h o r i z o n
in development
directed by marion spencer
made in collaboration with performers Stacy Lynn Smith, Nora Alami, Shannon Yu, EmmaGrace Skove-Epes, Mor Mendel, Vicky Shick
sound design by Shamar Watt
h o r i z o n is an interdisciplinary ensemble dance project that calls upon movement, sound, light and materials to interrogate catastrophe, extinction and futurity. Inspired by biological anthropologist Adriana Petryna’s Horizon Work—a radical call to create a deliberative and expansive time and space amid onrushing climate disasters—we study the ensemble as an organism of futurity. Investigating mycorrhizal networks—the roots of fungi that connect tree roots to each other underground, creating a network that shares resources between forest ecosystems—we ask: in a time of extinction, what can we learn from these ancient, non-human teachers that center collectivity, cooperation and curiosity? Through entangled ensemble dance practices, powerful solos, storytelling and worldbuilding with light and a massive golden net, this project proposes the wisdom of the dancer to ground into what we cannot see, but only feel, as the horizon to build and inhabit, together. This work has been in process for a year and a half, and we are seeking Fall 2025 residency support, and production/premiere support for 2026.
top photo by Rachel Keane of marion spencer & collaborators-performers Shannon Yu, Stacy Lynn Smith & EmmaGrace Skove-Epes
grid photos by Whitney Browne
h o r i z o n in development presented by Movement Research at the Judson Church March 10, 2025
presentations and residences
March 2025
presented in development by Movement Research at the Judson Church, New York NY
January 2025
in-development showing at Kestrels, Brooklyn NY
January 2024–May 2025
creative residency at NYU Tisch Dance