Five Open Mouths

In 2006, Boston-based disabled interdisciplinary artist Lisa Bufano commissioned Latsky to create a 25-minute solo. Bufano’s vulnerability and fierceness set a new standard for all Latsky’s dancers and ultimately the nature of her choreography. This collaboration was the catalyst for an artistic shift towards inclusivity and unconventional diversity, sparking a ten-year period of work titled The GIMP Project.

GIMP

GIMP: 'gimp (gimp) 1. a ribbonlike, braided fabric 2. fighting spirit; vigor 3. a lame person 4. slang; a halting, lame walk 5. to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically.

GIMP premiered at the North Fourth Arts Center in New Mexico. The 70-minute dance theatre event redefines virtuosity through the collision of disability and dance, and features four conventional dancers and four performers with physical disabilities.  Working with this unexpected cast of dancers, GIMP "forces our eyes and minds to perceive beauty not as a static artifact of conventional perfection but as a dynamic construct of effort and intentionality," (Ivan Sygoda, Pentacle) and is "a gleaming milestone in the progress of contemporary dance and theater." (Theodore Bale, Dance Magazine).