By Hannah Garner

2nd Best Dance Company blends humor and tragedy while tackling big topics through
“rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine). The company brings its signature
style to Red Hook with a physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick work
entitled Light Labor.

This evening-length work walks the fuzzy, shag-carpet line between dance performance and
narrative play, leaning into both text and movement to wonder how we handle the inevitable.
Does the inevitable require speed? Practice? Does it come back easily, like riding a bike?
Through the lens of an intimate relationship, the work considers an unknown future as a
menace and a relief. A future we are all in, together. Join us in this search for enlightenment,
but no promises we will get anywhere.

The performers–Annie Morgan and Channce Williams–cycle through absurd games,
unmetered time, accidental violence, and, sometimes, honest care to grapple with the unknown
and build their own peculiar world.

CAST and COLLABORATORS
Choreography, writing, and direction: Hannah Garner in collaboration with performers
Performance: Annie Morgan and Channce Williams

WHEN
Thursday, July 24th, 7pm (doors at 6:45 PM)
Friday, July 25th, 7pm (doors at 6:45 PM)
Saturday, July 26, 7pm & 9pm (doors at 6:45 PM and 8:45 PM)
+
Thursday, July 31st, 7pm (doors at 6:45 PM)
Friday, August 1st, 7pm (doors at 6:45 PM)
Saturday, August 2nd, 7pm & 9pm (doors at 6:45 PM and 8:45 PM)

WHERE
Green Lung Studio
22 Commerce St, Brooklyn (Red Hook), NY 11231

TICKETS
Ticket prices: sliding scale $20-50
Tickets are on sale now at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/light-labor-tickets-1426107198019?aff=oddtdtcreator

Accessibility at Green Lung
Green Lung is not wheelchair accessible: there is a short flight of stairs at the main entrance,
then a short set of stairs down into the performance space. We welcome the opportunity to
make this event more accessible – please reach out if you have any questions or ideas. Please
refrain from wearing scented products, so that people with chemical sensitivities can join us.
There will be no ASL interpretation for these performances, but you can request a typed script
prior to/at the event.

About the Company
2nd Best Dance Company creates, performs, and teaches physically rigorous, sometimes
virtuosic, almost always slapstick dance plays. We connect to audiences, students, and
professionals alike as we share emotionally accessible work that is relatable, honest, and
resonant. Led by Hannah Garner, our work…

• Believes in art-making that is exploratory, empathetic, and goofy.
• Values feeling over reality and seeks our truest sensations over absolute truth.
• Blends humor and tragedy while tackling big topics, like death and queer identity,
  through “rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine).
• Grapples with big ideas in very human ways (aka messy ways).
  Since our founding in 2016, we have used our practice and platform to play out absurdist
  scenes: we move, perform text, sing, utilize props, unconventionally handle proscenium
  spaces, and ask the audience to play active roles or even perform in the work alongside us.
  The unpredictability of live performance excites us, as does building a nexus between dance
  and text, humor and tragedy, viewer and performer. We dance hard, play very seriously, and
  lean into hunches that take us to uncertain and often ridiculous places all to ask: what does it
  mean to be alive?
• 
  About the Artistic Director / Hannah Garner
  Hannah Garner (she/her), named ‘25 to Watch’ by Dance Magazine (2020), is an NYC-based
  dancer/choreographer. She graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in
  Performance and Composition and a minor in Arts Management. Since then, Hannah has gone
  on to work with artists such as Doug Varone, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard, Rovaco
  Dance, and Megan Williams at theaters, including The Joyce Theater, New York City Center,
  Park Avenue Armory, and New York Live Arts. She has appeared in music videos for artists like
  Half Waif and Frankie Cosmos. Her work as 2nd Best Dance Company “tackles topics like
  death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine).
  Through her work, she seeks beauty in failure, explores the limits of the body, and finds solace
  in the humor of being human. In addition to her performing work, Hannah finds a creative home
  in teaching: she has served on the dance faculty of SUNY Purchase, Bard College, and Gibney
  Dance Center. She also sat on the Bessie Selection Committee for 2023-2024. Hannah is
  deeply affected by the weather and how the trains are running.