Breathe, a drive-in dance event created, choreographed and directed by Laurie Sefton, is the headlining event of the 18th annual TARFEST at The Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles, on October 2. TARFEST is a local arts tradition, celebrating creators, innovators and community in the Miracle Mile District since 2003.
A new interactive work for the next decade, Breathe will premiere on October 2, with three shows at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm. Breathe has been conceived, directed and choreographed during the COVID-19 pandemic by Sefton, with music by Bryan Curt Kostors. Inspired by drive-in movie theaters, Breathe will be live, outdoor, capsular, interactive and safe. Created with social distancing in mind, audience members will stay in their parked car during the performance, safe and socially distanced from the performers and other audience members. The audience will have the opportunity to participate in the performance by lending their headlights to illuminate the performance.
Breathe centers around our communal experience of the shutdown due to the pandemic and resulting protests. Sefton has a talent of taking intense topics and seeing them from all sides. The live original music will be created specifically for the listening environment of an automobile. The original music for Breathe will be transmitted directly to the audience’s cars via FM radio and allow the audience to listen as if sheltering in place with the comfort and closeness of familiar friends.
Dancers will perform Sefton’s complex choreography echoing the months of social isolation of the pandemic, our new normal of physical distancing, social upheaval and the protests in support of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The creation of Breathe is supported in part by individual donors, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and LAUNCH LA.