The Brain Piece, presented June 28-July 1, at New York Live Arts, is part installation and part proscenium
performance, designed to allow audiences to have an intimate experience with their own
minds and bodies. Only 72 audience members at a time are invited, yielding a
personalized and engaging experience.
Performed by Oberfelder with Mary Madsen, Pierre Guilbault, and Hannah Wendel,
along with 10 "dancer docents”, The Brain Piece evokes tangible and interactive
experiences, where dance, music, visual art, film, and words enliven the inner life of the
brain through overlapping perceptual domains. With set design by Juergen Riehm (with
Penelope Phy and Tine Kindermann), lighting design by Kate Bashore, and film by Eric
Siegel and Oberfelder, her new work invites the audience to be part of an immersive
cerebral and sensorial installation, leading spectators through various spaces, each
dedicated to one aspect of the brain.
Entering the intellectual and sensorial world of The Brain Piece, the audience has
access to a heightened subjective experience of the brain. The piece celebrates the
brain’s neuroplasticity, the ability to form connections. “My new work illuminates the
“dance” that continuously takes place in our minds,” states Oberfelder. “By watching
and participating in the piece, the audience will experience their brains moving, dancing,
working and playing, and understand dance as a language that goes directly to the
brain.”