body/mouth

a dancer and upright bass player performing on stage

Devised and Performed by: Laila Franklin and Will Yager
Collaborating Author: Pamela Rahn Sánchez
Lighting Design: Dante Benjegerdes
Videography: Jennifer Curiel and Mariana Tejeda
Video Editing: Nick Coso

The hole

Pamela Rahn Sánchez

The hole that they opened for you, grandpa, was an open mouth to the spectators and through it entered long roses that pointed to the center of your tombstone but did not fall in the middle, but rather they slid as if they wanted to return to earth and be once again a seed, through that open mouth of soil your body entered and I could no longer see it, covered by that brown and golden tombstone my uncle bought for you, by those immense wreaths of flowers, from which I stole roses and lilies to put them on other deceased that I did not know, but like you were part of that soil in the cemetery, inside of that open mouth, you, grandpa, who hurt, who habit, who slept, who had secrets, who lived until the last consequences, stuck and inventing, helped and wrapped in flowers, your body that now carcass, your body that betrayed and was betrayed, your body that prayed and prayed and prayed outside and inside and upside down and in all positions, in a dark room with old photos, your body that now carcass, your body that is today just magma inside the earth, which feeds along spirits that pay sacred consequences, that is now gravestone, earth, cement, metal, meat and bugs that by chance decided to born around your death, your body grandpa, is a monstrous and wet hole, full of the vertigo of the living that saw you fall obediently for the last time. Your body that beat the hole and became an open mouth, your body that now chews the tears of your children, that now modestly sucks the moisture on my grandma’s neck, your body / mouth that is now a poem, a dictionary of words learned by all of us who knew you, is now resurrected and is a cut lily put by my hands in the grave of another.

Laila J. Franklin
Laila J. Franklin is a dance artist and movement researcher from the Washington, DC area. She is presently pursuing an MFA in Dance at the University of Iowa as an Iowa Arts Fellow, with extended roots in the Greater Boston Area. She holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance, with an emphasis in Composition, from the Boston Conservatory, and has completed additional training through the Ailey School Professional Division (NYC), Trinity Laban Conservatoire Summer School (London), and Lion's Jaw Dance and Performance Festival (Boston). Laila has performed work by artists such as Aszure Barton, Keith A. Thompson, Mark Morris, and Zoe Scofield. She has worked as a collaborator with Ruckus Dance (Boston) and Pavement Dance (NYC). In addition to her performance work, Laila has presented choreography through the Boston Conservatory and the University of Iowa, and performance venues Third Life Studios (Boston) and Public Space One (Iowa City). She is a co-founder and current performing member of Dance Farm Collective along with fellow MFA in Dance candidates Michael Landez, Juliet Remmers, and Mariko Ishikawa.

Pamela Rahn Sánchez
Pamela Rahn Sánchez (poet; Venezuela) has published four poetry collections, including La luz entre las cosas (2020), Breves poemas para entender la ausencia (2019; winner of the Gloria Fuertes International Young Poetry Award), El peligro de encender la luz (2016), and Flores muertas en jarrones sin agua (2017). Many other award-winning poems have been anthologized in US and Latin American publications.

Will Yager
Will Yager is a versatile bassist committed to experimental music, improvisation, and collaborating with composers in the creation of new solo and chamber repertoire for the double bass. Yager has worked directly with composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, Miya Masaoka, Scott Wollschleger, Sivan Cohen Elias, Mary Jane Leach, Jean-François Charles, and Amy Williams. He is a founding member of both LIGAMENT, a duo with soprano Anika Kildegaard, and the experimental trio Wombat, with Justin Comer and Carlos Cotallo Solares. In addition to his performing activities, Yager previously held teaching positions at Maryville College and the University of North Alabama. Recent appearances include performances at the Oh My Ears Festival, MOXsonic, Big Ears Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, Nief-Norf Summer Festival, New Music on the Point, Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, where he was a Robert Black Double Bass Fellow.