Caution: HOT!
Integrating dance, theatricality, original music, and extravagant costumes, Caution: HOT! is a live performance that de-stigmatizes the reproductive cycles of a female body — including menopause, the most ignored life stage — while normalizing the common experiences that have shamed women for generations. Women with reproductive bodies feel judged when they menstruate, when they want or need abortions, when they miscarry, and when their periods stop. How did a woman’s body become so ridiculed and how can art help diminish the stigma? Through a multi-media performance combining drama and humor, this production will publicly display many of the hardships, secrets, symptoms, and stories of the mysterious reproductive body.
Jenny Rocha is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on dance and costume design. She is the artistic director of Rocha Dance Theater, a Brooklyn-based dance company. She is also a nightlife producer and director of The Painted Ladies, a cabaret group that was admitted into the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. Rocha’s choreography has been presented by esteemed venues such as The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Boston Center for the Arts, Danspace Project, La MaMa ETC, The Gerald W. Lynch Theater, Teatro Ribieragrandense, and more. Jenny has created hundreds of original costumes for her own work as well as having designed for Heidi Latsky Dance, The Raving Jaynes, Lesley Garrison, and multiple seasons for Rutgers University and Lehman College. As a teaching artist, she has taught residencies at Roger Williams University, Connecticut College, Rhode Island College, West Virginia University and is in her 12th year as a teaching artist at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. jennyrocha.com
Rocha Dance Theater presents a hybrid of dance theater and costume design. The company’s performances utilize movement and visual storytelling to address women’s issues and social structures, challenging attitudes towards the feminine by presenting an alternate reality that is at once dream-like and relatable. RDT’s mission is to create art that contributes to dismantling the patriarchy, gender norms, and stereotypes.
Choreographer/Costume Designer/Dancer: Jenny Rocha
Composer: Joseph Rivas
Lighting Designer: Connor Sale
Video designer: Kiril Shevyakov
Dancers: Alexandra Bittner, Dervla Carey-Jones, Nikki Ervice, Jamie Graham, Nicole Lemelin, Corinne Shearer
Updated: March 8, 2023
HERE is now a mask-optional space. All patrons attending HERE performances and events will no longer be required to wear masks.
We ask all audience members to please stay home if they have a sore throat, are feeling sick in any other way, or have been recently exposed to COVID-19, and to please contact the box office for refunds or exchanges.
All of our performers, technicians, and staff members are required to be fully vaccinated and masked unless they are onstage performing. Additionally, they are participating in an active testing regimen to keep everyone as safe as possible.
HERE reserves the right to revise protocols as the rate of transmission changes and in light of new scientific data that may present itself.
Thu, 10/5 at 8:30 pm
Fri, 10/6 8:30 pm
Sat, 10/7 at 4 pm and 8:30 pm
Approx. 70 minutes, with a 10-minute intermission.
$10-20
We want everyone to have access to groundbreaking art. There are ten tickets priced at $10 available for each performance on a first come, first served basis.
Joseph Rivas (Composer) is an award-winning film mixer, sound designer, composer, mix/mastering engineer and voice actor. He works on feature films, documentaries, shorts, trailers, and commercials in his 5.1 studio in Brooklyn. As the music supervisor and composer for Rocha Dance Theater, Joe has composed various scores for full-length productions and projects. He also works with The Painted Ladies where he regularly produces tracks, remixes, and original scores. In addition to scoring, Joe produces music in various genres that include Hip hop, Bass, Future R&B, and Pop. beatinstinct.com, IG: @beatinstinct
Connor Sale (Lighting Designer) is a New York-based lighting designer. Recent work includes This is How We Remember (Triskelion Arts; Philly Fringe), Julia Antinozzi’s double bill (Pageant), the body || dust (Gibney Dance), The Boof Quadrille (Triskelion Arts), Earth Temple (in collaboration with Nocturnal Medicine at SMUSH Gallery), and Sea Change (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago). Additionally, he tours with the production of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring that Sadler’s Wells is producing. He’s interested in using the temporary nature of light to make people more active in space. More of his work can be found at connorsale.com and IG: @connorsalelight.
Alexandra Bittner (Performer) was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she began dancing with the Mark Morris Student Company. She attended LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and continued on to graduate from the Dance Conservatory at SUNY Purchase. In addition to Rocha Dance Theater, Alex is currently dancing with The Painted Ladies and Michiyaya Dance, as well as making her own work for film. IG: @lilbittybittner
Dervla Carey-Jones (Performer) is from San Francisco, California, and has a BFA in dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Most recently, Dervla has performed works by Gwen Gussman, Jordan Lloyd, Cherylyn Lavagnino, and Jenny Rocha. Dervla is excited to work with Jenny and the rest of the cast on a piece that tackles a number of the issues women deal with that so seldom find the stage. IG: @dervlacj
Nikki Ervice (Performer) began her dance training in her hometown of Homer, Alaska. She graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities with a BFA in dance in 2014. Since moving to New York she has worked with Emotions Physical Theatre, Jennifer Archibald’s Arch Dance Company, Ayalis in Motion, Althea Dance Company, and Safety Third Productions, among others, and has been part of Rocha Dance Theater since 2017. IG: @n.ervice
Jamie Graham (Performer) is a dancer, improviser, and physical comedienne based in Brooklyn, NY. She is honored to have performed with Jenny Rocha’s Painted Ladies and Rocha Dance Theater for over ten years. Other current projects include dance comedy improv duo The Raving Jaynes and Virginia Scott’s company Some Clowns. Past work includes Third Rail Project’s Then She Fell and project-based work with Barbara Mahler. Jamie is also an independent Pilates instructor and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Applied Physiology at Teachers College. She holds a BFA in Dance and BA in English Literature from Webster University, St Louis. IG: @jamjamogram
Nicole Lemelin (Performer) grew up in Connecticut and began her dance training at Starship Dance. She went on to attend SUNY Purchase College and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance Performance. While in school she had the opportunity to perform works by Adam Barruch, John Heginbotham, Doug Varone, Rosalind Newman, and Stefanie Nelson, to name a few. Professionally, Nicole has danced with Shawn Bible Dance Co., Kathleen Helm and Dancers, Sea Legs Dance, and Hyperspace Dance. She currently serves as the assistant dance captain for The RIDE NYC, and performs with Rocha Dance Theater, Time Lapse Dance, and the award-winning burlesque troupe The Painted Ladies.IG: @nicole_lemelin
Corinne Shearer (Performer) is an artist and graduate student based in New York City. Having received a BFA in Dance Performance with a concentration in Dance Composition from SUNY Purchase in 2016, she works as a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist in New York City and the surrounding area. Shearer is also currently finishing her MA in English Literature at The City College of New York where she teaches English Composition as an Adjunct Lecturer. IG: @liightlytoasted