Alexa West is a choreographer and dancer who explores how materials and spaces influence human motion and collective action.
The artist takes her creative process to an active community space via Open Process at SculptureCenter in Long Island City from Friday, July 5, to Monday, Aug. 12.
The project emphasises the development stages, and the public is invited to observe and engage with West as she works her magic. Depending on when you visit, you might see her building props or stretching before practicing her footwork. She might prepare costumes some days and draft a score on others.
As part of the fun, West will rehearse with four other dancers – Sharleen Chidiac, Benin Gardner, Jade Manns, and Isa Spector – on Thursdays, Fridays, and weekends from noon to 4 pm. She’ll also hold open rehearsals on Aug. 2, 4, 5, and 8 from 4 pm to 6 pm. Click here for the running schedule.
Admission to SculptureCenter is free.
A Houston native who came to New York City to train at the Martha Graham School, West has a BFA from Cooper Union and an MFA from Bard College. Her resume includes residences at Chez Bushwick and Otion Front in Brooklyn and a Dance Research Fellowship at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library.
Let’s see what she comes up with at SculptureCenter, where she’ll create in the cavernous lower level. In the past, her set designs have included tables, electric curtains, filing cabinets, a stack of papers, and a painter’s scaffold. Her work has also incorporated sound effects, such as car honks, soft electronic music notes, doorbell chimes, pop song clips, voice recordings, laughs, weather announcements, and commercials.
SculptureCenter, which displays emerging and international artists, began as The Clay Club in Brooklyn in 1928. Over the ensuing years, it changed names, moved to West 8th Street in Manhattan, and relocated again to East 69th Street. In 2001, SculptureCenter purchased the present venue at 44-19 Purves St. Then it was redesigned by Maya Lin — yes, the landscape artist who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. In 2014, the museum finished a major, multi-million-dollar renovation that added a bookshop, coatroom, seating area, and restrooms to 6,500 square feet of unique exhibition spaces on two levels. The site also has a 1,500-square-foot, enclosed courtyard for outdoor shows.
Editor’s note: While there for Open Process: Alexa West, check out In Practice: Phoebe Collings-James, a multi-genre exhibition on display until Monday, Aug. 12.
Top image: SculptureCenter; bottom images: Alexa West