Monica Bill Barnes & Company: Days go by

The performances are free to attend, and headphones will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. You can also use your own headphones if it has a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.

You are carrying too many bags.
You still can’t find your chapstick.
You think you can get it all done.
You can’t seem to end a conversation.
You think you see someone you know.
You just need a second.​

Monica Bill Barnes & Company, “the most imaginative dance company I have ever experienced” (Vice), brings attention to the otherwise lost moments that add up into our days with their new show, Days Go By. Commissioned by Arts Brookfield, the world -premiere of this large-scale, site-specific performance is set amongst the bustle of the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, inviting the audience to take a closer look at the heartwarming, painstaking, heroic events happening to and around us each and every day. Audience members will receive a pair of headphones to tune into a narration that explores the depths of our ideals, the hilarious heartbreaks, and the disregarded moments that add up into a day. Performers embedded throughout the space transform the surroundings into a symphony of movement and interactions. Set to a soundtrack of forgotten tracks and one hit wonders, Days Go By blurs reality with the theatrical and places big-hearted dancing alongside the everyday comings and goings of life in a city.

Admission
Days Go By is a FREE performance. Seating on the stairs of the Winter Garden is first-come, first-served. We encourage you to arrive at 6:30pm to get a great spot & pick up your headphones. Please enter at 230 Vesey Street and walk until you see the palm trees and the big marble staircase. Days Go By check-in is located at the top of the staircase.

Performance Credits
Created by Monica Bill Barnes & Robbie Saenz de Viteri
Choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes
Written by Robbie Saenz de Viteri
Lighting Design by Jane Cox
Scenic Design by Kelly Hanson
Sound Design by Shane Rettig
Rehearsal Direction by Flannery Gregg
Production Support by Elizabeth Ferman

Monica Bill Barnes & Company is a contemporary American dance company that brings dance where it does not belong.  They create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook—dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum.  Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, they constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures.

Monica Bill Barnes is a choreographer, performer, and the Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Barnes founded MBB&CO in 1997 with a collection of solos that could be performed anywhere. The company has performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The Sydney Opera House, and has been presented in more than 100 cities throughout the US and internationally. Barnes has worked in film, theater, and set over 30 different works on college students all over the country. Recent company projects include The Museum Workout, a guided exercise tour of art museums made in collaboration with the author/visual artist Maira Kalman; Happy Hour, an immersive office party dance show; Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a show that combines radio and dance in collaboration with Ira Glass; and The Running Show, a new touring show inspired by the company’s award winning off-Broadway production that turns dance into a live sporting event.

Robert Saenz de Viteri began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deveare Smith. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has created, produced, and performed in Happy Hour, The Museum Workout, and One Night Only with Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Some of his other favorite projects include producing This American Life Episode 528, “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM, directing Rachel Bonds’s Michael & Edie, and creating and performing The Spiritual Life of Modern America, a collaboration in Norway based on the experiences of foreigners traveling in America today. He was honored to receive a 2018 Miss Lilly Award for his contributions to women in theater.

Below Photos by Paula Lobo