April 25 +26, 7:30pm

UCLA Glorya Kaufman Hall, Kaufman Dance Theater (Room 200)

Presented by: UCLA Department of Worlds Arts and Cultures/Dance MFA Upstarts Series

​​Last Resort is an evening-length dance work by Maya Billig exploring the cracks of the American Empire from an abandoned desert beach resort. Through dance, satire, and film, the performers navigate a fragile world built on crumbling expectations and manufactured allure, exposing the absurdity of late stage capitalism and cultural decay. Set within a landscape of over-promises and under-deliveries, vacation dreams give way to a convergence of desperation and mirage. The resort’s delicate veneer is upheld by those within it, clinging to the last remnants of the American Facade Dream.

Like an unhinged infomercial, Last Resort warps authenticity as the performers constantly poke at the awareness of the performance and its observers, putting success of the sale at the forefront of their attention. Video inserts mix with live dance, further heightening the tension between spectacle and decay, urgency and leisure. Resort-goers would describe it as “visually and kinetically seductive, yet absolutely jarring.” Seriously… how far will you go for a good time?

“Desperate times call for desperate measures, sometimes even a

Last Resort.”

-overheard at the jacuzzi

Questions? Contact: mayanadine12@gmail.com

Dancers: Marcella Thile, Quinn Wynacht, Maya Billig

Cinematographer: Collin Druz

Photography: Maya Billig