The Story

Hi! My name is Madelyn Sher, and I am a dance and theater artist from New York City. I am fundraising to support a live performance of Dandelions, a composition for dance and music created in collaboration with Leo Hardman-Hill. Leo and I have worked together as collaborators since high school, always seeking ways to connect experimental music, dance, and theater. Together we premiered Dandelions - a duet with recorded music - in June 2024, as part of the Queer Butoh Festival at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn. Dancer Erica Lee Schwartz and I reprised the piece for the Cosmic Cherry Festival at Court Square Theater in Queens in March 2025. Now, thanks to a DCLA Premier Grant from Staten Island Arts, we are able to present an iteration of this piece with live sound for the first time, performed by Leo, Erica, Priya Carlberg, Carrie Furniss, Judette Elliston, and myself (Maddy). The show will take place on October 12, 2025 at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in the beautiful Carpenter's Shop. For tickets, click here.

The Work

Dandelions explores holding on, and letting go - to ourselves, to each other, to things we hold dear - and the uncertainty that accompanies this moment of release. The dance spans various contemporary movement modalities including butoh and dance theater. The work's texture is influenced by the abstract prose of Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons and the poignant heartbreak of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. Through the microscopic, dependable story of a dandelion’s bloom and decay, Dandelions describes a recurring dream about love, routine, and change. The piece’s music is reflective of the fragility of its themes. Quivering voices are counterposed with deep silences and fragile consonances that seem ready to dissipate as soon as they appear. As the piece progresses, the intimate horror of time’s passing is reflected in a looping structure that finally snaps viscerally forward.

The Ask

Though we are grant recipients, we are accumulating many expenses associated with producing live performance. To help cover payment of the artists (Erica, Priya, Carrie, Judette, Leo, and I) and the performance space rental, we are hoping to raise $2,000 on this platform. Your donation will support equitable payment ($16/hr) of the artists for their time and labor, as well as the rental cost of the Carpenter's Shop at Snug Harbor. Thank you for supporting artists who are seeking to sustain their practice of experimentation and collaboration.

For more information about Madelyn's work, click here .

For more information about Leo's work, click here .