Sarah Friedland

An octogenarian woman transitions to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.

Inspired by social guidance films produced by the United States government during the Cold War, a choreographer restages safety drills, corporate and tech start-up office meditation, and Boy Scout exercises in order to ask what futures we are preparing for.

Using the formal structure of a home workout video, this hybrid documentary and dance film investigates the gestural habits of aging individuals and looks at the physicality of aging as choreography. In its invitation to viewers to move, the film stages choreographies between the mise-en-scène and the home dweller.

Experimental dance and corporate management workshops intersect in Sarah Friedland’s Trust Exercises, which connects three spaces—a rehearsal studio, a company team-building retreat, and a bodywork session—in which participants learn to move together. In these complementary zones, the business and social worlds merge in the complex orchestration of rhythm and play.