fold

"There was a tenderness undercutting any views of him as a villain – and even
the adversarial nature of their relationship that at first seemed so obvious.
It was far more complicated than that. And so love, and any close relationship, is.
Wagner and Guglietti spoke to all of this with elegance and nuance,
all within simple movement and structure. There was a poetic economy to it.
​They also offered something that become universal in its specificity. Much of the best art truly is."
- Kathryn Boland, Dance Informa Magazine

fold is a 21-minute contemporary dance duet created collaboratively by Tony Guglietti and Kristin Wagner. The set is simple: two chairs and a table. The movement is often simple: fingers tapping on a table, hands entwining, standing up, sitting down. The mood is more complex. What is the relationship between the two characters on stage? Are they arguing? Have they just met? Are they ending, or beginning? The entire piece seems to be a negotiation: what is each player giving, and what do they receive in return? The dancers approach each other with equal amounts of caution and trust, but a trust so complete that it could be considered reckless.

​fold has continually surprised and intrigued audiences with its approach to the male/female duet form. Much of the movement vacillates between aggression and tenderness, with both qualities displayed equally across gender. Roles continue to shift throughout: aspects of villain and victim appear equally in each performer. Time is suspended, breath is held, as the entire room, performers and viewers alike, navigate and negotiate the intense complexity of human relationships.

Created as a series of episodic dance vignettes, fold can also be shown in excerpts of 6 or 10 minutes. The piece can be performed with a very simple lighting plot, and is adaptable to a variety of settings and dimensions. It could easily be transferred to a variety of settings, including proscenium stages, gallery spaces, and restaurants, and has been performed on stages, in cabaret settings, outdoors, and in a meeting hall.

fold is a work of Decent Dance, a collaboration between myself and my husband Tony Guglietti, and was originally created as part of the 2018 NACHMO! Boston festival, hosted by Alive Dance Collective. Continued support was provided by The Dance Complex, via the aMaSSiT Choreography Lab, and Ilya Vidrin's Backburner Series, hosted at Harvard University.