Em Colton
The Perfect Smile 2019 Dixon Place show
The Perfect Smile is a piece that brings awareness to the inequalities in America’s oral healthcare system, known as the silent epidemic. This piece was inspired from personal experiences, curiosities and the book, “Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America” by Mary Otto.” The movement is a blend of choreography and improvisation based on each dancer's character and response to the material. I like to think of this piece as a reaction or response rather than a dance performance.
Our mouth sustains life, needed to communicate and survive. Our teeth have the power to tell a person’s age and socioeconomic background. A person’s smile can go so far as to whether he or she will be hired, make a great first impression or be considered beautiful and healthy.
In a country that coined the “Hollywood Smile” an ideal beauty standard that has now spread all over the world, a perfect smile should be accessible to all.
Performed in the "8 in Show" program at Dixon Place Theater NYC
Dancers: Paige Werman, Nadia K., Caitlin Burns, Kelly Flansburg, Marissa Graham, Jen Silver
Choreographer : Emma Colton
Music: Carey Clayton