ABYSS is an iterative and site specific dance and sound performance that examines the ways we perform ourselves in public and social gathering spaces. Created, scored and directed by slowdanger, the work examines our bodies' (abysses) states of being within public structures and its relationship to other bodies – the site, vibration, groove, physical labor, absurdity, power and release.

For this iteration, slowdanger directors taylor knight and anna thompson, will create the piece on seventeen dancers who are participants in the Springboard Danse | Pittsburgh program. slowdanger will install the performance within downtown Pittsburgh’s Smithfield-Liberty Parking Garage rotunda on June 7th, 2025. The garage's unique dome feature will serve as a canopy for the performance and an immersive media installation by ProjectileObjects.

ABYSS pays homage to Pittsburgh's rich history as a major figure in the industrial era of the United States, as well as a historic bastion for public art and creative placemaking. By situating homegrown experimental performance within an architecturally unique downtown structure, we ask, how do our bodies and structures hold resonant and somatic memories of the past? Can we sift through these responses and memory to build a new piece out of their remnant, to imagine new ways of future and holding space?

This work is supported by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership Placemaking Grant, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, Point Park University, and Springboard Danse.