Marjani Forté-Saunders and 7NMS: float.: Phase I
Thursday, May 7 | 7:30PM
Friday, May 8 | 7:30PM
Saturday, May 9 | 7:30PM
Open Dress Rehearsal*
Tuesday, May 5 | 7:30PM
To RSVP for Open Dress Rehearsal, Click Here
Created by Marjani Forté-Saunders in collaboration with Sound Designer Everett Saunders (7NMS)
Performed by Marjani Forté-Saunders, Jasmine Hearn, and Ny Opong
Sound by Everett Saunders in collaboration with Marjani Forte-Saunders
Lighting by Tuce Yasak
Stage Design by Peter Born
float. is a multi-phased performance project that unfolds across solo, ensemble, and durational forms, attending to the dance of Body, Mind, and Will as a meditation on the Wondrous. Rooted in the Zen Buddhist concept of Clouds and Water, the work considers impermanence as a lived condition, asking how one moves through disruption, grief, and change by yielding, shifting, and advancing without resistance.
float.: Phase I is the ensemble iteration of float. that centers the dance of the Body, Mind, and Will. Unfolding as a meditation, in changing form, shifting, and advancing- steadily. It is the first phase of this three part project that is unfolding over the next two years. These performances at Danspace Project are the first public sharing of float.: Phase I.
float. is made possible in part by the MAP Fund, Movement Research, Barnard Movement Lab, Jacob’s Pillow Lab Residency, The Center for Provocative Thought, and the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs.
*About Open Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday evening’s dress rehearsal will be free with RSVP and open to the public at limited-capacity. Open dress rehearsals are a mask-required, community-minded program prioritizing our immunocompromised and low-income audiences. Staff and audiences will be required to wear masks (N95 or KN95) and performing artists (if unmasked) will be required to test for COVID-19 (rapid tests provided by Danspace Project). This is a first-come-first-served event. Danspace will not hold late seating or a waitlist during Open Dress Rehearsals. Thank you for your understanding.
Before you visit:
Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project
Marjani Forté-Saunders (she/her) is a 2023 United States Artists Fellow and recently presented the restaging of heralded choreographer Blondell Cummings’s solo Chicken Soup, re-imagined for Danspace Project’s 50th Anniversary (Chicken Soup 2025). In 2024, Marjani also celebrated her choreographic debut with the New York Metropolitan Opera, El Niño. Marjani is a 3x Bessie award winning choreographer, performer, teaching artist, and Mother. She is an awardee of the prestigious Dance Magazine Harkness Award (2020) and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2020). She is an inaugural recipient of 3 distinguishing fellowships in dance, including Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative Fellowship (2017), the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2018), and the DanceUSA Artist Fellowship (2019). Her performance installation Garden of Unicorns- a Surrealist Ode to Blondell Cummings unfolded in The Getty Gardens as part of the Ever Present Series, curated by Kristin Juarez and Sarah Cooper. Saunders is a founding member of the collective 7NMS, alongside composer/sound designer Everett Saunders. They are recent recipients of New Music USA and the National Dance Project Production & Touring award for their latest work Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist. In 2022, Saunders made her off-broadway debut as choreographer of Dreaming Zenzile, written and starring grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Somi Kakoma, and directed by Drama League Founder’s Award winning artist Lileana Blain-Cruz. Saunders is the Visioning Founder of the Art x Power a platform, dedicated to fostering purpose and innovation by investing in and building resilient futures for Black radically experimenting artists. Humbly, Saunders defines her work by its lineage, stemming from culturally rich, vibrant, historic, loving, irreverent conjurers!
