Performance
Open Rehearsal
June 26, 2026
Performance
June 27, 2026
Al Held Foundation
Boiceville, NY
Vanessa Anspaugh:
Diamond Cutter
Vanessa Anspaugh, Diamond Cutter rehearsal with Jo Warren, C Green and Laura Osterhaus at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, June 15, 2026. Image courtesy the artist and River Valley Arts Collective.
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For its fifth staging of dance in Al Held’s painting studio, River Valley Arts Collective is pleased to present Diamond Cutter, a new work by the acclaimed choreographer and dance artist Vanessa Anspaugh. Created in collaboration with performers Tara Aisha Willis, Leah Cox, C Green, Tristan Koepke, Laura Osterhaus and Jo Warren, the choreography examines liminal spaces, edge environments and sheer human tenacity. Having grown up in the coastal wetlands of Los Angeles that have been almost entirely lost to urbanization, Anspaugh credits this formidable space to inquire: What do we relegate to the edges? Who lives on the margins and what do these bodies need in order to heal?
The multi-phase score engages the physical thresholds of the studio including Held's thirteen by twenty-five foot painting titled Pan North XII (1988) and utilizes handheld window screens. These framing devices serve as functional and symbolic boundaries—acting as mediators, protectors, and separators that challenge the audience to question where the inside ends and the outside begins. "The work examines binary thinking and our deep-seated urge to separate ourselves from wildness," says Anspaugh. "Through the choreography, we are actively bringing the interior out, testing the edges of the body, and pushing against literal and psychological walls."
Diamond Cutter unfolds throughout multiple sections initiated by a slow durational sequence that progresses into precise, razor-thin movements. The phrasing exists in the cracks of the space—testing thresholds, balancing on the edge of tension, and shifting instantly from delicate invisibility to a raw, physical display. Out of this deep pressure, the performance culminates in a prismatic, highly physical execution, with bodies slicing through the space in sequined attire, embodying the literal creation of a diamond formed deep within the earth over time.
The choreography is built within multiple audio segments that includes a spoken monologue, atmospheric sound and Lou Reed's title song track Coney Island Baby (1975). The Velvet Underground's singer and songwriter crafted one of his most romantic songs inspired by his long-term partner Rachel Humphreys. Rachel was a stylist and transgender, regarded by Reed as "the princess who lived on the hill / Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong." This love letter to Rachel was equally a tribute to the boy he once was, a youth forged in the untamed outskirts of South Brooklyn.
A core segment of the spoken monologue, written by Anspaugh and recited during the performance by Tara Aisha Willis, captures the salience of the edges and the underground: "That's the thing about what gets pushed to the edges, the forgotten lots, the back-of-house, the underside — it doesn't disappear. It compresses. It becomes something harder and more precise. What the center loses track of is often exactly what it needs. What's under pressure long enough in the dark becomes a diamond. Your attention makes it catch the light."
Choreographer and performance based artist VANESSA ANSPAUGH was born and raised in the unceded land of the Tongva & Chumash (also known as Los Angeles, CA). Anspaugh has worked with Taylor Mac, Sara Shelton Mann, Aretha Aoki, Faye Driscoll, Juliette Mapp, Robbinschilds, devynn emory and has collaborated with visual artists SWOON, Every Ocean Hughes and Amber Bemak. She is a two-time Bessie Award Nominee for both Most Outstanding Choreographer (morning after mournings) of 2023 and Most Outstanding Production (The End of Men). Her work has been commissioned and presented by The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, The Rubin Museum, The Bates Dance Festival, The River to River Festival, SculptureCenter, CCS Hessel Museum of Art, Opera House Arts, Space Gallery, along with other national and international venues. Anspaugh has been a visiting teaching artist at Bard, Smith, Bowdoin, Colby and Bates colleges. She recently premiered her latest work, good mourning, in the Fusebox Festival in Austin Texas. Over the last year, Anspaugh has been a visiting artist fellow at UT Austin where she created a new work with students and local collaborators.
Organized by Olga Dekalo, Director and Curator, in partnership with the Al Held Foundation in Boiceville, NY. Over the past six years, River Valley Arts Collective has presented exhibitions in Held’s former drawing studio, outdoor installations on the foundation's grounds and, more recently, performances in Held’s painting studio. The 2026 staging of dance is made in collaboration with TREMPER located in the neighboring town of Phoenicia, NY.
The Al Held Foundation is not open to the public, however pre-scheduled and by-appointment guided and self-guided tours are available. Sign up for a tour of the exhibition using Calendly. If you would like to make an appointment outside scheduled tour times or if your preferred time is booked, email us: info@RVACollective.org.