Annie-B Parson and filmmaker Alla Kovgan’s The Oath asks what happens when seventeen bodies move as one: to bond, to intimidate, to promise, to dance. The 23-minute, 8K dance film screens in gallery B6.2 at MASS MoCA in North Adams on Monday, January 11.
About the Show
The film explores what its makers describe as “the human urge to move in a large mass in unison — to bond, to battle, to promise, to intimidate, to gather, to dance.” Set in vivid color and spanning from primeval ages into the future, it follows seventeen women and femmes through vernacular and poetic choreography, the collective body shifting between ritual purpose and something more primal. Music and sound design are by Tei Blow.
The work’s exhibition history gives a sense of its scope. The Oath ran simultaneously across 29 screens at Penn Station New York from January through April 2025, then traveled to Cinedans FEST in Amsterdam, Le FIFA in Montréal, the Pittsburgh International Dance Film Festival, and Fuse Box Austin. Its regional premiere came at EMPAC in Troy in April 2026, as part of EMPAC’s Corpus Festival. The January 11 MASS MoCA date continues that run.
Annie-B Parson co-founded Big Dance Theater in 1991; the company has earned OBIE and BESSIE awards under her direction. Her choreographic credits include the Tony Award-winning production of David Byrne’s American Utopia (filmed by Spike Lee) and collaborations with David Bowie, Lorde, Mikhail Baryshnikov, St. Vincent, Laurie Anderson, and Esperanza Spalding. Alla Kovgan brings a filmmaker’s rigor to the collaboration; her Prix Italia-winning documentary Cunningham (2019) used 3D technology to explore Merce Cunningham’s legacy. The stage-to-screen adaptation of The Oath was handled by Kovgan alongside Elizabeth DeMent, a Juilliard graduate, Bessie Award winner, and associate choreographer on the American Utopia tour.
Venue & Logistics
MASS MoCA is a multi-venue arts campus in North Adams, in the Berkshires. The January 11 screening takes place in gallery B6.2. No showtime was listed on the venue’s event page at the time of publication — check the museum’s website before you go. For Capital Region audiences making the drive out, the museum is a destination worth arriving early for; the galleries reward the extra time.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets directly through MASS MoCA.