"The Illusion of Separateness” will be an evening-length performance featuring a collection of live music and video installations by composer Brian Mark and dance pieces by choreographer Jordan Ryder. The performance will culminate in a new collaborative work, entitled “The Illusion of Separateness,” dissecting the new reality of “social distancing” and the human ability to connect during a time of being apart.

This socially distanced concert will take place on October 23, 2021 at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn. "The Illusion of Separateness” will be a collaborative journey between Jordan and Brian; a new work-in-progress exploring the concept of “social distancing” that we have all had to face over the past seven months. The movement will be derived from spatial confinement to explore new ways of contact without touch, creating the illusion of connection and separation at the same time. Brian will be complementing this description with a piece written for a violinist and the Boss DD-7 Digital Delay Processing-Pedal. Brian will attempt to create a composition that will depict the universal feeling of isolation, loneliness, and being distant in empty large spaces, whilst at the same time the sounds of the feedback loops from the use of the digital delay pedal will break down that illusion to emphasize that although we are not able to physically be within close proximity with one another, we are unified by this experience and can find a semblance of community in a new way. This piece will employ four dancers and the violinist.

Brian and Jordan hope to create a space where audience members are able to safely congregate and experience a unique, multi-disciplinary collection of works inspired by the struggle and beauty that we have been forced to confront as a result of seven months in quarantine.