are you or do you?

 “POETRY, WITH ONE SHOE ON AND ONE OFF” (new haven ARTS PAPER)

Are you or do you? is a 45 minute long duet performed and created by Alexis Robbins and Luiza Karnas that is years in the making and forever evolving, as every performance is unique. The work asks "can we be our full selves all of the time?" with a percussive sound score involving hands, bare feet, and tap dance upon boxes and boards of different tonalities. Through the use of physical theater, improvisation, and a touch of humor, Karnas' character consistently questions Robbins, forcing a reckoning of her uncertainty towards her identity. "(Robbins and Karnas) take their cues from each other, listening and responding like a study in transference... Although Are you or do you? is light and whimsical, there is deep intelligence in its structure" (Motion By Degrees). 

The first iteration of this work premiered in 2019 at Dixon Place (NYC) and has been evolving ever since. Are you or do you? has been presented by inQUAD (Inclined Dance Project), FEAST Performance Series, Dixon Place’s FEMME FEST, Yale Cabaret (online only film adaptation), and Arts on Site (NYC). kamrDANCE has self-produced this work at Studio i New Haven (April 2021), and in Tap Dance on Whitney at the Whitneyville Cultural Commons (July 2021).

Are you or do you? is available to tour in the US and abroad through 2026. Please email kamrdanceco@gmail.com with inquiries or for more information.

Workshop description: In this fun and eccentric tap dance workshop, participants will be using their hands as much as their feet. Based on the original premise of translating “marking” dance movements for kamrDANCE’s work Are you or do you?, Alexis Robbins and Luiza Karnas will be teaching their methodology behind the “handography” in their work and how that translates to rhythm and physicality with their feet. Participants will learn choreography from the piece as well as make their own phrases and be encouraged to be as silly and strange as possible. Join us for what will be physical theater meets tap dance, contemporary gestures meets music. This workshop is open to everyone, all types of movers and musicians, ages 15 and up (some technique and language geared towards intermediate tap dancers). You do not need to have tap shoes to participate!

Photos by Andrew Mauney, David Ovitsky, Kat Griffin, and Tom Breen.