Much of my writing is now published through my substack, “engaged to dance,” which you can read and subscribe to here.
Responding to Nora Chipaumire at BAM
Dogs barking fightingColorful clothes line sides but all wear blackColorful panels line sky but we are in the darkGloves on, mitts up, lights up, spar timeWhistle screamingSurrounded surround we are the surroundIn the bump and playSaved and shelteredThrowing clay not rocksThrowing shade not rocksHallelujah hallelujah is sung peacefullyWhile someone fights someone duelsThey all play and…
Responding to Clara Furey at City Center
In flat colorless world of flat colorless pinkA beat a bop a bob a gag a hiccupPushes into colorPushes others into definitionPrimary definitional colorPrimary definitional thrums pulled out and pasted out and copied outWhere we work and we fight and we fuck and we go again and we hold the beat and we hold it…
Culturebot: Maia Chao and Lena Engelstein in conversation with Nora Raine Thompson
I talk with Maia Chao (director) and Lena Engelstein (choreographer) to talk about American Idle, their public performance work of doppelgangers shown on July 9, 2025 in the middle of Times Sqaure. We discuss how projection and reality, symbol and intimacy, meet in the busy hyperreal zone of Times Square through a performance of doubles. Read…
Responding to Mette Ingvartsen at Akademietheater
Cats (the musical) but punk and also puppiesHorny and buoyed by beatScrappy trying to get by Crappy trying to get tired “I want to resist” and “abide by the darkness”I want to laugh at myself and my delicious doggy tease Green light makes every color turn into every color
Responding to Maia Chao and Lena Engelstein in Times Square (but on video)
Two grids(I want third and fourth and fifth grids, I imagine them under the ground in the upside down on the other planes) The not quite perfect unisonIs she in it is she not in itCharacters, I know themCasual kiss, breaching and electricDancing as avatars, soft repetitive wavy nothingsOpen tapping hands, like praying but gimme…
The Brooklyn Rail: Generating Glory
In Generator, Neva Guido pushes out a string of shining personas to investigate the performances that make up a spectacular world. I reflect and respond in this essay, which can be read here.
Responding to Marion Spencer at NYU
In darkness in goldenWe’re caught upTied up with youKnottedNot holding the lineBut held, held upThen bending itLetting it gleam billow blow so it can change usMake us reflectIn light you are only hands and feet and chest and a matte skyIn the mess you are only walking, plodding, keeping goingIn the brightness you are only…
Responding to Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Morgan Gregory, and Paris Cullen at the Judson Church
Johnnie: We’re at home upstairs in my bedroomOr downstairs in the basement denRing light disco light setting the mood for a teenage releaseThis is the passionate time of quick development, I saidFrom praiseTo prepTo shakeTo praiseTo heaveTo hold Morgan: You get ready casually(Right right right?)To speak every language fluentlyTranslating and sliding between idiomsSomehow making us…
Responding to Jo Warren at The Brick
in your technicolor dream,your smile has a back sideand your back hand is weepingand your teeth are in the right placebut your mouths are winking like wet cement making stars out of traffic lights in your dream, sex is squishingand hitting is squishingand kissing is smoking inside the comfort of a worn chair cross the…
Responding to Lena Engelstein and Lisa Fagan at New York Live Arts
The absurdity and loneliness of self importancePushes up when alone on stageA baby, saying, look at meA rock falling, saying, fall off meA face saying, I am the face of the network, I am important
Responding to Ishmael Houston-Jones (and Fred Holland and AJ Wilmore and Stephanie Hewett and Kris Lee) at Danspace Project
3 among 22 among 31 in body 2 in spiritKisses and gunsRage and runClunk loveFunk lovePlay it for meLay it on meLay on meMake meFreak meSweat on meTake it offKeep that onLeave it fromChoose this one
Responding to Hana Van Der Kolk at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
Keeping the ing(going, crying, moaning, planning, grieving, sucking, reckoning)Is ushered through soft white clothes and slow eye contactIs funneled through the ghost of a saxophone player up aboveIs squeezed through open spacesIs channeled through antlers and glass
Danspace Project Journal: Everything and Nothing
In this essay, I ask epic questions alongside reflections on a shared evening of dance by Jade Manns and Glenn Potter-Takata that premiered at Danspace Project in December, 2024. Read or listen to the article here.
Responding to Hayley Stahl at Target Margin Theater
How do you talk without seeing? Deadpan party chatsHow do you see yourself on stilts? Lift and turn and slowly scanHow do you not look me in the eye? Stand, sit, come, goHow was that? Rotating the miniscule until the subtle is choreographed
Responding to Miguel Gutierrez at New York Live Arts
So much section and so much movement and so much nothing and so much almost the song you know from 2010 and so much step and so much routine and so much that it is a painting until so much turns them on each other but then back to so much movement and so much…
Responding to Ralph Lemon at MoMA PS1 (again)
Flat splat white on yellowSimple dimple slow slow steady steadyFold and flipping absolutely out out outPiped in earbuds robot and little sweat spotNo, sweat rainbowNo, exam notesIntrinsically, it is AHHHHHHHHHHH, which is watching a dog watching a scream which is watching a scream sing, which is watching an outward force rush and gush
Responding to Malcolm-x Betts and Nile Harris at Chocolate Factory
Citibike cruisingThey gossip on mic, recommending the latest adrienne maree brownSwinging sun and cloud across shoulders, like a bundle to run away withCaring for one another, actuallyVia baptism, putting the batteries back in, oiling up and partying down (“this is a party this is a party”)Shooting one out like pouring one out: for Moriah, for…
Responding to Amelia Heintzelman at PAGEANT
TorsionSqueak squeezeJump quick squatOpening for a breathAh, space for a breath
Responding to Nora Alami at JACK
Speed ritualsTo get mess to get cleanTo get shaken to shakeTo invite and offer to take take get get give give no wait
Responding to Ralph Lemon at MoMA PS1
A slow long buildA suite of songsOf turning around and not quite in viewPrickling tingling legs or not legsSong song songMommy mommy mommyWith the forcefulness of a note childDress up to rant again“This is what the funeral was like:” skippingChristening dance stage as danceableContained skips and step step brush Write something and throw bricks at…
NORA RAINE THOMPSON 