Dance meets film meets virtual reality: Ghost Factory is the latest in Bridgman|Packer Dance’s body of acclaimed and genre-breaking work that features their “video partnering,” the integration of live performance and video technology. Inspired by the residents and vast deserted factories of Johnson City, an upstate New York town, Ghost Factory is a compelling work that reveals remnants of a past era through a contemporary lens. Live performance merges with haunting video imagery of abandoned factory buildings, evoking humanity these spaces once held. With choreography and performance by the award-winning duo Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, the creative team also includes filmmaker Peter Bobrow, lighting designer Frank DenDanto III, and composer/sound designer Ansel Bobrow. In conjunction with the stage performance, there is an accompanying audio/visual installation that further brings alive the stories of residents in Johnson City, as well as those from the Scottsdale community. The installation and the stage work reveal how architecture can hold a town’s human story hidden within its walls. 

Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, artistic directors of Bridgman|Packer Dance, are Guggenheim Fellows and 2017 NY Dance and Performance Award recipients (The Bessies). Their collaborative work focuses on integrating live performance and video technology in order to blur the line between image and reality, explore identity, and reveal multiple layers of consciousness. 

The creation of Ghost Factory was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a National Dance Project Finalist Grant Award, and commissioning support from the American Dance Asylum. Bridgman|Packer Dance is a 2020 NDP Finalist Grant Award recipient. Support was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W Mellon Foundation to address sustainability needs during COVID-19 and in support of Ghost Factory.

Bridgman|Packer Dance: Ghost Factory (excerpts) from Bridgman|Packer Dance on Vimeo. 

Presenting Sponsor

Betty Hum and Alan Yudell

Presenting Sponsor
Karen and John Voris