Darker

Choreographed and performed by Paula Josa-Jones

I choreographed this piece in 2016 following the election of Donald Trump.  Leonard Cohen died on November 7, 2016, one day before the election. I had been listening to his music and heard his piece, "You Want It Darker."  I felt an immediate call to make a work that expressed my despair and rage, and Leonard Cohen's music felt perfect.  Prior to this piece, my political art was more LGBTQIA focused, but the election pushed me to this response.

About the Artist: PAULA JOSA-JONES is a dance artist, choreographer, author, visual artist and movement educator and therapist known for her visually rich, emotionally charged dance theater. Her work includes choreography for humans, inter-species work with horses, dancers and riders, film and video. Josa-Jones has been called "one of the country's leading choreographic conceptualists" by the Boston Globe and the Village Voice describes her work as "powerful, eccentric, and surreal". Much of Josa-Jones's solo work in particular arises from her own experience of being gender non-conforming, and movement explorations of the deeply complex architecture of identity and expression. Learn more about Paula here.

Click the image above to watch Paula’s performance of “Darker” at Jazz at Lincoln Center.