Kinetic Light has been dreaming up ways to connect with you, up close and personally. We are excited to host DESCENT: Online & In-Depth, an online event featuring an intimate conversation between our founding artists followed by screenings of DESCENT.

The first hour will be a pre-recorded, podcast style conversation between the artists; Alice Sheppard, Michael Maag and Laurel Lawson will tune into the event live via chat so you can engage with them in real time during their recorded conversation. After a short break, we’ll roll into screenings of DESCENT, filmed in 2018 at EMPAC, with freshly revamped accessibility.

The live screening will have ASL and Open Captions. Gamble Auditorium is wheelchair accessible through the Art Museum’s main entrance with seating available at the top of the auditorium, the auditorium does feature shallow stairs to the majority of seating. Microphones are used in the venue. 

Content Note: The artist conversation includes some explicit language and brief topics of a sexual nature.

MHC live viewing location co-sponsors: Division of Student Life, Music Department, Dance Department, First Year Seminars, Provost’s Office

About Kinetic Light:

Founded by Alice Sheppard in 2016, Kinetic Light is a disability arts ensemble working at the intersections of disability, dance, design, identity, and technology. Through nuanced investment in the histories, cultures, and artistic work of disabled and/or Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), the company promotes intersectional disability as a creative force and access as an aesthetic critical to creating transformative art and affirming the disability arts movement.

About DESCENT:

DESCENT was inspired by Auguste Rodin’s work, specifically Toilette of Venus and Andromeda. Recorded in 2018 at EMPAC, this performance features dancers Laurel Lawson and Alice Sheppard, with lighting and video design by Michael Maag. Andromeda is embodied by Alice, restoring the racial heritage that Rodin himself erased. Venus is assumed by Laurel, who both challenges and realizes Rodin’s imaginations of Venus and ideals of feminine beauty. Venus and Andromeda claim their desire, as wheels fly within inches of the ramp’s edge. Their spines soften to taste the subtle pulls of gravity and arch into the sumptuous immersive world created by Michael.

Accessibility Inquiries: 

For inquiries about the accessibility of this event or to request any accommodations, please contact dean-students@mtholyoke.edu. Please make accommodation requests no later than August 31 to give implementation time, however, in all situations, a good faith effort will be made to provide accommodations up until the time of the event.