One main purpose of all art is to convey emotions when words cannot suffice. Choreographer Kimberly Bartosik’s latest work, titled “bLUr,” is an exciting new example of the impact this kind of work can have when done well. Most recently shown at L’Alliance New York for the Live Artery Dance Festival on Jan. 12 and Jan. 19, “bLUr” is 50 minutes of raw emotion and exceptional talent, both through the creative vision of Bartosik and the five dancers’ technicality and emotional vulnerability.
“bLUr” is both risky and powerful in its intimacy. The work explores themes of erotism, violence, care and anxiety, creating an emotional environment very different from anything typically seen in classical concert dance. Bartosik admitted to asking herself “Is this ok?” in rehearsals. The dancers would often have to take long breaks in developing the piece due to the difficult nature of the work, and even in performances, Bartosik said it can still make her uncomfortable. Despite this, Bartosik sees it as necessary for our time, and its success suggests audiences feel the same.
Their intensity feels as if they cannot resist the urge to keep running, nor sustain their energy to do so.
“I realized, it’s like our world right now, and our world is not okay,” Bartosik said.
The piece consists of vivid portrayals of human relationships ranging from the most tender to the extremely damaged. Individual sections, each with their own name and rooted in what Bartosik describes as “body state(s),” act as a framework for the audience through the tumultuous experience.
“Chaos and Panic” opens the piece and immediately awakens the audience to the work’s intensity. The dancers bolt across the room, running into walls and bounding into the audience. They seem both scared of one another and intent on scaring each other. Their intensity feels as if they cannot resist the urge to keep running, nor sustain their energy to do so.
“Pumping Life Back Into the Body” has a similar energy. The dancers attempt to perform CPR on one another, but they keep “slipping out of place.” They never seem quite able to save one another.
I really needed the light to be controlled by real bodies Kimberley Barotsik, choreographer of “bLUr”
“Vibrating Desire” comes later in the piece, but was one of the first dances that Bartosik developed. Standing close to one another, the dancers vibrate with increasing intensity, sometimes with skin-on-skin contact, hinting at a level of sexual desire, or sometimes alone in moments of fraught solitude.
The incredible dance moments that make up “bLUr” are complemented by the performance design created by Bartosik’s partner Rick Murray, who she said is the only designer for her pieces. The stage is lit by two handheld “sun guns” used for lighting movies in the 1960s. The operators — Bartosik’s own college-aged child and their friend — start the piece with a tender hug, and then pick up their lighting tools.
“I really needed the light to be controlled by real bodies,” said Bartosik.
She also said that the dancers appreciated the tenderness and warmth that the light provided.
Bartosik never set out to become a choreographer, but it was seemingly destined to be. She started dancing relatively late at age 15, but achieved a successful career, including nine years with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. After leaving, she was offered an opportunity to choreograph for the first time, and it opened what she said was a sort of “Pandora’s Box” that led her to further recognition and positions in the industry, including as an advisor for the Ailey/Fordham Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance program.
Some people see Vietnam, some people see Gaza, some people see the AIDS crisis. Kimberley Bartosik, choreographer of “bLUr”
“bLUr”’s origins were similarly unexpected, originally coming to Bartosik at a 2023 residency, where she was planning to work on something different altogether.
“All this other material started coming out of my body, and it was really intense,” she said.
She traced the source of that movement to an incredibly traumatic experience a few years prior when she witnessed a loved one overdose. Soon, it became clear that she would either need to give into her inspirations completely, or not at all, and “bLUr” was born.
As “bLUr” grew, the message became more and more individual, both as the dancers experienced it in their own bodies, and as different audiences’ perceived it. Bartosik notes that sometimes the interpretations are generational, saying “some people see Vietnam, some people see Gaza, some people see the AIDS crisis.”
“I’m a big believer in reaching an audience where they’re at — not telling them what to feel, but offering the space to feel,” said Bartosik.
In “bLUr”, the power of that belief is the star. After a sold-out premier at the Fall 2025 Crossing the Line Dance Festival, a small performance in Washington, D.C., and successful showings on Jan. 9 and 12 at L’Alliance New York’s “Skyroom” space, she still plans to bring it to new audiences, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in May and the American Dance Festival in June.
Bartosik said that some are reluctant to bring it to their communities, especially with younger viewers, because of the intense nature of the work. Bartosik thinks it’s a needed experience.
“Your generation has been through a lot and you need a space to sort of reckon with it,” she said.
It is this space that makes “bLUr” so special — it provides audiences the ability to see and feel emotions they struggle to put into words.
As the dancers exit the stage, they leave their audience feeling seen. At this moment in time, “bLUr”’s intensity may be exactly what we need.