THE GIMP PROJECT
This project was a founding moment for HLD and marked the start of Latsky’s commitment to working with an integrated company. After an interaction with a museum curator who felt compelled to share with her his negative reaction to The Gimp Project. Whereas he saw the inherent beauty of a sculpture with missing limbs, he could not do that with a real person. As he expressed both shame and fascination, Latsky more fully comprehended the complexity of his experience.
“Gimp” is a word we ‘re taught not to use, just as we’re taught not to stare at people who look different. But gimp is also defined as “fighting spirit, vigor, interwoven fabric and trembling with ecstasy”-the definitions that form the foundation of The GIMPProject which is about expansion, not accommodation and challenges existing social constructs through the potent/sensitive lens of dance.
GIMP
The main evening length work of The GIMP Project was GIMP that toured from 2006-2012.
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.
After Latskys work with Lisa Bufano, GIMP was her first full evening piece with a integrated cast.
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).
GIMP Trailer
