Tend

January 10–26, 2025

Tend speaks to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s theme of Work in Progress by reminding us of work’s necessary counterpart, rest.

For three weeks in January, Chicago-based dance company Khecari will be in residence in the Arts Center’s Social STUDIO. Highlighting the residency are performances of Tend, Fridays and Sundays, January 10–26.

Tend imagines a world where your monthly, weekly, or yearly dance appointment is a legitimate need. Matched with a dancer/technician for an hour-long appointment, the interactive performance envelopes the guest in a choreographic journey designed to respond to interests and needs that emerge on the day of the visit. Through this structure, Tend opens up a space between performer and audience where it is possible to explore the layered dynamics of interpersonal interactions and somatic engagement. Weaving together consensual touch, conversation, music, and movement, Tend offers an  opportunity to rest, recharge, reflect, and foster connection.

Tend
A choreographed service for tending
Arms through fingertips
Vellus through androgenic
Being guided through an experience of small talk as social glue
Observing and being observed
Reflective
Reassuring
Sending you back into the world
Socially stimulated
Somatically organized

Tend was developed and produced by Khecari, a dance company co-directed by Julia Antonick and Jonathan Meyer. The concept for this work began its gestation in 2015 with the first iteration performances in 2022. This is the fourth iteration of this work.

The Arts Center’s iteration of Tend will be performed by:
Julia Antonick – choreographer/director/project creation and discussion
Jonathan Meyer – main cast performer/lighting and environmental designer/carpenter/project discussion
Chih-Hsien Lin – main cast performer/project discussion
Enid Smith – main cast performer/project discussion
Gina Hoch-Stall – main cast performer/care contact/project discussion
Helen Lee – main cast performer/project discussion
Joe St.Charles – composer/project discussion
Jeff Hancock – upholstery and costume designer/project discussion
Heather LaHood – architect/designer/project discussion
Kristin Weinberg – photographer/project discussion
Robin Davis – Operations Assistant
Michelle Brehmer – Operations Assistant

For a list of other artists involved in the past iterations visit khecari.org/tend

Khecari directors Antonick and Meyer will visit the Social STUDIO on November 17 to install images of Tend to introduce the work to Arts Center visitors before its arrival after the New Year.  At the beginning of January, Khecari will return to install Tend in the Social STUDIO and begin rehearsals.

Rather than issuing a traditional ticketing interface, the Arts Center will serve as a conduit for connecting prospective participants to an interest form. This is where the ticketing process for Tend becomes  unique and customized: Tend director Antonick is actively engaged and intentional in a matchmaking process between audience member and dancer. Individuals fill out an interest form to share information about their personal comfort levels with various subtle aspects of the performance. Antonick then makes individualized matches, schedules the appointment with the audience member, and facilitates the ticketing process.

Structured as a one-hour appointment, the self-care informed dance and music scores simultaneously envelopes the audience while leaving space to allow your nervous system to settle, contemplate the inherent power differentials in human interaction, and allow the somatic possibility of conflict resolution in true social grooming form. Colliding necessity, extravagance, and irrelevance, Tend is a service providing a much-needed place to rest, recharge, reflect, reconcile. During Khecari’s residency, the Arts Center’s Social STUDIO will be a place for small talk, catching up—grooming bodies and relationships in turn. Participants’ family members and Arts Center visitors are encouraged to stop by the Social STUDIO to rest, relax, and socialize.

Khecari creates dance works furthering the transformative power of live bodies witnessing live bodies and advocates for the essential role of art within society, of dance within the arts, and of all artists working within the dance ecosystem. Supporting the artistic inquiry of choreographers Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer, Khecari presents the work they create in collaboration with artists in dance, music, design, and other media, to offer live performed art that challenges, engages, and focuses the power of attention. Past Khecari projects include, as though your body were right, Marginalia, The Retreat, and The Cronus Land.