Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On 31 August 2026, TORCHES continues with a conversation with award-winning choreographer Annie-B Parson. Annie B is artistic director of the award winning Big Dance Theater and has made choreography for rock shows, marching bands, movies, museums, objects, TV, augmented reality, opera, ballet, theater, orchestras, and 1,000 amateur singers.
Annie-B Parson co-founded Big Dance Theater in 1991; she has created over twenty large-scale works for venues including BAM, The Old Vic/London, Sadler’s Wells/London, The Walker, The National Theater/Paris, and The Kitchen. Parson has also made choreography for rock shows, marching bands, movies, museums, television, opera, ballet, theater, symphony orchestras, choruses, and string quartets. Artists she has worked with include: Lorde, David Byrne, David Bowie, St. Vincent, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, Anne Carson, Laurie Anderson, The Martha Graham Dance Co., Salt ‘N Pepa and Jonathan Demme. With David Byrne, Parson choreographed his tours with Brian Eno, and St. Vincent. Their TONY winning American Utopia, on Broadway, became a film by Spike Lee. Parson has made dance for operas including Candide (Lyon Opera), The Hours, and Antony and Cleopatra by John Adams (Metropolitan Opera). Her books include: The Choreography of Everyday Life.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.
On 31 August 2026, TORCHES continues with a conversation with award-winning choreographer Annie-B Parson. Annie B is artistic director of the award winning Big Dance Theater and has made choreography for rock shows, marching bands, movies, museums, objects, TV, augmented reality, opera, ballet, theater, orchestras, and 1,000 amateur singers.
Annie-B Parson co-founded Big Dance Theater in 1991; she has created over twenty large-scale works for venues including BAM, The Old Vic/London, Sadler’s Wells/London, The Walker, The National Theater/Paris, and The Kitchen. Parson has also made choreography for rock shows, marching bands, movies, museums, television, opera, ballet, theater, symphony orchestras, choruses, and string quartets. Artists she has worked with include: Lorde, David Byrne, David Bowie, St. Vincent, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, Anne Carson, Laurie Anderson, The Martha Graham Dance Co., Salt ‘N Pepa and Jonathan Demme. With David Byrne, Parson choreographed his tours with Brian Eno, and St. Vincent. Their TONY winning American Utopia, on Broadway, became a film by Spike Lee. Parson has made dance for operas including Candide (Lyon Opera), The Hours, and Antony and Cleopatra by John Adams (Metropolitan Opera). Her books include: The Choreography of Everyday Life.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.







![A Conversation with Gelsey Bell—TORCHES: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance
TORCHES continues with a conversation with the multidisciplinary performance creator, composer, and vocalist Gelsey Bell. She is a core member of ensembles thingNY and Varispeed.
Gelsey Bell is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary performance creator, composer, and vocalist. Her recent works include the experimental opera mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] (2023), commissioned by the HERE Arts Center and presented in the Prototype Festival; Cairns (2020), a soundwalk for Green-Wood Cemetery; the musical one-act Archaeopteris (2025), commissioned by Wet Ink; and thingNY’s collaboratively written opera Mouthful (2024). She is the Co-Artistic Director of thingNY and Varispeed. She has released multiple albums, including the recent mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning], Skylighght,and Heads Together. She has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opera America, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Japan Foundation, NYSCA, and others. Performance highlights also include Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway) and Ghost Quartet, Robert Ashley’s Foreign Experiences and Improvement, Darius Jones’s Samesoul Maker, Alaina Ferris’s The Lydian Gale Parr, Aaron Siegel’s Rainbird, and other works by Jay Afrisando, Kate Soper, Tomomi Adachi, Brent Michael Davids, and others. A Conversation with Gelsey Bell—TORCHES: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WWYTdtbDNus/mqdefault.jpg)


