Talking Heads star David Byrne is giving New Yorkers a new creative outlet by launching a social distance dance club in New York City.
The musician has teamed up with Broadway veterans, set designer Christine Jones, and choreographer Steven Hoggett, to stage SOCIAL!, an interactive and experiential movement piece at the Park Avenue Armory.
Just 100 participants will be welcomed into the venue's expansive Wade Thompson Drill Hall at any one time to enjoy their own freeform dance or follow the spoken choreography in a voiceover from Byrne, moving in their own socially-distanced circles.
The event, commissioned by Armory officials for its newly-unveiled Social Distance Hall, features a playlist curated by Jones, Hoggett, and Byrne, and mixed by DJ Natasha Diggs.
Rebecca Robertson, Founding President and Executive Producer of Park Avenue Armory, wrote in a statement: "The Armory's commitment to supporting and partnering with artists in the creation of new works that are responsive to society is a foundational component of who we are as an organization. The commissioned work that is part of Social Distance Hall exists, not despite of, but because of the pandemic that we have all been living through over the last year."
She went on: "With SOCIAL!, we are delighted to invite New Yorkers to come together through a communal, safe, and multisensory experience that draws on the building's acoustics and grand architecture, and the Armory's cross-disciplinary programming mission."
SOCIAL! will begin previews on 9 April, and officially run from 13 to 22 April.
