The Company
We live in a world with great diversity and great division. Drastic Action uses dance to create connections across lines of difference. Through performances and education programs, Drastic Action offers individuals opportunities for serious reflection, self-expression and empowerment.
Artistic Director, Aviva Geismar, and a diverse team of collaborating performers investigate issues of social justice through their dance/theater works, uncovering systemic inequities and exploring proposals for change. Recent Drastic Action dances are rooted in historical research and first person narratives. Geismar’s father escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager, and from an early age, she learned that standing by in the face of injustice was a way of contributing to it.
Tom Strini wrote in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Geismar's dead-on understanding of social realities is like a poke in the ribs. … In life and in Geismar's dances, tragedy and comedy can be hard to sort out.”
The Company
We live in a world with great diversity and great division. Drastic Action uses dance to create connections across lines of difference. Through performances and education programs, Drastic Action offers individuals opportunities for serious reflection, self-expression and empowerment.
Artistic Director, Aviva Geismar, and a diverse team of collaborating performers investigate issues of social justice through their dance/theater works, uncovering systemic inequities and exploring proposals for change. Recent Drastic Action dances are rooted in historical research and first person narratives. Geismar’s father escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager, and from an early age, she learned that standing by in the face of injustice was a way of contributing to it.
Tom Strini wrote in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Geismar's dead-on understanding of social realities is like a poke in the ribs. … In life and in Geismar's dances, tragedy and comedy can be hard to sort out.”
About Drastic Action
Dancing to Connect
Dancing to Connect (DTC), Drastic Action’s creative dance pedagogy, empowers young people by sharing creative tools. Under the mentorship of teaching artists, participants collaboratively develop their own dances which they perform. DTC enhances self-esteem, communication skills, collaborative skills, and problem-solving abilities. Drastic Action and their collaborators, Battery Dance, have led DTC workshops in many areas of political conflict and with populations processing trauma or marginalization. One workshop in South Korea connected a group of young North Korean immigrants and their South Korean counterparts. DTC has been taught in over 40 different countries and throughout the NYC school system.
Company History
Drastic Action has an extensive performance history in North America and Germany including the following prominent venues: Inside/Out (Jacob’s Pillow), Fresh Tracks (Dance Theater Workshop), Dance New Amsterdam, The Millennium Stage (Kennedy Center), Symphony Space, Haus der Berliner Festspiele (Berlin), Wilhelma Theater (Stuttgart), Arts on Site, International Performance Studies Conference (Brown University), Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Martin E Segal Theater (CUNY Graduate Center), Studio 303 (Montreal), Danceworks (Milwaukee), Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Yes, Virginia Dance Festival (Richmond), Philadelphia Fringe Festival, 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Concert Hall.
Geismar’s dances have been commissioned by Dancing in the Streets, Fernando Maneca, and Trammel and Thompson. She has been a guest artist or adjunct faculty member at Rutgers University, the University of Maryland, James Madison University, Marymount Manhattan College and Ursinus College. Geismar is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Dance Program at Queensborough Community College, CUNY. This work is symbiotic: supporting dance students is a natural outgrowth of her experience with Drastic Action, and her experiences with QCC students continuously inform her creative inquiry.
Drastic Action has been supported by the the Bay and Paul Foundations, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, Creative Engagement, The Puffin Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The PSC-CUNY Research Foundation and the John and Jody Arnhold Foundation. The company was in residency at HERE Arts Center (2000-2002) and at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2001).
An Associate Professor and Director of the Dance Program at Queensborough Community College (QCC), Geismar works with a diverse population of young people—many being immigrants and first in their families to go to college— to build their skills for entering the professional dance world. This work is symbiotic: supporting dance students is a natural outgrowth of her experience with Drastic Action, and her experiences with QCC students continuously inform her creative inquiry.