One can always depend on choreographer Laurie Sefton to produce work that is unique, interesting, thoughtful and fierce. Under the name of Laurie Sefton Creates, Sefton presented an evening at L.A. Dance Project on October 2, 2026 that consisted of two older works, Our Rage and More Please, and the premiere of Seeing Red. The evening also included two wonderful pieces created by poet, writer, and performance artist Bossi. There were times when the evening lived up to Sefton’s standards but in other ways it did not.
Bossi’s Our Rage was a very short but in-your-face poem citing the potential behind women’s anger to bring about change. One felt that either you acknowledge and cope with that power or you need to get out the way and let them through. Bossi’s performance was riveting and her black costume added just the punch to get her point across.
Our Rage was Written and Performed by Bossi and directed by Laurie Sefton.
In 2018, I wrote that Sefton raised the choreographic bar with Supremacy Ride with an original score by Bryan Curt Kostors. The work still holds up as powerful choreography but this cast did not appear to inhabit their characters as well as the last time I saw the piece. It may require more performances under their belts for the work to shine as I know that it can. I also greatly missed Kostors’ score.
Carmen Callahan, Sofia Rochin, Rose Lindblom, Catie Menes, Zachary Medina in “Supremacy Ride” choreographed by Laurie Sefton. Photo by George Simian.
In Supremacy Ride, Sefton has used her trademark of intricate gesturing to incapsulate what all of us are experiencing from our current politicians, men and women who sadly, have taken on the mannerisms and verbal gobbledygook of their leader. Sefton’s present cast needs to work on their acting. This dance requires getting dangerously close to overacting without making the audience uncomfortable. Sefton has not made it easy for them with her incredibly complex, and often very fast, choreography. I have, however, seen it done brilliantly, so I know that it is possible. The two dancers who managed extremely well to execute Sefton’s work were Zachary Median and Rose Lindblom. Kudos to them.
The full cast of Supremacy Ride were: Carmen Callahan, Rose Lindblom, Catie Menes, Zachary Medina, Sofia Rochin and Dakota Wear. Music: Quasi una Fantasia I, II and III by Henryk Górecki recorded by The Kronos Quartet; and Costumes were by Stephanie Luckey.
More Please had its debut in 2014. To quote myself again, More Please is a work that combines Sefton’s “sometimes quirky movement with a standoffish sensuality” that beautifully interacts with the dynamic score by System of a Down, and Yann Tierson.
One of my favorite qualities of More Please was how Sefton works with and against the tempos, sometimes with a trio on one side of the stage moving very slowly while a duet executes extremely fast phrases on the other side – all to the same music. From there, the five come together seamlessly to move as one.
Carmen Gallahan and Zachary Medina in “More Please” choreographed by Laurie Sefton – Photo by George Simian.
Dancers Carmen Callahan, Camille Goldsborough, Stephen Kessler, Zachary Medina and Catie Menes were more comfortable with this work and came close to meeting Sefton’s vision. The allegro movements were as wonderfully performed as the more adagio choreography that demanded moving stillness. Shifting from one to the other takes talent and these dance artists proved that they were capable.
The music for More Please was “Down with the Sickness” by System of a Down recorded by Yann Tierson. The costumes were designed by Velwyn Yossi. Costumes by Velwyn Yossi.
Bossi’s character in her hilarious and poignant work Finishing School for Difficult Women, took me back a few years to Mrs. Betty Bowers, “America’s Best Christian” written by Andrew Bradley and performed by Canadian actress Deven Green. I laughed as much during Bossi’s performance piece as I did with viewing Mrs. Betty Bowers on YouTube. The difference was the subject matters being satirized were completely different.
“Finishing School for Difficult Women” written and performed by Bossi. Photo by George Simian.
Through humor and satire, Bossi teaches women how to handle men who wish to dominate; men who are stuck back in the 1950s and see women as sexual objects, maids, or vessels to create their offspring. To describe my delight with this piece I will use one of Sefton’s titles…….More Please!!
Finishing School for Difficult Women was written and performed by Bossi, the Staging Concept was by Bossie and Laurie Sefton; Visual Editing by Amber Patee Adams; and direction by Laurie Sefton.
Sefton’s new work Seeing Red took on the reaction to how women feel about people with power in this country systematically taking away women’s rights, seemingly without any resistance from the higher courts. One only has to keep up with the news to see how sections of their constitutional rights are being annihilated in many states throughout America. The score by Piper Rose Mann expertly drove the performers and, at times, caused irritation to the listener. It was a good and useful aggravation that supported Sefton’s artistic vision.
Eleni Delucie, Carmen Callaham and Sofia Rochin in “Seeing Red” choreographed by Laurie Sefton. Photo by Zachary Medina.
The choreography portrays all of the above, laced throughout with Sefton’s signature gestures and facial expressions. She choreographs for the entire body including a performer’s mouth and eyes. Hand gestures become distorted and triangulate into movement that radiates throughout their entire movement.
Performing abstract modern or contemporary work on pointe is extremely difficult and requires dancers technique to be above excellent in both genres, if nothing else, really solid. Sadly, on the performance that I attended, this was not the case and I had to look past the often faltering pointe work to see the potential within Seeing Red.
As someone who has performed in all kinds of stage lighting – including Robert Rauschenberg’s lighting for Merce Cunningham’s Winter Branch (1964) – it appeared to me that part of the difficulty the dancers were having was due to the lighting which was very dark and stark. Even when the backdrop was ablaze with orange light, it was difficult to see the dancers clearly. Perhaps with more performances these dancers will be able to stay on pointe.
The cast of Seeing Red was: Carmen Callahan, Eleni Delucie, Camille Goldsborough, Rose Lindblom, Catie Menes and Sofia Rochin
Music: Punk Ballet, composed by Piper Rose Mann with String Quartet Recorded at Glass House: Mark Robertson and Haesol Lee, violins, Linnea Powell, viola, Evgeny Tonkha, cello. Costumes: Laurie Sefton with Priscilla Turner. Visuals: Laurie Sefton with contributions from select residents of Chateau d’Orequevaux residency May 2026.
For more information about Laura Sefton Creates, please visit their website.
To learn more about L.A. Dance Project, please visit their website.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Seeing Red, choreographed by Laurie Sefton. Dancers: Carmen Callahan, Sofia Rochin, Rose Lindblom, Catie Menes, Camille Goldsborough. Photo by George Simian.
