ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020

ON DISPLAY is a movement installation developed by the New York–based, physically integrated dance company Heidi Latsky Dance. The work commemorates the United Nation’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3 as part of an annual worldwide initiative called ON DISPLAY GLOBAL.

Reverting the gaze is integral to disability culture. In this installation, the performers have the power to choose what they do or do not reveal, giving them control over a personal journey that cannot help but be affected by an audience. The tenuous and complex relationship between viewer and viewed that exists in performative work also permeates everyday life with people who are different in some physical way and hence draws attention to themselves whether they want to or not.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ON DISPLAY GLOBAL will be a 24-hour live Zoom event that audience members and performers can move into and out of throughout the day. The Harvard Dance Center will host one hour of the event in partnership with the Harvard Art Museums, the original planned site for ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020.

On Thursday, December 3, from 5 to 6pm (EST), Harvard participants will perform the work, and our community at large is warmly invited to attend and bear witness.

The performance is free and open to all and will take place live via Zoom. To receive the link to join, please register through this online form.

If you are interested in being part of ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020, the Harvard Dance Center is hosting an open call for participants. No formal dance experience is required and persons with and without disabilities are encouraged to participate. Participation entails one virtual training session with artistic coordinator Ava Untermyer AIE ’19 during the week of November 30 and a short warm-up prior to the event.

ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020 is presented by the Harvard Dance Center, supported by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, in partnership with the Harvard Art Museums. The Harvard Dance Center has been an ambassador of the work for the past two years, coordinating ON DISPLAY HARVARD at accessible public spaces on Harvard’s campus. Partners in previous years have been Harvard Commons, the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, and Harvard Libraries.

ON DISPLAY GLOBAL 2020 is presented in partnership with New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, Office of the New York City Mayor, Disability Unite, and the United Nations.