Live Performances

Reconstructing the Self | Figure in Motion

Modern dance meets visual arts.

May 17, 2025 at Artistry | Bloomington Center for the Arts, MN

This performance was a captivating fusion of contemporary dance and visual art, set within Jessalyn Finch’s "Reconstructing the Self" exhibition in 2025 at Bloomington Center for the Arts. Choreographed and performed by Mary Mailand Schlicting, the piece transforms Finch’s artwork into both a dynamic backdrop and an interactive medium, drawing visceral inspiration from the exhibition’s exploration of body dysmorphia, embodiment, and transformation.

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Welcome to a space where creativity, humanity, and transformation converge.

This performance exists at the intersection of movement and visual art, unfolding within Reconstructing the Self by Jessalyn Finch. Here, the gallery is not just a setting but an active participant, a place where the internal becomes external, and the body becomes a canvas for emotion, memory, and perception.

In this work, Jessalyn Finch represents the Artist, the creator, the observer, the architect of transformation. Her visual art serves as both inspiration and environment. Mary Mailand Schlicting, through dance, embodies the Mind, the one who remembers, questions, perceives, and responds. She is the experiencer of the self, in constant negotiation with identity and reflection.

Together, artist and dancer construct a dialogue of what it means to be human:

To observe oneself.

To remember.

To transform.

To feel fractured and whole.

To be both the subject and the mirror.

As you witness this piece, allow the boundaries between art and body, thought and sensation, to blur. Let yourself be drawn into the multidimensional conversation between creator and experiencer, image and motion, self and self.

Anna Belle Albitz for the footage, editing by Laura Sukowatey