Cross streams of consciousness and embodiment inform the dynamic and tender embrace of this soulful duet.
Photos of Meredith Webster and Ariel Freedman at Certain Bird Residency
About
Empress Archer is an international duet project produced by The Cambrians with the acclaimed dancers Ariel Freedman (formerly with Batsheva Dance Company, Kidd Pivot, Motley Dance, and Keigwin + Company), and Meredith Webster (formerly with Spectrum Dance Theatre and Alonzo King LINES Ballet). Empress Archer involved numerous movement generators from around the world: Roy Assaf, Christian Burns, Charlotte Griffin, David Harvey, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Ledoh, Melinda Jean Myers, Ohad Naharin, Ella Rothschild, Ilya Vidrin, Zack Winokur, and Aviv Abeba Yossef.
In collaboration with the dancers, milkleaf’s Charlotte Griffin contributed forty minutes of original source material during a residency at Certain Bird in Vermont in 2015. Ariel and Meredith continued rehearsing with the roster of choreographers over two years and then remixed the material in classic Cambrians fashion with Founder and Creative Director Benjamin Wardell. The soulful evening-length duet, Empress Archer, premiered February 16-19, 2017 at Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, toured to the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater in Germany in March 2023, to Portland, May 3-5, 2024, and San Francisco, May 9-11, 2024.
Content from this work appears in All of Us (a related experimental screendance) and is part of milkleaf’s ongoing exploration of spatiotemporal displacement, personal memoir, accumulation, and repetition emphasizing the singular to illuminate the universal.
In collaboration with the dancers, milkleaf’s Charlotte Griffin contributed forty minutes of original source material during a residency at Certain Bird in Vermont in 2015. Ariel and Meredith continued rehearsing with the roster of choreographers over two years and then remixed the material in classic Cambrians fashion with Founder and Creative Director Benjamin Wardell. The soulful evening-length duet, Empress Archer, premiered February 16-19, 2017 at Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, toured to the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater in Germany in March 2023, to Portland, May 3-5, 2024, and San Francisco, May 9-11, 2024.
Content from this work appears in All of Us (a related experimental screendance) and is part of milkleaf’s ongoing exploration of spatiotemporal displacement, personal memoir, accumulation, and repetition emphasizing the singular to illuminate the universal.
Credits
Performers: Ariel Freedman and Meredith Webster
Source Material Choreography: Roy Assaf, Charlotte Griffin, David Harvey, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Alonzo King, Ledoh, Melinda Jean Myers, Ohad Naharin, Ella Rothschild, Ilya Vidrin, Zack Winokur, and Aviv Abeba Yosef
Producer: Benjamin Holliday Wardell
Source Material Choreography: Roy Assaf, Charlotte Griffin, David Harvey, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Alonzo King, Ledoh, Melinda Jean Myers, Ohad Naharin, Ella Rothschild, Ilya Vidrin, Zack Winokur, and Aviv Abeba Yosef
Producer: Benjamin Holliday Wardell