ecdysis / tone : Experimental Performances by Anna Maynard & marion spencer
Schedule
Sun Mar 08 2026 at 04:00 pm to 05:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
The Fruit | Durham, NC
About this Event
ecdysis / tone : Experimental & Interdisciplinary Dance Performances by Anna Maynard & marion spencer
Sunday March 8th 4p
The Fruit (305 S. Dillard Street, Durham NC)
Longtime artist friends Anna Maynard and marion spencer share an evening of experimental & interdisciplinary dance performances on Sunday March 8th 4p at The Fruit (Durham, NC).
Anna and marion first met in 2018 in Western Massachusetts — Anna was in the MFA Dance program at Smith College, and marion came to town for a residency at Amherst College. They were introduced through a shared interest in developing performance work with loop pedals and experimental music, and have remained friends ever since. During the pandemic, they connected through mutual aid in working to build support for the dance community - one of the projects was an online dance school called Freeskewl, started by Anna. Their connection continues to be grounded in mutual respect for one another’s creative, somatic, and teaching practices.
This evening marks the first iteration of an experimental performance evening at The Fruit. The works are intentionally stripped down, offering a starting point for ideas that will continue to evolve over time and into future collaborations.
Anna Maynard-
About TONE
This explorationn is an embodied study of perception, orientation, and choice. Movement begins in the subtle muscular preparations that shape action. A shift of weight, a breath that gathers, a spine that turns toward or away. Gesture builds through accumulation, allowing physical states to surface without force.
Looped sound, breath, and live audio create an immersive field that the performers move within and alongside. Structure provides a clear container while leaving space for improvisation and real time composition.
The work centers process in plain view, inviting the audience into a shared atmosphere of attention. What emerges is a physical landscape shaped by sensation, responsiveness, and the ongoing negotiation between inner experience and shared space.
About Anna
Anna Maynard is a dancer, choreographer, photographer, and somatic practitioner whose work explores perception, improvisation, and relational presence. With an MFA in Dance and Performance from Smith College, her practice moves between performance, image making, and community-based teaching. She creates spaces for embodied inquiry through classes, collaborative projects, and durational movement practices, and is committed to supporting artistic exchange through processes rooted in attention, experimentation, and care.
marion spencer-
about ecdysis
ecdysis is a solo project in development and part of a series of solos excavating lineage, archive and dreams amidst onrushing climate catastrophe. This research is feminine, feminist, interdisciplinary and inspired by the act and process of shedding - internal, external, decolonial and archival. Studying adaptation as an experimental, theoretical and intuitive practice, this project asks – ‘what do we let go of’ and ‘what do we dream for’ at the end of the world? ecdysis is the second in a series of solos marion is making exploring the nature of being alive and embodied while the world falls apart. [ecdysis (noun): the process where an animal sheds its outer layer, called the cuticle or exoskeleton, to allow for growth, renewal and development.]
about marion
marion spencer is a Bessie Award-nominated dance artist based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn since 2014. Weaving movement, sound & installation, she creates solo and ensemble performances built from feminine, feminist and interdisciplinary practices. Her creative research engages scientific, artistic and academic texts, images and objects- interrogating these materials through embodied research. marion utilizes her training in experimental postmodern dance, choral singing and installation, placing these mediums in conversation with her personal heritage as the child of Mesoamerican Archaeologists from Venezuela and Panama. This lineage shapes her creative interests in excavating extinction, adaptation and futurity by centering the kind of feminist knowledge and intuitive wisdom that comes only from thinking through the body. marion’s work has been presented in New York City by La Mama Experimental Theatre, Roulette Intermedium, Center for Performance Research, Danspace Project, Gibney, New Dance Alliance, Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, and more. She has been an Artist in Residence at MacDowell, The American Dance Festival, The Chocolate Factory Theater, The Field Center, Gibney, Amherst College and Mana Contemporary, among others. As a performer, marion has had the pleasure of collaborating with Joanna Kotze, Laurie Berg, BAND|portier, Laura Peterson, Larissa Velez-Jackson, Michelle Boulé, Tyler Rai and as a guest performer with David Dorfman Dance and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. She has been on faculty at Rutgers University, Sarah Lawrence College, Movement Research, Gibney, Dancewave and more. MFA in Dance: Interdisciplinary Research, New York University Tisch School of the Arts (2025). www.marion-spencer.com
Where is it happening?
The Fruit, 305 South Dillard Street, Durham, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 13.45 to USD 24.92
