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(2003, Sextet, 27 minutes)

“Deep is a fairy tale of sorts in that it tries to make sense out of chaos. After 9/11, I was struck with the parallels in my experiences to Dorothy’s in The Wizard Of Oz - Just as she woke up one day and was no longer in Kansas, I woke up and wasn’t in New York City anymore, at least not the way it was before. There were soldiers - they looked like teenagers to me - everywhere. One moment, they were being yelled at to ‘close the barricades and keep them closed!’ and the very next instance, some other authority demanded that they ‘open the barricades and keep them open!’ Officially, the air was safe to breathe but off the record, it could kill you! We were all powerless, impotent, and dumbstruck. People stayed in bed all day, cried in the street, or waved flags. Not coincidentally to me, Dorothy’s costume is red, white and blue. That’s deep!”
– Keely Garfield

Deep is a surrealistic re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, conjuring Dorothy as a quintessential post-apocalyptic heroine – chaotic and askew. Schizophrenic sequences of dance segue into a kaleidoscopic portrait of a world in a perpetual state of heightened alert. Marc Ribot’s surprising score expresses menace, humor, and romance – seismic shifts in shade, and emotional nuance, complements the dance’s low yet oddly optimistic underbelly.

“Seduces audiences with music, color, and whimsical performance. All the better to make us smile-wryly-while we think…enjoyable spectacle and subversion.” The Village Voice

“Brutally funny…Garfield’s troupe has the soul of a naughty child and a child’s impulse towards stark truthfulness.” The New Yorker

“Garfield focuses on one question: How to make sense out of chaos? But even though there are dark moments, the fast-paced work is hardly gloomy; the dance is laced with witty absurdities, wonderfully flamboyant costumes and an over-size inflatable swimming pool that the dancers retire to periodically. Neat rows of shoes line the floor, and there is no text; lack of communication is a key point.” Time Out New York

Premiere: Altogether Different, The Joyce Theater (New York, NY), January 8, 2003
Commissioned by The Joyce Theater’s Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Works, and created during a residency provided by The Joyce Theater Foundation, with major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support provided by the Jerome Foundation and the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation.