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Braiding Water
Created + Performed by
Xiaoyue Zhang
Co-directed by
Brittney Brady + Xiaoyue Zhang
Location
JACK, Brooklyn, NY
Presented as part of The Exponential Festival 2025
Date
January 17–18, 2025
Project type
Performance
Photos
Kelley Shi
Supported by
Development supported by Theater Mitu Hybrid Arts Lab 2023
Braiding Water is a tender dialogue with grief—an imagined mourning ritual for losses that could not be named or remembered. Drawing from historical tragedies in China from the 1950s to the present, the work traces silence and loss across four generations through movement, sound, and touch.
Rooted in the artist Xiaoyue Zhang's family tradition of Traditional Chinese Massage therapy, the performance explores the somatic remnants of grief and the gestures that embody emotional memory. Braiding Water reflects on the unreliability of remembrance, the intersections of personal and collective history, and the role of technology in preserving what has been erased.
Ultimately, the piece invites audiences to consider how the body itself becomes an archive—a site where lineage, pain, and resilience intertwine.
Credits
Performance Collaborators: Hua Huang, Shaofen Shi
Dramaturgy: Brittney Brady
Lighting Design & Creative Technical Collaboration: Kelley Shih
Sound Design: Haruhi Kobayashi
Scenic Consultation: QingAn Zhang
Sound Consultation: Lai-Luen Liang
Produced by Xiaoyue Zhang
