Still, Now

by Katie Bender

After witnessing the fall of the twin towers, Annie heads to Japan to study Butoh, looking for a dance form that expresses the destruction she can’t comprehend.  Ten years later, Annie is diagnosed with stage four cancer and returns to Butoh to prepare for her final dance. Still Now confronts us with the accelerated motion of a woman learning and losing her body, accompanied by the doctors, teachers, friends and...

After witnessing the fall of the twin towers, Annie heads to Japan to study Butoh, looking for a dance form that expresses the destruction she can’t comprehend.  Ten years later, Annie is diagnosed with stage four cancer and returns to Butoh to prepare for her final dance. Still Now confronts us with the accelerated motion of a woman learning and losing her body, accompanied by the doctors, teachers, friends and lovers that become her partners in movement, to ask the question: what can our bodies teach us that our minds cannot fathom?

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Still, Now

Recommended by

  • Gab Reisman: Still, Now

    Bender so masterfully gives us a dance of doubles in this play: pairing Annie's own body against the twin towers' collapse, the difficulty of Butoh against her struggles through an advancing cancer. There's so much smart nuance here, so much love, and so much lived experience. An incredibly powerful work.

    Bender so masterfully gives us a dance of doubles in this play: pairing Annie's own body against the twin towers' collapse, the difficulty of Butoh against her struggles through an advancing cancer. There's so much smart nuance here, so much love, and so much lived experience. An incredibly powerful work.

Development History

  • Type Workshop, Organization The New Harmony Project, Year 2014

Production History

  • Type Professional, Organization Heart and Dagger Productions, Year 2018
  • Type Workshop, Organization The University of Texas at Austin and Shrewd Productions, Year 2014

Awards

  • The List
    The Kilroys
    Audience Choice
    2015
  • Shakespeare's Sister
    A Room of Her Own Foundation
    Finalist
    2014