On a dark stage, ghostly textile sculptures are frozen in time. They resemble scrubs, working clothes from a working class, with no bodies to fill out the shapes. Dancers shift and undulate on stage around the sculptures, highlighting their stillness.
The sculptures are the work of textile artist Sara Rockinger, from her series In/Visible, looking at the visibility of immigrants in labor jobs. The dancers are from Lafayette’s T2 Dance Company, interpreting Rockinger’s art with movement.
T2 Company director Erin Tunbridge says the performance has been in the works since before the pandemic, when T2 did a small interpretive response to an exhibition of Rockinger’s in 2019.
“During the pandemic it just wouldn’t work. It needed to be an in-person thing, based on what we were planning to do,” Tunbridge says. “So years later, we’re finally able to bring this to light.”
T2 brings In/Visible to the stage of the Dairy Arts Center for a one-night performance in October. With a focus on interpreting both the artwork and immigration stories that inspired them, T2 will intersperse interviews from documentarian Mark Conkle and immigrants in the Lafayette community with dance.
“We’re focusing on the research and artwork as the base for the collaboration,” Tunbridge says. “The themes explored are relevant today and will be for years to come.”
The performance isn’t a singular narrative, Tunbridge explains, but a series of connected and overlapping vignettes as parts of Conkle’s interviews precede each moment of choreography. Highlighting social issues and collaborating with artists to highlight a variety of perspectives is a founding principal of the company.
In/Visible, 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, Dairy Arts Center, Boulder. Tickets: $15-$20, thedairy.org
