DANCE PERFORMANCE BY JENNIFER GWIRTZ

Sunday, June 28 from 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Join professional dance artist Jennifer Gwirtz for a world debut of a new work: a piece exploring memory and aging in the rituals of her father, a pianist—and his militaristic repetitions in preparation for performance; her father’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease that affected his memory; and his relationship to a specific piece of work by Chopin. Jen’s innovative, biographic, and narrative works are the result of a 30+ year career in dance that continues to develop while shifting its focus to consider performance and preparation of dancers as they age, our lifelong rituals, and how our patterns shift in relation to aging. Come and be moved.

Artist Statement: Pianic Intersections (2026)

When he was seventeen years old in 1947, my father heard Vladimir Horowitz play at the Schubert Theater in Philadelphia. My father practiced this piece for two decades. It wore a groove into my mind and memory. I can still hear him playing for hours at a time, including his habits, “clams,” and repetitions. My father’s practice of the Ballades was the sonic water in which my child-self swam. In some ways it continues a constant play-repeat in the quietest part of my mind. I still sing it to myself. Behind most of my dances I can still sense his fingers on the keys.

At 94 he has dementia and remembers very little of his past. This dance is my love letter to him.

Ingredients: My 58-year-old body, memories of my father practicing Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, a recording of Vladimir Horowitz playing it in 1965 (because I can’t find any recordings of his concert from 1947).

About Jennifer Gwirtz

Jennifer Gwirtz is a dance artist who has been creating for over thirty years, exploring the intersection of movement, physical theater, and science. Jewish concepts, philosophies, texts, and customs often resonate at the core of her work. She is deeply interested in bodies and how they move—especially those of older women and people whose bodies function differently from those most visible in mainstream culture. Over the past several years, she has explored different ways to experience, feel, and perceive from within her own aging body. Her work seeks to redefine and expand notions of beauty, including the beauty found in difference and limitation.

Her early work investigated text, gesture, and pattern through movement, influenced by experiments with early digital video. A chance moment in her studio led her to consider plants as dancers, inspiring a master’s thesis that combined gardening and performance. In the 1990s, she created movement-based theatrical works for diverse spaces, performing nationally and internationally. She later developed Right Brain Performancelab, a two-decade collaborative project bringing together artists across disciplines.

In the mid-2010s, she became interested in remote and site-specific performance, questioning whether dance must be fully seen. Since 2018, she has been creating work as Jennifer Gwirtz & Company, developing a movement research and performance practice in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches and lives with her family. She also tutors young people in Hebrew, Judaics, and B’rit Mitzvah.