Ian Spencer Bell: Geography Solos

Ian Spencer Bell writes and choreographs simultaneously, often relying on the music of his poetry to locate an emotional force and guide the rhythm of his movement. In this program, Bell dances Geography Solos and a new work, Holler, based on memories of his childhood home in rural Virginia. “The body is like a house,” Bell says, “with many rooms, some vast, some tiny, some cluttered, some empty, all with a map of self.” In Geography Solos, three short talking dances about dislocation, Bell kicks, turns, lunges, falls, swings, and jumps while discussing going to the Laundromat, hiking in LA, and walking around the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ian Spencer Bell grew up in Middleburg, Virginia, and trained at North Carolina School of the Arts, School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet before moving to New York City. He is a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied poetry with Marie Howe. This is his first performance in Chicago. 

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