TOPAZ ARTS presents showings of new work by 2024-25 AAPI Artists in Residence. Join us Saturday, May 17th at 2pm for Marie Lloyd Paspe‘s new collaborative work in sound and movement.
“to be free”
Director, Choreographer: Marie Lloyd Paspe
Sound Artist: Sylvain Souklaye
Created and performed in collaboration at TOPAZ ARTS
Sat, May 17, 2025, 2-4pm
TOPAZ ARTS, 55-03 39th Ave. > directions
Free: RSVP here >
Ignited by the hypervisibility of and surveillance on immigrants, we are interested in what it means to be seen and making with our bodies during this time. ‘to be free’ is a sound-movement choreography of observation and deep listening to the invisible, Sacred, and absent. Through sonic landscapes made by loop pedals, body mics, and vocals, with choreography inspired by the in/visibilities of labour and the subsequent absence of what was — the piece attempts to capture our experiences as transcontinental artists whose families moved to this country for a better life.
Marie Lloyd Paspe is a TOPAZ ARTS 2024-25 AAPI Artist in Residence which supports and celebrates new works by Asian American and Pacific Islander dance artists, made possible by TOPAZ ARTS, Inc. in part with funds from the NYS DanceForce, a partnership program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
About the Artists:
Marie Lloyd Paspe (she/her) is a Filipina-American dance and vocal performer, choreographer, director, educator, and writer based in lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY. Paspe is Bessie-awarded for Outstanding Choreography for contributions to Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane’s “Deep Blue Sea,” performer with BTJ/AZ since 2018, 2022 A4 Jadin Wong Fellow, 2023 Gallim Moving Artist Resident, and 2024 TMT Institute Fellow. Her work re-roots the diasporic Asian body-voice, focusing on harmonious belonging in ‘kapwa’ (“shared one-ness”) that exists within and juxtaposes the patrionormative space. Paspe’s work was presented in Germany, the Philippines, and China; and nationally across the States. Features include film performance at Taikang Space (Beijing, China), resident artist at TOPAZ ARTS (Queens, NYC), choreographic director for treya lam at MASS MoCA, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center. Marie’s choreographic works have been presented at Harlem Stage, MASS MoCA, Lincoln Center, Movement Research at Judson Church, Joe’s Pub, Green Space, Chelsea Factory, Ailey CitiGroup Theater, Arts on Site, Target Margin Theater, TOPAZ Arts, Queensboro Dance Festival, Bethany Arts Community, Smush Gallery, and Reeds Arboretum. Internationally, her work has been presented at SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin and UGNAYAN virtual Philippines festival. In June 2025 she will be conducting immersive research in Siquijor, Philippines and presenting her solo work sunod at Fete de la Musique PH Siquijor. www.marielloydpaspe.com
Sylvain Souklaye is a French Caribbean Brooklyn-based live artist, sonic maker and author. His craft and mission go beyond and deeper than the question of identity. Following the idea of the rhizome, Souklaye digs in the sensitivity and history laying in the interiority of broken bodies, environmental urgencies and political retribution. Souklaye started his artistic journey focusing on DIY social justice, or vandalism as he called it, and defined it as the necessary destruction for justice and self-designation. Lyon, his hometown, carries the Canut revolts heritage and merges with his Neg marron origin from Martinique (freedom and rebellion movement), to obtain a perfect cocktail, a cocktail molotov. Interiority is at the center of Souklaye’s body of work; collective intimacy and epigenetic dialogues are the inner spaces where he spends time exploring and inviting the audience (in)to. Each living soul is a part of his live experiences, and there are no active or passive members of the audience, only those who want to be activated. His shows are self-centered yet collective live experiences that reveal what is left inside him and us. Souklaye was recognized in the top 100 Contemporary Artists from the Aesthetica Art Prize, and his essay Living Liveness was published in Art As Social Practice: Technologies for Change by editors Xtine Burrough and Judy Walgren (Routledge, 2022). Souklaye is the producer and co-host of Conversations From the Center, a series of global conversations about the arts, transdisciplinary research, and social justice activism for the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (Boston, USA & Helsinki, Finland). Souklaye is a commissioned artist for the 2022- 2024 Program of International Contemporary Ensemble & the Jerome Foundation (New York, USA), recipient of the Prospect Art grant with the installation Be Happy or Die (Los Angeles, USA), lecturer at IRCAM (Paris, France), and current fellow at Harvestworks. www.sylvainsouklaye.com
