Broad Solos- 3 Hours

Choreographed and Performed by Joel Mejia Smith

Costume Design: Joel Mejia Smith

Photography: Joel Mejia Smith

Web Platform: Joel Mejia Smith

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Premiered at The Broad Museum, Los Angeles, CA - July 2021

 

Supporting Materials This Review Period

Website Design: Joel Live @ The Broad

Listing: Fourth Fridays

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Broad Solos is a series of three 45-minute scored improvisations performed over the course of an evening. Experimenting with ways of being patient in the unknown, each solo is a meditation on impulse and habit, how and when to resist and/or give into virtuosity, when to amplify and or mute the pleasure of being seen, and of queer feeling and being. I wear a mask to obstruct my vision and breath, which causes disorientation and a feeling of claustrophobia, and my ears are plugged with airpods that play my own words coaching me to resist the urge to stray from my intentions – to go slow, to build, and to be measured in the amount of information I offer over the course of 45 minutes. At times you can hear me audibly gasping for air and criticizing myself if I’m doing too much, too soon. Continuing my interest in meta-theatricality, there are access points for audience members into the making and building of the score and my approach to dancing it. In addition to the live performance, I designed a dedicated website for patrons to visit while I was performing, which showcased my photography and writing about the solos, the costumes I curated, and the sound score I used. QR codes were made available throughout the galleries for ease of access.

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 Work Samples

The evening was not fully recorded, however patrons were offered permission and encouraged to capture moments that resonated with them and to send them to my Instagram. The selected short clips below are to give you a sense of the overall evening performance.

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