The Echo Carried: Resonance by Derick McKoy, Jr. | McKoy Dance Project
January 2
The Echo Carried: Resonance
by Derick McKoy, Jr. | McKoy Dance Project
ABOUT THE WORK
The Echo Carried: Resonance
Project Description
The Echo Carried: Resonance is a two-part choreographic ritual tracing a journey from chaos to clarity, from internal distortion to communal healing. Set to a layered soundscape weaving together original compositions by Vincent Pierce Smith and classical excerpts, this new work by Derick McKoy, Jr. immerses audiences in a visceral world of sonic tension and release. Featuring a dynamic ensemble from McKoy Dance Project, with transforming costumes by Erica Johnston, and raw physicality, Resonance is both atmospheric and emotionally unrelenting.
Why This, Why Now
In a world where we are relentlessly overwhelmed, overstimulated, and thrown off balance, Resonance emerges as an urgent artistic experiment—a choreographic cleansing for both artist and audience. This work offers a real-time exploration of surviving inner chaos—of the mind, the heart, and the body. It traces the journey toward a resounding, hard-won bliss that can only be found through healing. Resonance becomes a timely and necessary meditation on the aftermath: on memory, identity, and the quiet, often invisible ways the body holds pain, power, and the prospect of peace.
Concept
The work unfolds in two movements: Gilded Mania, a fractured world of decadence, illusion, and emotional noise; and Streams of Sonic Clarity, where breath, stillness, and grace begin to re-emerge. Through powerful ensemble movement and an evocative soundscape, the dancers manifest eight symbolic “mouths of chaos,” exploring characters of indulgence, rage, control, and desire. At its core, Resonance asks: What remains in the body after the chaos and what is carried beyond?