Untitled (Souvenir) is set to two Caroline Shaw scores and inspired by old Graham dances. I was inspired by movement from a variety of Graham works – some well-known, some obscure. The process of taking historical movement and adding and shaping it into something new has been a part of my artistic process for a long time.

In one way, what I do is not new. I make steps to music. Choreographers have been doing this for centuries. Rather than search for innovation separate from what came before, I embrace the past. I don’t see antiquated steps that have no meaning in contemporary society. I see direct links to the ways we move, express, and relate in the present day.  I am intensely captivated with these connections and am able to manipulate and renovate familiar vocabulary so still feels at the same time hauntingly familiar, and also relevant and raw and fresh. I see a centuries-old art form steeped in tradition and history, full of possibilities and immediacy for the 21st century, for the future of dance and performance.

– PAM TANOWITZ