FARM Projects in collaboration with New Dance Alliance present WORKSESSION, an event that supports experimental dance and interdisciplinary performance. This event includes a film screening of Garden in the Shape of Dreams, by visually impaired immigrant choreographer and educator Christopher Unpezverde Nunez. The film will be followed with a dance performance by Lisa Parra, a creator of body image, identity and the effects that ritual, culture and language have on movement. A discussion with both Parra and Nunez will complete the program.

$15.00 General Admission

Exploring the parallels between memory, erasure, and immigration as embodying identities, Lisa and Christopher use digital and analog technologies as a reference point to create post-colonial portraits. These portraits are influenced by cultural surroundings and orientation generating works that use archival materials to re-imagine and trace physical, social and political histories.

About the artists:

Lisa Parra is a NY based choreographer and performer. Lisa has a MA in Dance/Movement Therapy from UCLA. She is a 2017-2019 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2020-2021New Dance Alliance Satellite Artist Resident Her work has been presented in New York New Dance Alliance, Movement Research, and Center for Performance Research. Internationally, her work has been presented in Portugal, Spain and Mexico. She has received commissions and residencies from Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in Troy, NY, Alkantara and Center for Arts and Architecture in Portugal, Media-Lab Prado and Teatro del Canal in Madrid, and at Bilbao Eszena in Bilbao, Spain. In addition, since 2013 Lisa has collaborated with Portuguese media artist Daniel Pinheiro on an ongoing research project LAND that focuses on how one creates an embodied presence via the internet for both developing and performing work from remote locations.

Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez is a Visually Impaired immigrant choreographer, dramaturg, educator, and accessibility consultant based in NYC. Nú˜˜ñez is a Princeton University Arts Fellow 2022-2024, a Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellow and is a two-time recipient of the Emergency Grant by Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His performances have been presented at and by The Joyce Theater, The Brooklyn Museum for The Immigrant Artist Biennale, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Movement Research at The Judson Church, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Battery Dance Festival, Performance Mix Festival and Dixon Place, among others. His work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, The Dance Enthusiast, and The Archive: The Leslie-Lohman Museum bi-annual journal. He has held residencies at New Dance Alliance (LiftOff, 2018), Battery Dance Studios (Space Grant, 2017-2019), The Kitchen (DAP, 2019), Center for Performance Research (AIR, 2020-2021) and is currently in residence at Movement Research ( Mertz Gilmore Foundation Artist-in-Residence 2020-2022), Danspace Project (Renewal Residency 2021-2022) and Brooklyn Academy of Music, BAM (Jack Nusbaum Artist Residency 2021-2022). As a performer, his most recent collaborations include “Dressing Up for Civil Rights” by William Pope L, presented at MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, and “La Procession” by Nacera Belaza presented at Danspace Project. Núñez was invited by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to share his story as a disabled and formally undocumented immigrant choreographer during Immigrant Heritage Week 2020. Núñez received his green card in 2018 but he continues to be an advocate for the rights of undocumented disabled immigrants. He holds a BFA in Science in Performing Arts from the National University of Costa Rica.