About A+B

Since 2020, collaborators Brian Lawson & Adele Nickel have been researching the concept of “form,” in its myriad forms, as it relates to dance. Together, we make dances and films, write essays, and teach workshops.

We are dance artists and educators who studied at pre-professional ballet schools before pursuing careers in NYC with modern choreographers known for creating “highly formal” work. 

Now we teach dance and choreography at universities at a time when many of us are raising questions about the wisdom and ethics of teaching the Western dance canon - especially ballet - in the 21st century, and at a time when new paradigms offer exciting ways of understanding old systems. 

We find ourselves asking: when it comes to dance, what is essential to form and what can and should be shed? What binds form together and how far can it bend without breaking? What does transFORMation look like, and who decides? 

Thus, Form Believers, a project with which we aim to create, share, and dialogue about form across disciplines, with a foot firmly in the realm of dance, and a belief that embodied practices have something uniquely valuable to offer the broader conversation about form in art and life.
You can learn more about us individually by linking to Adele here and Brian here.