A dance about dances about love.
Interested in the human impulse for connection, BABYBABYBABY taps into feelings of budding romance, when falling in love is silly and fast and sexy and devastating and you are brilliant and stupid and spellbound. With reference points ranging from early aughts romantic comedies and So You Think You Can Dance duets, to archival footage of live performances by Roberta Flack and Nina Simone, to obstacle course TV game shows and clowning, the work stumbles through shades of silliness, irrationality, passion, and grief, calling into question the role of sincerity, earnestness, and truthfulness in performance, and the power of physical states.
BABYBABYBABY seeks to explore how we contend with the precarity of trust, impulsivity, and continuity via malleable agreements and disagreements, in its physical acts and in its overarching theme.
It is a work that is interested in companionship and partnership, exploring the ways we give and receive care.
BABYBABYBABY is the grand gesture I am committing.
director and choreographer: Laila J. Franklin
performers, past and current: Guillermo Castro, Alexander Davis, Michael Figueroa, Laila J. Franklin, Jenna Gross, Andrea Muñiz, Marissa Molinar, Sarah Pacheco, Sasha Peterson, Marcel Santiago Marcelino
lighting design: Anne Dresbach
dramaturgy: Kate Gow & Eliza Malecki
rehearsal director and stage manager: Mira Göksel
rehearsal assistance: Abby Fuller & Justine Schmaltz
documentation: Cameron Kincheloe
Workshop:
Boston Center for the Arts at Calderwood Pavillion, May 2024
World Premiere:
Philadelphia Fringe Festival at Performance Garage, September 2025
New England Premiere:
Presented by Motion State Arts at Wilbury Theatre Group, November 2025
Maine Premiere:
Presented by Maine Mechanics Hall, April 2026
Massachusetts Premiere:
Presented by The Dance Complex, May 2026
Developed with the support of the Boston Center of the Arts, Boston Dance Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, and generous donations from patrons like you.
Photo by Cameron Kincheloe
Copyright © 2025 Laila J. Franklin | Franklin Et Al LLC - All Rights Reserved.
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