Carry the One
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg's MFA Defence
Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 3:30 PM
Room 2205 鈥� SFU School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
Carry the One is a performance-lecture towards rewilding the self.
Carry the One is a performative and practical exploration of emotional labour from the perspective of a middle-aged femme body. This project identifies the invisible labour that facilitates the 鈥榲isible鈥� and 鈥榤ore important鈥� labour to occur. It interrogates the chronic debilitating imposition placed on femme bodies to be caretakers, maintain a harmonious atmosphere, take inventory of resources and time, preemptively meet needs, and calculate equations of potential. The work deftly exposes the work to monitor, measure and respond to maintain a sense of 鈥榰niversal pleasantness鈥�.
The research-creation-performance of Carry the One is an experimental interrogation of what exactly emotional labour is as an intersectional gendered form of labour.
Through physical and vocal investigations in relation to the audience, the peripheries, the minor, and the emerging are privileged as an ever shifting lens through which labour is experienced emerges. This work is an invitation for the performer to 鈥榬ewild鈥欌�� returning to directly access individual needs, desires and impulses without the alienating cultural/societal impositions forced upon us.
Keywords: Gender studies, Comedy, Emotional Labour, Affect, Dance, Improvisation, Minor Gesture