Talia DeLeo

poised (2024) is inspired by the many beautifully diverse facets of femininity and the resilience, strength and power in womanhood.

Dancers: Sedina Ackuayi, Erin Aslami, Elisabeth Bullock, Talia DeLeo, Caterina Terrizzi, Laura Vejar

Music: “If You Only Would” by Anna Landström

Message from Talia:

in summer 2023, several events in pop culture occurred that centered the lives and experiences of women in a historically patriarchal world. they were the catalyst of this piece, as I started to think about creating a piece expressing hardships that we often experience as women. at the time it seemed that there was a collective sigh of relief that generational misogyny and mistreatment were being spoken about more. I keep a list of potential piece names in my notes app, and when I came across the word “poised”, the pieces seemed to fall into place for this dance. I felt that historically, women’s poise has been manipulated against us as an expectation, misconstrued for a purpose of appeasing others within a patriarchal system. but being poised is not something women do to be in service to others, and it never has been, rather it is a quality we carry for ourselves. in my interpretation, I think having poise is about having confidence, being secure in who you are, and finding internal strength in your grace. this piece portrays poise as an internal trait expressed and defined uniquely by every woman and gives hope to a new dawn where young girls and women can simply exist as they are, for there is power in our poise.