Commissioned by Danspace Project

Performed by Martita Abril, Jonathan Burklund, Lydia Chrisman, Samuel Hanson, Mina Nishimura, Maho Ogawa, Ilana Stuelpner and Niko Tsocanos 

Music Composed by Masahiro Sugaya

Lighting Design by Kathy Kaufmann

Costume Design by Kota Yamazaki

Bladder Inn (and X, Y, Z, W ) was created in conversation with an original text of the same title, developed by Nishimura with the intention of finding language evocative of internal landscapes. Blurring the boundaries between inner and outer space, visible and invisible presences, and images and abstract forms, the work hosts a slippery journey and fleeting fantasy of wandering bodies. The work invites both audiences and performers to consider peripheral spaces of architecture, perception, and sound specific to the architecture of St. Marks Church.

This work was developed and presented through The Danspace Project 2017-18 Commissioning Initiative, with support from the Jerome Foundation; The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant; The residency program at The Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France), with support from Movement Research and The Jerome Foundation.

“Ms. Nishimura, one of eight dancers, created not so much a world as an atmosphere, a web of activity on the brink of dissolving. ---- She doesn’t demand attention, she just attracts it, in part through her ability to embody multiple qualities at the same time.”

-Siobhan Burke, The New York Times