Beautiful Little Weirdos Grace the Stage at Arthouse Productions
Grief manifests itself in many ways, but my favorite is the evolution of pain to beauty, tears to laughter, and sadness to joy. Art is therapeutic and the artist is both conduit and recipient, as Amber Sloan knows intimately. Her upcoming work, ‘Beautiful Little Weirdos,’ will mark its New Jersey premiere at Arthouse Productions in Jersey City this March.
The dance show consists of two different pieces choreographed by Sloan, one entitled “After the Applause,” inspired by the dancer’s grief after having lost two people very important to her and the other, ‘Echoes of Absurdity,’ chronicling the human conundrum of living in a standstill.
After the Applause
In examining her grief as a working performer, Sloan was forced to acknowledge the duality of the emotions she was feeling with the emotion she was tasked to convey on stage. At the time, she was dancing with the Bang Group in a comedic, vaudevillian rendition of ‘The Nutcracker’ called ‘Nut/Cracked,’ while battling her own sadness. This led her to channel her emotion into movement.
She broke down the process of creating her solo piece for me. “There was this juxtaposition of the performer that needs to be on stage and entertaining others while having something else deeply complex inside of them. Around the same time [of grieving her loved ones], I came upon a painting called Stańcyk, a beautiful painting of a jester in red sitting slumped in a chair, where those in the background are dancing and having a great time. I loved the idea that as performers, regardless of what's happening on the inside, you have to outwardly present differently. I wanted, in this solo, to play with those two ideas - the desire to entertain, opposite the struggle against a deep pain within.”
The “sad clown” notion has permeated the art world for decades, centuries even. Performers are known, and perhaps expected, to use their art as a mask to shield the world from their pain. Yet in the same vein, that mask exposes them as an empathetic, intuitive being sharing their pain with the world. It’s a clever trick.
“Simultaneously, [the piece] also deals a bit with being an aging dancer and this idea of wanting to receive love and praise from your audience while mourning the performer’s life as it changes with time and age,” Sloan adds. Another form of grief. Time steals from us all and to mourn the passing of our youth is but a part of our journey.
Echoes of Absurdity
The second piece is a quartet, choreographed by Sloan, and performed by Shawn Brush, Ching-I Chang, Chelsea Enjer Hecht, and Jordan Morley, with costumes by Meagan Woods.
In short, the piece “is about how we, as people, kind of get stuck in these routines. Even though we think we're trying to change and adapt, we are repeating the same patterns in novel ways. It’s extremely hard to break out of our rhythms,” says Sloan.
“I wanted to investigate these shapes [and poses], compositionally, and how they can move but also examine the underlying, psychological layer of us as human beings getting stuck, trying to change and grow, and then coming to the realization that we are doing the same thing in a new place. Because these shapes keep reappearing and re-emerging in different ways throughout the piece, it's a little absurd. Hence the title.”
Even the costumes reflect the absurdities we experience in life as well. The costumes are jewel-toned and as the performers move, their costumes offer little surprises of sequins or glitter. Revealed unexpectedly through the motions of the performers, they act as a representation of the hidden gems life has to offer. The lighting acts in unison, offering a strange, albeit unique experience for the audience, again highlighting the absurdities we accept so readily in day-to-day life.
“The beauty of modern dance is that people see into it what they are relating to. It reflects what is happening with them. It's okay if people don't see exactly what I had crafted. Whether they have their own storyline or their own narrative about it, or even if they don't have a narrative, that’s great. Sometimes people doubt their ability to understand modern dance but the truth is, whatever you get out of it is correct. Let your emotions guide you.”
Amber Sloan is an experienced dancer and choreographer whose work has been presented across the United States and Mexico. She is excited to bring her world-class artistry to Art House Productions in Jersey City for the first time. The show runs about fifty-five minutes and will premiere on Friday, March 20, 2026, at 7:30 pm.
