photo: Kris Lefcoe

A complete video of this performance is available to view online via the Kennedy Center archive:
Watch Five Open Mouths

Five Open Mouths was performed for New York audiences at The Baryshnikov Arts Center during a November-December 2006 residency and premiered at Judson Memorial Church January 19-20, 2007. Alliger Arts presented Five Open Mouths at the BU Theaterin Boston, MA on March 16. June 4, 2007, The Millennium Stage and VSA arts presented Lisa Bufano performing Five Open Mouths at The Kennedy Centerin Washington D.C. with a screening of Phoenix Dance, a documentary chronicling the career of acclaimed dancer Homer Avilaa Homer.
Watch this performance online via the Kennedy Center archive: Watch Five Open Mouths

Five Open Mouths is a solo dance performance created in New York September - December, 2006 by choreographer Heidi Latsky [www.heidilatskydance.net] for Lisa Bufano [www.lisabufano.com]. This performance is the product of an extensive and life-changing artistic relationship between Lisa Bufano and Heidi Latsky. The title refers to Lisa's experience of unwrapping her bandages and seeing her hands after following surgery - a difficult, yet cathartic experience. In their first week working together, Latsky asked Bufano to write a personal story and to embody movement to tell that story. From this exercise, Bufano created an 'unraveling' gesture by varying the momentum of small circling with her hand at the wrist while creating a larger revolution around the axis of her elbow. Latsky refined and incorporated this gesture into the final section of the piece.

Themes of unraveling and revealing and sleep and sleeplessness resonate throughout Bufano's performance. Set in five tableaux, Five Open Mouths is defined by Bufano's physical transformations through the character of her movement, the use or lack of leg prosthetics, and silence juxtaposed with music.
Read full Press Release.

Heidi Latsky encorporated Five Open Mouths into her current work with Heidi Latsky Dance, featuring Jeffrey Freeze and Lawrence Carter-Long (reknowned NY disability advocate, creater of the Dis-This Film series, and all-around social debutant). From the Limb is an evening-length show that is currently being performed as a work in progress. For more info visit www.heidilatskydance.net.

This performance was made possible in part by the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, supported by Jerome Foundation and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; a Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency; and sponsorship from the Bikram Yoga Studios NYC.

Special thanks to:
Kelly Kivland, Jeremy Alliger, Jeffrey Freeze, Courtney Franklin, Frank Ponzio, Randall Wolf, Martha Wilson of Franklin Furnace, Christina Sterner & Huong Huang of The Baryshnikov Arts Center, Lauren Murray, Donna Rubin & Jen Lobo of Bikram Yoga NYC, Clara Wainwright, Jason Karakehian, Kitty Lunn, Chris dePierro, Bina Alter, Jason Tschantre, Peter Lipera, Paul H. Taylor, Kris Lefcoe, and Tiffany and The Tank.

Many thanks to the friends and volunteers who helped make the NY premiere a success:
Ava Perez, Kathryn Pierroz, Amelia Meath, Lawrence Carter-Long, Michelle Mantione, and Brian Glover.