6 Degrees and George Heathco pair up for the 2024-2025 Season

Aerial dance is uniquely suited to interpret the floating sculpture. Like the sculpture, the dancers are suspended above the earth, exploring physical interpretations of the sculpture’s design – twisting, winding, braiding, and weaving – to an original sound score by Heathco.

The performance is followed by a moderated Q&A on the importance of artistic freedom of expression and free speech.

Choreography - Toni Leago Valle

“Testimony: Seen and Heard” draws upon the sculpture’s design. The choreography magnifies both the theme of the sculpture (bodily autonomy and unearthed roots), the structure of the sculpture (braids, roots, a woman not bound by earth), and the significance of its original location in front of the New York Appellate Courthouse.  Valle and Composer Heathco researched various ideas that Sikander embedded into the full art installation, titled "Havah…to breathe, air, life."  Havah translates in various languages into breath, air, life, and the name for Eve in Hebrew, which influence both the choreography and the music. 

Valle’s choreography portrays the dichotomy of Biblical creation through a feminist perspective. Valle revisits the Genesis story of God breathing air into clay and then providing humankind the choice of forbidden fruit.  The central theme is choice/free will. Eve exhibits her courage and intellect by the act of choosing/free will. God rewards Eve with the ability to create, to provide breath, to birth humankind; a choice that cannot be taken away, as it is women’s birthright through their anatomy. 

The choreography mirrors the elements: earth, fire, water, and air. Rooted into the ground, the dancers are symbolic of the sculptures roots and the clay figures of scripture. As each section progresses, the performers take to the air: a low trapeze trio revolves circular and braided paths much like the sculpture's braids. They give way to a soloist climbing blue silks, reminiscent of water. She winds and curves, resembling the sculptures mosaics.  The finale is the unleashing of a woman in a harness flying into the air, an homage to breaking through the glass ceiling, much as Sikander’s sculpture breaks through her skirt to command the sky.

The four musical sections correspond loosely to each of the four stylized Urdu characters that spell “Havah”(1) around the base of the skirt on Sikander’s sculpture. Sikander's allusion to Havah led Heathco to follow an ancient feminine figure on her hero’s journey to become the ultimate bringer of life.

While evoking the elemental framework of the choreography, each movement features a musical gesture whose development underscores a new scene in the story of Eve, imagined as if from distinct sources, times and spaces: a bombastic ritual to an ancient goddess; an ode to growth and the spreading of life; a cold look back on a biblical sentencing; a tumultuous climb with a burning message on the lips of a witness destined to be delivered to the world.

Sculpture/Visual Art – Shelby Craze

Craze takes visual cues from Shahzia Sikander’s Witness sculpture, drawing primarily from the spiraling roots of the arms and legs as well as the braided ram’s horns. These elements appear to defy gravity, and Craze’s sculptural installation on and around the aerial rig incorporates this in several ways. Spiraling steel structures coated in metallic copper seem to grow from the earth beneath them as though the roots of an unseen tree are breaking through the ground. Braided and knotted fabric wraps around the legs of the aerial rig like multi-colored vines, carrying forward the idea that the components of the installation are breathing and growing, autonomous in their own lives. 

Costuming - Ashley Horn Nott

Elements of the courthouse’s architectural design, statues, and mosaics within the building are represented in both Horn’s costume design. Horn leans into the duality of the patterns and colors of the sculpture. Blacks and metallic golds embedded in a one-piece pantsuit complete with a jabot to honor Ruth Bader Ginsberg, symbolizes the black robes of the Appelate Court. One performer wears a gold and black petticoat, mirroring the sculpture’s skirt. As the dance accelerates, the blacks are sheds to reveal the colorful pinks, blues and greens of the mosaics.

Freedom of Artistic Expression

“Witness” has been interpreted by a few conservative/ religious organizations as demonic and honoring reproductive freedom of choice.  The appearance of anti-abortion protestors at the “Witness” sculpture and the vandalization of the sculpture itself on the University of Houston campus has prompted conversations on the importance of free speech in art. Valle, who served as a clinic escort at an abortion facility for five years to help women through anti-abortion protestors, and who also creates political artwork with polarizing themes, understands that both sides are not portrayed equally through the media, and that most women do not feel safe in expressing their support for bodily autonomy within that environment. “Testimony: Seen and Heard” aims to counter the mythology surrounding the statue, offering an alternative point of view that the sculpture celebrates feminism. The performance provides a response to that of the anti-abortionists, who often catch media attention and headlines. Valle recognizes that the artist Shahzia Sikander has the constitutional right to express her views through art.

One of Valle’s goals as a political activist and artist is to open doors for discussion and education surrounding topics of contention.  After the performance, the CWM Center for the Arts will moderate a Q&A on the value of free speech and artistic expression. This platform allows audience members to speak honestly and openly, and promotes a generalized discussion on the value and place of art to express the artist’s views within a sociopolitical atmosphere.