Photos:
August 2023: Ashley Smith, Wide Eyed Studios
April 2023: Rosalie O’Connor
2022: Lila Hurwitz
2020: Video Stills

rhythm bath (2023)

Choreographer & Director Susan Marshall
Set Designer Mimi Lien

Premiere (september 17–24, 2023)

Philadelphia Fringe Festival (Curated Performance)
Christ Church Neighborhood House, Philadelphia, PA
Performers Rohan Bhargava, Ching-I Chang, Sydney Donovan, Nico Gonzales, Courtney Henry, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Vanessa Knouse, Albert Quesada, Gabrielle Revlock, Darrin Michael Wright
Lighting Jeanette Yew
Sound Composition & Design Dan Trueman, Jason Treuting
Costume Design Oana Botez
Producing Partner Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities (Philadelphia)

WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWINGS (AUGUST 2023)

Christ Church Neighborhood House, Philadelphia, PA
Performers Rohan Bhargava, Ching-I Chang, Sydney Donovan, Nico Gonzales, Courtney Henry, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Vanessa Knouse, Albert Quesada, Gabrielle Revlock, Darrin Michael Wright
Lighting Jeanette Yew
Sound Composition & Design Dan Trueman, Jason Treuting
Costume Design Oana Botez

WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWINGS (APRIL 2023)

Clark Studio Theatre, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY
Performers Rohan Bhargava, Ching-I Chang, Nico Gonzales, Bryn Hlava, Vanessa Knouse, Mykel Marai Nairne, Gabrielle Revlock, Darrin Michael Wright
Lighting Jeanette Yew
Sound Composition & Design Dan Trueman, Jason Treuting

WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWINGS (August 2022)

PEAK Performances, Montclair State University, NJ
Performers Rohan Bhargava, Runako Campbell, Ching-I Chang, Miriam Gabriel, Nico Gonzales, Bryn Hlava, Vanessa Knouse, Junyla Silmon, Darrin Michael Wright
Sound Composition & Design Jason Treuting, Dan Trueman, Peter Whitehead, Ryan Wolfe

Preview (January 2020)

Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, NJ
Performers Sophie Andreassi, Dare Ayorinde, Bryn Hlava, Vanessa Knouse, Mecquel, Luke Miller, Mykel Nairne, Navarra Novy, Gabrielle Revlock, Darrin Wright
Sound Ryan Wolfe
Costume Design Maile Okamura

After 30+ years of creating works for the stage and beyond, I am refocusing on co-creating contemporary performance-installations with neurodiverse audiences. As a choreographer and the parent of a son with autism/apraxia, I seek a process that enables collaboration with neurodiverse individuals—investigating together what makes performance environments welcoming to them as audience members. 

A couple of years ago, I formed a Princeton-based interdisciplinary working group—"Dancing with Neuromotor Diversity"—that included me, a neuroscientist, an engineer and a theater historian. We met with experts on neuromotor diversity: adults with apraxia, a neuromotor disorder that makes it difficult to control one’s body and often present in autism. People with autism/apraxia may make involuntary sounds and movements that can make it difficult to conform to normative theater viewing. The research team asked these experts questions such as: “How do you physically experience the architectures and sounds of different spaces?” “What helps you locate your body in space?” 

This led to the first iteration of Rhythm Bath, a performance-installation exploring rhythmic entrainment and interpersonal synchrony—uniquely human traits of neurologically connecting to external rhythms and other’s rhythmic movements. As dancers sway in unison and shift through spatial patterns, a rhythmic entrainment of the audience accrues. The audience may sit, stand, walk, roll in wheeled chairs, vocalize and move freely among the dancers. A meditative space of connection develops. 

How do we invite audiences’ exploration? How will they know the rules are different than usual theatre-going? We aim to create a level playing field in which a certain way of being in—or controlling—one’s body is not privileged. 

The first iteration of Rhythm Bath was a revelation—how the audience completed the work, the insights the experts brought—and gave a glimmer of the possibility of creating contemporary art events that further disability justice and welcome all audiences.

Public engagement and response shapes what we do via planning meetings, talks with audiences, and free Dancing with Autism classes for neurodiverse adults.

Rhythm Bath is co-produced by Studio Susan Marshall and the Institute on Disabilities, Temple University, College of Education and Human Development. Major support for Rhythm Bath has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation; Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts; and generous individuals. Rhythm Bath was developed in part during residencies at PEAK Performances at Montclair State University, and the Clark Studio Theater as part of Mimi Lien's artistic residency at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.