Free Fall 49 by Brendan Fernandes is an ongoing series of live, dance-based performances and installations responding to the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL on June 12, 2016. The work poses the falling body as metaphor for queer politic, and the dance floor as a space for resistance and experiencing agency. During the performance dancers perform on raised platforms to a DJ'd soundtrack responding to the set performed at Pulse the night of the shooting. Over the course of the performance, the music stops and the dancers fall to the floor a total of 49 times: once for each fatal victim of the attack. In the performance, the music always starts again and the dancers stand up again to dance. In the work, dancing and standing back up serve as acts of resistance.
Conceptualized by Fernandes and DJ’ed by Karsten Sollars, Free Fall 49 will be performed by local dancers.
This performance is part of the exhibition All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy, on view at Bemis Center through September 19.
FREE ADMISSION. This performance will take place outdoors. The performance will also stream live at twitch.tv/bemiscenter. Twitch account not required.
Free Fall 49 at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art
For two hours a collective body of dancers will fall 49 times
July 22, 2021
