RED walks the fuzzy, shag-carpet line between dance performance and narrative play, leaning into both text and movement to tell an abstracted version of a well-known fictional story of survival: Little Red Riding Hood. By cycling through distinct characters, both true to the original story and entirely new, 2nd Best Dance Company explores how we confront the many-faced “big bads” that lurk on our personal wooded paths. In RED (choreographed, written, and directed by Hannah Garner), four performers brave the unknown to tackle “topics like death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine, 2020).

Featuring 2nd Best Dance Company
Courtney Barth
Hannah Garner
Will Noling,
Ryan Yamauchi

Founded in 2016, 2nd Best Dance Company creates, performs, and teaches physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick dance-plays. Pursuing these interests our work has gone past the traditional dance proscenium to include collaborations in sculpture, animation, theater, film, and site-specific works. Past commissions have included GroundWorks DanceTheater, Gibney Dance, GALLIM x CreateArt, Kizuna Dance, SUNY Purchase, the Hartt School, among others. 2nd Best was a Resident Artist of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (2022), GALLIM’s ‘Moving Women Residency’ (2021), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2021), and Triskelion Arts (2019).  Recent credits include Redtail artist residency, an upcoming dance film, movement direction for Snail Mail band (‘Valentine’ European tour, 2022), a week of teaching at University of Montana, and a tour of ‘RED’ to Montana and Washington.

Led by Hannah Garner, 2nd Best continues to seek multidisciplinary partnerships, explore limits of the body, and find solace in the humor of being human.

“Garner...creates work that ‘stands at the border of humor and tragedy,’ she says, and tackles topics like death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit." - Lauren Wingenroth, Dance Magazine

“RED had the atmosphere of an absurdist late-night talk show and the intrigue of a lurid fan fiction written by a hopelessly romantic high schooler. Familiar scenes warped and waxed larger-than-life; known narratives took hairpin turns into strange territory. Heroes and villains impersonated each other and walked into the sunset holding hands. Who’s to say if they lived happily ever after. ”

“Evokes smiles with its whimsy and heart pangs with its emotional honesty.”-Steve Sucato, Dance Magazine

www.2ndbestdance.com
@2ndbestdance