In the quirky and theatrical dance work it’s not me it’s you, this duet explores how expectations in relationships, often precipitated by misunderstandings and stigmas, result in compartmentalization, recalibration, and the need to reevaluate and relinquish our presumptions.
$12 / 55 minutes
Anna Barker (Artistic Director, real.live.people.durham) is a choreographer and performer based in Durham, NC. Her company made its Durham debut in 2014, presenting it’s not me it’s you at Motorco Music Hall. Anna hails from Durham, North Carolina by way of South Africa by way of London. She attended Durham School of the Arts high school and spent many summers at the North Carolina School of the Arts and the American Dance Festival. After completing degrees in Dance and Psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia, Anna joined the mass of starving artists in New York City, where she lived as a freelance dancer and supported herself working in restaurants and wine shops. Anna relocated to her hometown two years ago, and fell in love with the budding dance community. In November 2013 she was awarded an artist residency at Elsewhere Collaborative, a living-museum and artist collective in Greensboro, NC, where she created and performed a site-specific work, booted & spurred. This solo about physical boundaries, obstacles and constraints developed into a duet with collaborator Leah Wilks about emotional boundaries, obstacles and constraints. And thus, it’s not me it’s you was born. Anna has shown work as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival (2009), the Association of Performing Arts Presenters- APAP (New York City), WAXworks at Triskelion Arts (Brooklyn), at Dance New Amsterdam (Manhattan), the New York Film School, and at various venues in North Carolina. it’s not me it’s you was most recently performed as part of the American Dance Festival’s 2015 season.
Leah Wilks is a Durham-based dancer, teacher, choreographer and organizer. She currently teaches at Carolina Friends School, 9th St. Dance, NC State, and the ADF Studios, and performs as a part of Shaleigh Dance Works, Renay Aumiller Dances, The Dept., and real.live.people.durham. She runs her own multi-media dance company VECTOR with brilliant visual artist Jon Haas (inthevector.com), and is a founding member of both Durham Independent Dance Artists (didaseason.com), and the arts non-profit Culture Mill (culturemill.org). View an excerpt of it’s not me it’s you here.