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Mussels in motion is a live performance and video work about the mussels living in Newtown Creek. The work is inspired by Priscilla Stadler's work surrounding Newtown creek and her deep exploration around the elements off the creek including the sludge and mussels present at the creek. The mussels act as a natural cleaner helping to detoxify and heal the creek of its toxins (aka the sludge) Bisram decided to focus on the metaphor of the mussels as creatures of resilience and hope, using this as an exploration of how we as humans can be resilient. By examining the perseverance of these sea mollusks, the dance is an example of how we can learn endurance from our environment. By learning about these mollusks and learning from them we can better care for our environment, and therefore better care for ourselves. Through studying the way the mussels move and transposing those movements onto dancers we can create a symolic connection through movement to our waterways, and the creatures that inhabit them. Through this piece we have a complete look at how mussels have aided in the healing of our waterways that have been polluted and looked over. However, these waterways and the things they have endured are now coming to light as we look at the ways to represent and speak with them.
IMG_5763.MOVMussels in Motion was performed as a part of Mussel Memory a solo show by Priscilla Stadler. The show discusses the Mussels of Newtown Creek, and the hope that they represent for the superfund site. Through a multi-media approach Priscilla has created several pieces to discuss the importance and relevance of the mollusk, which filter the waters of its toxins daily.
More from Priscilla:
For MUSSEL MEMORY, her solo exhibition at AlterWork Studios, Priscilla Stadler continues to investigate Newtown Creek, a contaminated river running between Queens and Brooklyn. Stadler focuses on the native mussels returning to the Creek after nearly 200 years of dumping from toxic industrial processes like copper smelting and petroleum processing.
Quoted from: https://www.alterworkstudios.com/priscilla-stadler-mussel-memory
As a part of the process for choreographing Mussels in motion for Stadlers solo show, Bisram brought the work to Fertile Ground, which is a non curated Showcase. The showcase provides choreographers with the opportunity to present their work and receive feedback from an unbiased perspective. The showcase was vital and allowed Bisram to gain an outside perspective, highlighting what worked and what did not. This performance was also the start of Shakun Davi Dances 2026 season. This showcase led to some minor but important changes for the work to be ready for its major debut at the Mussel Memory show.
IMG_3234.MOVThis snippet of the video was taken a year ago for an artistic video of the dance at the site which currently inhabits a good chunk of the mussels present at Newtown creek, plank road. Plank road was also once the site of an island of Mussels, which Stadler calls Mussel Island, and is the inspiration behind the title of her show Mussel Memory. This is due to the idea that now all that is left of the ancestral mussels and their island is a memory. This short section will be combined with other sections of the dance that were videographed to create an artistic video of the work.
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