3 RITES Life (work in process)
DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks

3 RITES: Life, Liberty, Happiness by DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks is a trilogy featuring three interactive performance rituals that integrate dance, live music, text, visual installations, community discussions and shared meals to humorously and poignantly interrogate why life, liberty and happiness were included as unalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence. 3 RITES explores what the right to life, liberty, and happiness means today, who has access to these rights, and how they manifest in the body.

3 RITES: Life (work-in-process) The Life rite emphasizes responsible stewardship of nature and questions our dependency on fossil fuels. The Life rite begins in The Greenroom, which is an interactive educational space where the audience can participate in creative reuse workshops which focus on making beads out of plastic straws or musical instruments out of discarded objects; color in a chalk mural depicting images and quotes by Black environmental activists; and more. The audience transitions to move through the Black Spirit Room and The Wasteland, which are performance installations made from plastic trash, and are a mash-up between a DIY Haunted house, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory and a dance concert.

3 RITES is produced by Marýa Wethers, and commissioned and presented by 651 ARTS, with co-commissioners Billie Holiday Theater, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Mount Tremper Arts, and National Performance Network.

About the Artists

Edisa Weeks (she/her, Choreographer, Performer) is an educator, choreographer and founder of DELIRIOUS Dances. She creates multimedia interactive work that merges theater with dance to explore our deepest desires, darkest fears and sweetest dreams. She grew up in Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Brooklyn, NY; and teaches choreography, improvisation, dance technique, and mentors emerging artists at Queens College, CUNY.

DELIRIOUS Dances seeks to erase the barriers between art and life, between performance space and audience space, and between mediums. They are interested in finding ways for the audience to interact with and influence the experience of a work. They believe that art revitalizes the everyday to reveal something new about ourselves, and the revelation is an energy, a spark that has the power to change the world.

For more information visit their website and follow them on Instagram.