Moriah Evans Debuts Symbol-Titled Dance at Chocolate Factory, Heads to Walker Art Center

Key facts

• Moriah Evans presented […/+*^%<>€£¥{{KEY_FACTS_ITEMS}}amp;@!!!!^^^] at the Chocolate Factory Theater in Queens, New York, in June 2026.
• The performance lasted two and a half hours and took place during an early summer heat wave without air conditioning.
• Dancers included Cyril Baldy, Malcolm-x Betts, Chloë Engel, Kris Lee, João dos Santos Martins, and Varinia Canto Vila.
• The work opened with dancers feigning death and the ensemble building sculptures around their bodies.
• Evans’s phrase “Life is dance, dance is death” stems from a Venn diagram first drawn by Evelyn Donnelly with words by Evans at Asad Raza’s apartment.
• The diagram was central to the Bureau for the Future of Choreography’s The Flowchart Project (2012–14), which mapped dance histories from 1950 to the present.
• A rehearsal section called “organ transplants” involved dancers using touch to imaginatively exchange organs, referencing Jean-Luc Nancy’s essay “L’Intrus.”
• Another iteration of the performance will debut at the Walker Art Center on October 9 and 10, 2026.