In Der Golem, Psychopomp re-invents the mythological Jewish creature of The Golem.

The Golem is originally a Jewish folkloric anthropomorphic creature made from clay, Hebrew incantations, and ecstatic dance. Beginning as a mythic shield and protector against centuries of recurring violence and pogroms, the Golem has permeated throughout pop culture and language.
In Der Golem, Psychopomp re-invents this mythological and culturally ubiquitous creature. Four characters must set aside their differences and join forces to create a Golem to protect them against an existential communal threat. Through ritualistic acrobatic dance, a sewing machine and unique textiles our characters create a twelve foot tall Golem right before the audience’s eyes.

Originally created at the Keshet Makers Space Residency this work is inspired by the Jewish prayer shawl called a Tallit.This garment has special knotted blue fringes on the corners to remind oneself of your purpose and impact on the world.

They will put a fringe on the corner with a thread of blue. Look upon it to remember not to go about after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you will go astray. –Numbers

Psychopomp’s interpretation of Moses’ divine encounter with G-d through the burning bush, set ablaze but not consumed. This six minute duet physicalizes and explores the conversation that G-d and Moses share. Enraptured but frightened, burning for spiritual sustenance but unsure if he is worthy, Moses must open himself up to G-d’s divine revelation and embark on a task that transforms not just Moses himself but the entirety of history. This duet aims to show the Moses inside all of us and awaken the fire within ourselves to reveal all the wonders and bring peace to our world.  This work was first performed on the Bima at Temple Akiba in Culver City as a part of our 2024 Passover Performance during their Shabbat service. This performance was made possible in part by The Culver City Grants Program

Inspired by the biblical story of Shemot or the Exodus story, this exhilarating dance theater work performed by five eclectic dance artists explores how our own ancestral experiences of bondage, freedom and redemption continues to shape our present day lives.

This work was first commissioned by the Brand Library Dance Series in May 2023. Since then it has been performed at Highways Performance Space in Psychopomp’s CHAOS! Festival in August 2023, Temple Akiba in Culver City in 2024 and The Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center in 2024.

(translation: sociopolitical experience & psycho-spiritual experience of exile)

This unique improvisational and chance procedure based work explores the diasporic exiled experience through the audience’s interaction with and manipulation of the sound score in real time via a midi controller. The movement style of this work is an improvisational score of high risk acrobatic skills and virtuosic modern dance requiring the dancers to use verbal communication and discussion to respond to the audience’s commands.

Commissioned by the UCSB Percussion ensemble this quirky ensemble work takes place in the liminal space of our dreams. Intricate lifts, unique body balances and virtuosic leaps, turns and floorwork weave together to explore the silly, scary, joyous and strange qualities of our dreamland.

In the Mishnah (a first major written composition of Jewish ethics) it tells us how to engage with the land. We are instructed to work the land for six years and on the seventh year, we must let it rest with a Shmita Year. Shimita directly translates to release. During this time agricultural lands should lie fallow, all debts are forgiven, private land areas become open to the public and anyone is allowed to harvest any naturally growing food. This dance work examines this ancient practice through modern eyes. Our bodies grew from microscopic organisms in the watery chaos of this world. How might our relationship with the environment change if we released it from the never-ending work we demand? How might our social structure change if it was customary to share resources like food, water, land and housing with one another?

EYN SOF meditates on the Jewish practice of existence and constant struggle with YHWH or Hashem or G-d.  EYN SOF, a Jewish philosophy positing an explanation to the existence of the spiritual realm and lack of human capability to comprehend such a place, translates directly to without end or limitless. EYN SOF tells the story of five dynamically fierce artists meeting in a space of liminality and battling against all odds to reunify. The movement harkens back to Psychopomp’s physically aggressive roots– full of acrobatic floorwork,  confrontational partnering and parkour inspired movement. These qualities are juxtaposed against highly specified gestural movements embodying Ms. Harris’s personal practice of reflective davening or prayer.

This work was commissioned by Lighting in a Bottle Music Festival 2022 and performed on the main Thunder Stage. It tells the story of an ancient ritual people battling their way back not only to their physical homeland but their spiritual homeland as well. The work is high energy and is accompanied by an original electronic score created by McMurray.

An adaptation of YLEM(2020), this film began as a way  to pay respect to a work that never had the chance to be shown due to the 2020 Pandemic. This work was collaboratively created by Shenandoah Harris and Ryan Howard.

Sylkies transports the audience to a dreamlike space. Viewing the lake as a primordial soup landscape to remind the audience how the human body moving through space shares so much in common with Mother Nature.

The earliest known microbes, the Ten Kabbalistic Sephirot and 19th century Wendigo Psychosis are all starting points of inspiration for the collaborative creation of Shenandoah's new work. Danced by seven eclectic and strong artists, YLEM (meaning: the fundamental matter in all things) taps into the nagging feeling of not truly knowing why we are here and ultimately not knowing where our journey will take us.

Inspired by the archaic myth of the Great Flood that spans both culture and religion, In Relics: Return to Clay, Psychopomp brings together five artists in a ruthless and desolate landscape. Their world is dark and they are forced to live like a cog in a machine, serving a greater authority that shows them no mercy. When given the opportunity to remake their world, they leap at the chance but subsequently their decision brings about ultimate destruction, reducing their world to nothing but literal dust and ash.

Left to pick up the pieces and find one another amongst the piles of dirt and rubble, our characters struggle in the fallout of their decision to find a path forward. Can they overcome their own natural propensity for destruction, or are they doomed to repeat the same vicious cycle again?

Desperantium takes its inspiration from Auguste Rodin’s work The Gates of Hell. The choreographic material is drawn from the intricately beautiful body shapes of both the male and female figures, the exhibition of raw human emotion and the backstory of Dante’s Inferno. Rather than a specific story, the work creates a landscape for the dancers and the audience to confront their relationships not only with one another but with their own spirituality and mortality.

This piece was commissioned by Highways Performance Space for their 2018 New Shoes Series.

Anomie is defined as the condition where society creates a structure where humans feel no moral obligation towards one another. This clash between a personal moral compass and society's moral compass leads to widespread suffering. Anomie focuses on existential fears and invasive thoughts and how these concepts can cause individuals to behave in society. Inspiration was drawn from Frank Auerbach's paintings as well as literature on invasive thoughts and OCD. Through collaboratively generating imaginative and spiritually authentic movement this piece allows the viewer to reflect on the world around them. Can we create a world governed by morality?

Nefesh | Ruach | Neshamah was created around specific scenic, lighting and costume design choices. The movement was generated from working with long billowing skirts, huge panels of white fabric hanging down in the space. These white diaphanous panels of fabric are evocative of the separation of realities and reference the allegory of Plato's cave, as the dancers are both real and visible at times, and mere shadows in other moments. This piece is set in an otherworldly space, where the dancers explore a new landscape and new relationships with one another.