Make Believe is the second in a trilogy of woks that uses religious iconography as a way to explore themes of romance. In it we explore religious spectacle and how these rituals are unified by themes of paganism, magic and celebrity worship. Make Believe deconstructs what it means to believe in magic and how that bleeds into our constructions of spirituality and our understanding of romance.
The development of this work was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; additional support from the National Dance Project’s Production Residency in Dance program, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Dance Project’s Community Engagement Fund, with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Major support for this new work also comes from the MAP Fund, primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This work was co-commissioned by the American Dance Festival with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works; The Yard, an artist residency and performance center dedicated to contemporary dance and related arts, as part of the 2018 Off-Shore Creation Residency; The Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College; and the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. It was developed, in part, during a creative residency at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, The Yard, Miami Light Project, Miami Theater Center; and a technical production residency at The Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College. Additional community engagement development for Make Believe was supported by the Alabama Dance Council as a grantee of Engaging Dance Audiences administered by Dance/USA and made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Estimated run time: 75 mins
"Though our age seems intent on testing our deepest faith in one another, Herrera suggests that the sheer buoyancy of belief might see us through. Here’s hoping.”- Byron Woods, Indy Week NC
