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husk/vessel
By KAIROS Dance Theater
Created by Paula Josa-Jones and DeAnna Pellecchia in collaboration with the dancers
Playing at
Show Description
husk/vessel is a raw, physical reckoning with memory and identity—a visceral dance-theater work where the body becomes both container and storyteller.
Genre and Content
Content Warnings
The creators say this show is appropriate for ages 7-11 and up
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Seat Reservations and Show Tickets
| Add to Schedule | Date | Time | Ticket Options | Quantity | Purchase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 08/01 | 5:30 PM | ||||
| Sun 08/03 | 4:00 PM | ||||
| Tue 08/05 | 8:30 PM | ||||
| Wed 08/06 | 10:00 PM | ||||
| Fri 08/08 | 7:00 PM |
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Video Trailer
Cast and Crew
DeAnna Pellecchia
Artistic Director/Choreorapher/DancerDeAnna Pellecchia is a choreographer, performer, and the founding Artistic Director of KAIROS Dance Theater. Renowned for her emotionally charged, physically dynamic work, Pellecchia creates performances that dissolve the boundaries between dance, theater, and ritual. Her choreography has been presented both nationally and internationally, earning recognition for its visceral intensity, poetic resonance, and interdisciplinary vision. A passionate collaborator across mediums, Pellecchia works with artists of all disciplines to create performances that are as intellectually rigorous as they are kinetically powerful. Under her leadership, KAIROS has emerged as a bold voice in contemporary performance, known for crafting socially relevant, deeply embodied works that interrogate identity, justice, and collective transformation.
Paula Josa-Jones
Guest Artist/Director/ChoreographerPaula Josa-Jones is an acclaimed dance artist, choreographer, author, visual artist and movement educator and therapist known for her visually rich, emotionally charged dance theater. Her work bridges disciplines and species, encompassing choreography for human dancers as well as pioneering interspecies work with horses, riders, and dancers. Josa-Jones's choreography has been presented throughout the U.S., Mexico, Russia, and Europe, and her innovative integration of somatic practice with performance has made her a singular voice in the field. She has received commissions from esteemed venues and festivals including The Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Dance Umbrella, and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. As the conceiver and director of husk/vessel, Josa-Jones brings decades of cross-disciplinary research and performance-making to this profound collaboration.
Lynda Rieman
Technical Director/Lighting DesignerLynda Rieman is a multidisciplinary artist and seasoned production professional who has been creating performance environments since the 1980s. Passionate about authentic collaboration, she works across mediums—dance, lighting, set design, found objects, sound, film, and aerial rigging—to craft performances that are both immersive and evocative. After earning her BA in dance from Bard College, Lynda co-founded the San Francisco-based Zaccho Performance Group with Joanna Haigood. She went on to serve as technical director, lighting and set designer, production manager, and stage manager for a wide range of innovative companies including CONTRABAND, Joe Goode Performance Group, Theater Artaud, Oberlin Dance Collective, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Chitresh Das, and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. Lynda is currently the Production & Theater Manager at Boston University’s Dance Theater, where she supports emerging and established artists alike. She is thrilled to be working with KAIROS Dance Theater, continuing her lifelong commitment to the art of live performance.
Rachel Linsky
DancerRachel Linsky is a Boston-based contemporary dance artist and performer with KAIROS Dance Theater. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography and a B.A. in Arts Administration from Elon University. Rachel is the creator of ZACHOR, an ongoing choreographic series preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors through dance. Her work has been presented at venues across Boston and in international film festivals, and she is a 2023–24 Next Steps for Boston Dance grantee. Rachel teaches Ballet, Contemporary, and Yiddish Folk Dance throughout the Boston area.
Aliza Franz
DancerAliza Franz is a Boston-based dancer, educator, and arts manager. They hold a double major in Psychology and Dance with a minor in Gender Studies from Skidmore College. Aliza has performed with VLA Dance, Boston Lyric Opera, Lorraine Chapman The Company, Chavi Bansal, and Ilya Vidrin, and is currently developing new choreographic work. As a teaching artist, they work with students ages 5–18 and have led professional contemporary classes through VLA Dance. Aliza also serves as an arts manager with Zamana Art, and is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in creative spaces. They have been dancing with KAIROS since 2024.
Gabriela Amy-Moreno
DancerGabriela M. Amy-Moreno is a Boston-based freelance dance artist with roots in flamenco and a BFA in Contemporary Dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She has performed professionally with Boston Dance Theater and collaborated with a range of Boston-based artists and companies including Rachel Linsky’s ZACHOR, Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion, The Click, detritus dance, Continuum Dance Project, Cassie Wang, and Jo-Mé Dance Theatre. Gabriela joins the Minnesota cast of husk/vessel as part of The RISE Tour, performing at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis.
Angelina Cohen
DancerAngelina Cohen is a contemporary dance artist based in Quincy, MA. She trained with Mystic Ballet and toured with the company in Serbia before earning degrees in Dance and Psychology from Springfield College in 2023. Angelina currently dances with Zehnder Dance, performing at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, the Ailey Citigroup Theatre, and DUMBO Dance Festival, and recently joined DanceWorks Boston. She has performed works by Monica Bill Barnes, Tatianna Desardouin, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Didy Veldman, and David Dorfman. Angelina joined KAIROS Dance Theater as an apprentice in 2025.
More Information
HUSK/VESSEL
Conceived & Directed by Paula Josa-Jones
Assistant Director: DeAnna Pellecchia
Rehearsal Director: Kristin Wagner
Choreographed by Paula Josa-Jones & DeAnna Pellecchia
Collaborators/Performers: Gabriela Amy-Moreno, Angelina Cohen, Aliza Franz, Rachel Linsky, and DeAnna Pellecchia
Alternate Cast Members: Olivia Moon, Kristin Wagner, and Cassie Wang
Understudies: Nikki Gagliano, Carmen Rizzo, and Jassi Murad
Soundscore Design by Paula Josa-Jones
Lighting Design by Lynda Rieman
Costume Design by Christine Joly de Lotbiniere
Costume Assistants: Jody MacMillan Pellecchia and Carlos Villamil
MUSIC CREDITS
husk/vessel features music by Pauline Oliveros, DJ Fraction, and Fred Frith, all used with permission from the artists. We are deeply grateful for their generosity. The piece also includes a track by DakhaBrakha, for which we do not currently hold usage rights. Its inclusion in this performance is not intended to infringe upon copyright.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE DANCERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS WORK:
The creative process for HUSK/VESSEL was a collaborative one. The dancers' artistic talents and commitment to craft played an integral role in the movement generation and creation of this performance. The process required dancers to engage their intellect and curiosity; the choreographic aesthetic challenged them to constantly push the limits of their physicality; the emotional content asked them to examine and reveal their own personal truths. Dancers gave themselves generously, totally, to this process. Peeling back layers to expose your most vulnerable self takes a courageous heart. Thank you for your brilliance, your beauty, and your bravery.
*IJ Chan (Principal Dancer from 2015–2021) was an original cast member of husk/vessel and was integral to the piece’s creation. Kristin Wagner, Olivia Moon, and Cassie Wang are original performers of husk/vessel; each is integral to the work’s emotional architecture, physical language, and evolving legacy.
NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:
husk/vessel was created mostly during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the early days of this project, the dancers and I were crammed into my 16 x 18 home studio—separated from each other by boxes taped on the floor, and from Paula by a computer screen and hundreds of miles. From September 2020 to May 2021, we met twice a week, masked up, doing our best to stay healthy and keep dancing.
I’ve always aimed to make work that’s real and vulnerable, as does Paula—but the rawness present in those rehearsals was something else. The uncertainty of the world hung over the room, and all we could do was show up and surrender to it. We made the work for you—the audience we knew we’d be reunited with eventually—but with no clear sense of when, we danced for each other. Creating husk/vessel became a reason to keep going in a time when we didn’t know where we were headed, and a way to stay connected, despite the isolation.
Through improvisation and shared readings, poetic imagery began to surface: archetypal figures washing, weaving, carrying, praying, playing, fighting, surrendering. These images felt universal, timeless—fleeting glimpses of humanity’s essence, even as the world around us unraveled. We let ourselves be physically consumed by giant swaths of fabric—hiding, revealing, holding our smiles, tears, and fears in plain sight. That fabric became a true partner, cradling each of us through the darkness (I now understand why “blankies” are so comforting to children).
When we finally came together in person with Paula in June 2021, after nearly a year of virtual rehearsals, the piece took on a new dimension. We had room to MOVE—to fully carve out the expansive, 45-minute performance you’ll see today. But the intimacy, vulnerability, trust, and deep connection that shaped this work in its earliest days—they’re still there. They’re stitched into the very guts of this piece.
The pandemic revealed so many hard truths—so many lessons we still need to learn. One of the biggest is this: there’s far less separating us than we think. Masks, clothing, body size, race, gender, space, time—these things may appear to define us, but underneath, we are all just skin, fascia, muscle, and bone—reaching for one another, finding our way forward, through what’s heavy, toward what’s human.
If nothing else, I hope that’s what you feel as you watch...
-DeAnna Pellecchia
THE RISE TOUR:
husk/vessel is part of The RISE Tour, KAIROS Dance Theater’s first national tour, bringing our raw, physically intense, and emotionally-driven work to communities across the U.S. in 2025. From Boston to Minneapolis, Atlanta to NYC, and San Diego, we carry with us the stories, questions, and connections born in the rehearsal rooms during the height of the pandemic. Each stop on the tour offers an opportunity to deepen conversation, build community, and affirm the transformative power of live performance. At a time when democracy is under threat, social divisions are deepening, and the fight for equity and justice continues, The RISE Tour serves as a powerful call to action. Through movement, storytelling, and community engagement, RISE amplifies voices of resistance and resilience, reminding us all of the power of collective action in shaping a more just and inclusive world. At its heart, husk/vessel is rooted in the belief that presence and vulnerability are radical acts—forms of resistance—and essential to healing a fractured world. We are so grateful to share this leg of the journey with you.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR TOUR SPONSORS + PARTNERS:
Massachusetts Cultural Council, Boston Cultural Council, Mass Motion Boston, Pellecchia Stables, The Marcus Foundation, Principal Builders LLC, The Hillman Family, San Diego International Fringe Festival, Atlanta Fringe Festival, DUMBO Dance Festival, Minnesota Fringe Festival and Mass Motion Dance Boston
ABOUT KAIROS DANCE THEATER
KAIROS Dance Theater is a Boston-based contemporary dance company led by Artistic Director DeAnna Pellecchia. Known for its immersive, multi-sensory performances that transcend traditional boundaries, KAIROS has emerged as a nationally touring company with work presented across New England, New York, California, Georgia, and Minnesota. Internationally, the company’s bold, interdisciplinary projects have been featured in Korea, France, and Russia—bringing its distinct blend of dance, theater, and visual storytelling to diverse communities and spaces around the world.
Founded in 2012, KAIROS creates visceral, socially engaged performance works that fuse physical rigor with emotional depth, bringing audiences into intimate encounters with pressing cultural, political, and universal questions about identity, purpose, and belonging. Through immersive dance-theater, interdisciplinary collaboration, and a deep commitment to community, KAIROS engages the body as a site of memory, resistance, and transformation.
The company’s work lives at the intersection of dance, theater, visual art, and multimedia. KAIROS often partners with composers, filmmakers, designers, and writers to create layered, immersive environments that transcend traditional performance formats. Signature works explore themes of grief, resilience, and collective healing—not merely telling stories, but offering rituals of reckoning, spaces for reflection, and invitations to rise together.
In addition to its performance work, KAIROS is dedicated to broadening access to the arts through year-round community programming. The company offers artist talks, open rehearsals, workshops, and cultural events designed to engage diverse audiences and deepen understanding of dance as a tool for connection and transformation. Each season, KAIROS produces 2–3 original productions, building bridges between artists and communities across the United States and beyond.
WHAT IS 'KAIROS'?
KAI•ROS | pronounced [KAHY-ROHS]
The ancient Greeks had two distinct words for time: chronos and kairos.
Chronos—the root of chronological—refers to quantitative, linear time. It is the time of clocks, calendars, aging, and deadlines. It marches forward in steady ticks, measured by the hands of a watch or the phases of the moon.
But time does not begin—or end—there.
Kairos, the lesser-known but far more profound counterpart, is what many philosophers and mystics refer to as deep time. It is qualitative rather than quantitative. It lives in long exhales, in laughter with old friends, in the quiet awe of watching a breathtaking sunset. Kairos is presence: a moment outside of measurement, where something meaningful can occur—something sacred, transformative, or simply true.
In kairos time, we lose track of chronos. A state of flow is activated—one that cannot be measured, only felt.
Mining this deep time is at the heart of all KAIROS Dance Theater’s creative projects. Our performances are designed to suspend forward-moving time, creating visceral, fully felt experiences that open a space—outside of clocks, beyond distraction—where something real can happen.
In these moments, audience and performers are invited to enter a shared rhythm, a collective breath. KAIROS is where the world softens, presence expands, and we are reminded—just for a moment—of the beauty of the world, the potential of our shared humanity, and the simple, profound truth that none of us are alone.
LEARN MORE AT KAIROSDANCETHEATER.ORG
