truth or consequences

Salons

Heidi Duckler’s Truth or Consequences salon series explores how interdisciplinary art can showcase a variety of topics. The first event in the series kicked off in March 2022, and featured three multidisciplinary artists, and has continued since. 

Heidi Duckler Dance salons are intimate gatherings where artists present their work to the community and cultivate conversation. These events often show works in progress, highlight emerging art makers, and bring different disciplines together.

The history of salons in artist communities goes back centuries. These events were first hosted in Europe in the 1500s, finding fans in Italy and France. Famed author Gertrude Stein became known for hosting salons in the 1920s, creating a space for education and discussion.

Salons at Heidi Duckler Dance stay true to the roots of the gatherings, encouraging guests to explore complex themes through art and performance. Past Heidi Duckler Dance salons have included the Unsettling Ramona series, which brought together indigenous artists, activists, scholars, and thought leaders. These guests amplified the stories of Native Americans in California, taking a special interest in the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Heidi Duckler Dance hosted salons virtually as part of its Here/There series, inviting panelists to discuss the role of art during crises.

Heidi Duckler Dance salons are typically hosted at the company’s office in the Bendix Building, which is located in Downtown L.A. For more information on our upcoming salons and tickets, please visit the events page.

Media Gallery

November 2024 – Life Cycle of a Fever Dream

In this edition of Truth or Consequences, HDD showcases the work of experimental sound artist Julia Edith Rigby, whose exploratory opera, Life Cycle of a Fever Dream, invited audiences into a richly immersive soundscape. Life Cycle of a Fever Dream drew from the natural world, combining human and animal sounds—whale sharks, golden-headed lion tamarins, silk moths—with the elements of climate, terrain, and sensory experience. Rigby performed live on viola and piano in conversation with twenty-two other musicians, sound artists, and vocalists.

This immersive, interactive experience explored collaboration and interdependence with soniferous animals and environments, imagining futurities that muddle our understanding of sensory worlds and sense of place, loss, and possibility.

February 2024 – Unfolding the Untold

Truth or Consequences: Unfolding the Untold explores the different perspectives expressed by creatives whose voices we may not have heard. These different perspectives can stimulate our imagination and help us discover new ideas.

December 2023 – Belonging in the World

Belonging in the World explores finding a profound connection and acceptance within the intricate tapestry of human existence, where one’s unique identity harmoniously integrates with the diverse threads of shared humanity.

This salon celebrates the way we seek connection as people with multiple perspectives. How do we accept ourselves, how do we extend ourselves to others?

Through music, movement, culture, composition, and the sharing of our table, we invest in each other and devise new arrangements to foster human bonds. 

May 2023 – Never Ending Story
This salon featured original works from Heidi Duckler, HDD Associate Artistic Director Raymond Ejiofor, and guests DaEun Jung and Ok Nico. Audience members moved through different parts of the Bendix Building to experience a web of narratives, flowing together to create one “never-ending story.”

February 2023 – Come As You Are
Heidi Duckler Dance welcomed a union of work between projection artist Kamyi Le; pianist and composer Tomoko Ozawa; HDD dancers Edgar Aguirre, Rebecca Lee, and Montay Romero; DJ William Jay YIvisaker; and Seoul Institute of the Arts interns Seoyoon Choi and Yejin An.

The artists reconstructed our rooftop space into a seaside escape. Audiences then traveled down into the belly of the Bendix to explore the underworld for an unforgettable evening of music, dance, and conversation.

December 2022 – Play by Ear
Play by Ear invited audiences to experience stories and songs about how we might envision a future together. The salon featured Five Skins, Jessica Emmanuel, Kamyi Lee, and Weaver in a collaboration between classical music, dance, multimedia design, and hand craft arts.

Special guest El Haru Kuroi – an East L.A. trio combining Mexican, South American, African, and American Jazz elements – opened the salon. Frequent HDD collaborator Snezana Petrovic  transformed the interior of the Bendix Building with an art installation.

August 2022 – Second Nature
Second Nature brought together film, dance, music, and conversation to highlight Slavic culture. The salon included a full screening of HDD’s dance film series, “Counterintelligence: The Story of Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka,” a contemporary reimagining of the Russian folktale told in a tongue-and-cheek telenovela style. The characters were brought to life through a live performance of the story’s epilogue choreographed by Raymond Ejiofor with music by Justin Scheid. An expert panel discussed topics relating to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

May 2022 – Stories from Storage
Stories from Storage was an unearthing and a rejoicing of memories forgotten. The rooftop of the Bendix Building was transformed by two landscape installations by Mipa Shin and LaRissa Rogers. Ching Ching Wong – HDD’s artist in residence at the time – created a dance score to complement the artworks alongside Jobel Medina. Musicians Dwight Trible, Pablo Calogero, and Roberto Miranda performed as part of the collaboration.

March 2022 – Illuminating the Bendix
The first salon in this series brought together artists Isabel Beavers, Joan H.P. Fricke, and Nailah Hunter to explore the world around them through installation art, choreography, and sound art.

This project is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and by New Music USA’s New Music Organizational Development Fund. Funding has also been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.