Judith Sánchez Ruíz invited me (sam wentz) to dance in the fourth iteration of her improvisational duet form in homage to the late choreographer Trisha Brown. Judith’s homage connects dancers and collaborators from the company’s 50+ year span by inviting them to participate in an intimate improvisation as a means to collectively remember our dance lineage.

This iteration of duet, entitled “PURPLE is” aimed to connect our experiential time but also space, with Ruíz live streaming from Berlin and myself from Los Angeles. The distance between us—5,781 miles—produced a ten second delay in our connection. The ubiquitous live performance conundrum of 2020: how to dance/perform with one another across oceans? “PURPLE is” consisted of spontaneous improvisation prompts cued and inspired by candid conversations, the sharing of stories from our time in the company as well as thoughts about how the dancing changed us. Spanning across geographic, experiential, historical, and temporal distance, we tried to connect.

The last segment of the performance was a Q&A between us and the audience, and was moderated by Hope Mohr, also an alumna of Trisha Brown Dance Company. By bookending and interspersing the dance with conversation and the sharing of personal anecdotes, we nod to the history that lives on and expands through our oral and physical language.