Alice Gosti

DANCE | SEATTLE
Thu, Mar 29–Sat, Mar 31 at 8 pm
Sun, Apr 1 at 5 pm

Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture takes a sideways look at our object-based reality. Reflecting stuff-centered culture back to ourselves, this dream state passes through shame, nostalgia, patriotism, and the weight of inheritance. Choreographer and hybrid performance artist Alice Gosti asks, Do objects imbued with so much of our worth start to take over and take on a life of their own? This cluttered landscape expands like a hoarder’s collection and contracts like an immigrant’s suitcase. It breathes like capitalism, filling an existential void whose appetite is endless. Material Deviance helps us uncover what is buried under the steep piles along the path from our bed to the bedroom door. We hold it in our hands.

“Gosti is a performance artist who has built a reputation bending the bodies of convention, literally and figuratively.”
— The Seattle Globalist

Community Ritual

Be part of the show: a community ritual release of emotionally entangled objects  
Mar 25, 2-5 pm
FREE and open to the public

A central question of Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture (MDICAC) — Do objects imbued with so much of our worth start to take over and take on a life of their own? — will be addressed in part through a community ritual as immersive installation on the set. You are invited to join this community ritual at any time between 2-5pm on Mar 25 at On the Boards. 

Learn more about how to participate

Related Programs

Thu, Mar 29
Studio Supper with Jacqueline Roberts and Steve Smrstik (The Pink Door)  
Sign up for the Studio Supper email list to know when reservations open up for this dinner.

Fri, Mar 30
Post-show conversation with Alice Gosti in the Studio Theater

Sat, Mar 31
WTFJH? Saturdays: After the show the lobby and FUBAR will be open so audience members can connect and talk about the performance.

Sun, Apr 1
Childcare is available during Sunday performances for kids ages 2-10
(Must reserve in advance; if this is your first time purchasing childcare, you can see the show for free! Learn more)

Alice Gosti is an Italian-American choreographer, hybrid performance artist, curator, DJ, and architect of experiences, working between Seattle and Europe since 2008. Gosti’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, commissions, and residencies including the 2012 Vilcek Creative Promise in Dance Award, the 2012 danceWEB scholarship, Velocity’s 2015 Made in Seattle Program, and 2017 Artist Trust Fellowship. Gosti’s work has been commissioned and presented nationally and internationally in universities, theaters, museums, and galleries. Dance Magazine has described Gosti’s work as “unruly yet rigorous, feminine yet rebellious, task-like yet mischievous.” 

Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture is funded by NEFA’s National Dance Project, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. It also has support from the Vermont Performance Lab (VT), which is funded by the NEA. Developmental residencies included Linda Austin’s Performance Works Northwest, Slate Theatre, BASE: Experimental Arts + Space. With additional production support from Velocity Dance Center and Seattle University. 

Material Deviance is partially funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Presentation Grant and the National Endowment for the Arts. It was developed at On the Boards through the Performance Production Program, made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.