About Take on Me

Take on me is an exploration, a curiosity, and a commitment. It is both: will you take me on, the mountain & valleys of me? & will I choose to take on you? Every interaction that falls as a repercussion to that make up this story, shared between two people, maybe more. It is the negotiation of needs in close relationship. Your burden is now mine.

DZ Maciel’s inaugural evening length Take on Me is a dance-theater work of art. At 45 minutes, it is a raw play of non-stop negotiation, as DZ & Justine address each other in tender glances, in brutal words, and in rigorous dance. Together with the audience they create a world of desire & expectation, in the the staging of a raw relationship in progress. Somewhere between reading someone’s diary & witnessing the car crash at the side of the road. Take on Me is what it claims to be: alive.

Take on Me: Artist’s Market

Take on Me premiered May 18th 2019 at Trinity Grace Church Williamsburg after excerpt performances at the Creative Cultural Center and Theater Lab NYC. The sold out event included a local Artist’s Market, food and drink benefitting Provisions NYC x City Meals, Q&A post show, and live durational instillation performance also by DZ. program notes.

an inspired water color series from Kening Zhu

The Take on Me Team

Choreographer/director: DZ Maciel
Dancer: Justine Lee
Production design: Carlisle Peloquin
Production assistant: Sara Price
Lights & sound: Carlos Feitoza, Tiffany Wilson
Marketing director: Megan Wicks
Videography: Mariya Abdulkaf, Bram Vandermark
Photography: Tess Pereyo
Promo material: Terry Matthis, Albert Tong
Artist’s Market coordinator: Jayme Markus
Featured artists: Super Duper Supply, Kenning Zhu, Audicia, Neon Nectarine, Freedom Fibers, Richard Garrett Smith

DZ Maciel also commissions artists to develop new pieces inspired by the performance & ethos of Take on Me

An inspired poem from Denver based poet
Erika Oakvik

nevertheless

sometimes you will miss october
and you won’t know why.
the edges begin whispering promises
sleeping through the night
the patch of sunlight
on your lover’s neck
the sin of small-heartedness
it all begins to mean something.
sometimes feelings are meant
to be milked. get mad at god
curse the falling plane and the lizard
and your bloody nose.
you may unhold hands
eat quiet dinners for a time
scream-sing what the fuck
does belonging mean?
sometimes you may protest resilience.
we can be such tiny trees
stubborn and growing at the same time.
but, glory, here we are
left foot right foot
the aching of movement
the gift of nevertheless.