Happy 45th Anniversary FLDT!

Tonight, June 27th, is the 45th Anniversary of our very first performance at the American Theater Laboratory (now NYLiveArts). And while we celebrate that significant milestone, attention must also be paid to the vitally important and troubling issues confronting our country. FLDT is deeply saddened by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others, and by the fact that injustice for the Black community remains to this day. We stand with people of color in the fight for racial equality, and continue to aspire towards making a country where there will be freedom and justice for all.

As we keep moving ahead with our new work TRAP IST, I should mention that it includes aspects of the shameful history of slavery in the United States. (Artificial Intelligence enslaves humans on a far-away planet, using these slaves to colonize it. But ultimately there is a rebellion, that references both the development of tap dance on slave ships en route to the Americas, and the 1739 Stono Slave Insurrection.)

As you already know, since theaters will remain closed in New York for the foreseeable future due to Covid-19, we won't be able to premiere TRAP IST this year, as planned. Thanks to the generosity and understanding of the staff at LMCC, our Creative Engagement Program Grant will be extended until a time when our dancers can rehearse and perform -- and our audience can attend -- live theatrical works safely again. And for this, we are truly grateful.

So what do we do in the meantime? Instead of a live performance, we will begin our 45th anniversary year with short video screenings from our repertoire over the next few months. We will open tonight with a "flash performance" on our anniversary, starting at 8 pm (5 pm Pacific) with three very short excerpts from our 2017 work, LIGHTNING (music by Slovenian composer, Borut Krzisnik). LIGHTNING confronts racism, gender, immigration, and other issues central to our country's current dialogue. Tonight's flash performance will open with the duet, "Black Lives Matter" -- danced by Katherine Files and Acée Francis Laird, followed by an excerpt from "Memory Prism" danced by Dona Wiley & Chihwan Kim (seen here at its preview performance at the 2016 Booking Dance NY Festival), and will close with an excerpt from "Funeral March" (filmed at the "Post-It" note wall in the Union Square subway station shortly after the 2016 Presidential election). The total running time of this entire flash performance is 4 minutes, and it will remain available for viewing in our permanent video collection.

We'll follow this showing with other sections of LIGHTNING and many of our older works throughout the summer. To access these "instant" performances as we post them, please keep visiting our website, on Saturday nights at 8, where you will find links to the works -- on our page marked VIDEOS. (The links will remain active for four hours until midnight.)

As we wait out the Covid-19 crisis, we will also be planning our free, online, 45th Anniversary Party (to be held as soon after Labor Day as possible). Stay well and safe, and we hope to see you at our virtual party!