Director of the MFA in Choreography.

Artsit Statement

I make evening-length dance theater pieces that braid together several tracks of information– often via text, music, and technology as well as movement. Each project puts me in dialogue, through research and deep physical inquiry, with points of view I don't understand, whether artistically or culturally. Striving to build a complete aesthetic world for each project, I pursue both artifice/stylization/metaphor and realness. I love extreme movement and the intimacy that happens between viewer and dancer on that edge. The major theme that runs through my work is