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DAY IN THE LIFE OF DANCE: A Personal View of Heidi Latsky Dance's "ON DISPLAY" AT WAVE HILL
By Amy Meisner-Threet
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Published on December 10, 2025
HLD at Wave Hill; Photo: Courtesy of the Company
This past September I returned once again to the living, breathing sculpture court of ON DISPLAY, Heidi Latsky Dance’s (HLD’s) internationally acclaimed installation of diverse and unapologetic bodies. This time, we were at Wave Hill, presented as part of that organization’s “Celebrate! Arts in the Garden Weekend.”
Wave Hill, if you’ve never been, is a hidden treasure located in the northeast Bronx along the Hudson River. The grounds are composed of 28 acres of stunning, lush greenery including flower gardens, alpine greenhouses, and according to their website "over 4,000 varieties of trees shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants." The garden has a long history of presenting art in all forms in its relationship with nature. Art, truly belongs there.
This particular ON DISPLAY marked many milestones. It was the 60th Anniversary of Wave Hill, the 10th Anniversary of HLD’s creative installation, ON DISPLAY, and the 35th Anniversary of the ADA (The Americans with Disabilities Act).
How I Found Myself Here.
I first took part in ON DISPLAY in it’s second year, during August of 2016, when we performed at the Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. Following that, Heidi invited me to join her company in May of 2017. It was an honor. After a long dance career including appearances with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, performing freelance with many modern dance companies, dancing in musical theater, film and television projects, and joining all major unions by 1991, I found myself at 57-years-old using a motorized wheelchair due to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. I hadn’t imagined it possible to be performing again, but I became part of Heidi’s developing work, D.I.S.P.L.A.Y.E.D., and eventually, the company’s only full-time performer who dances with a motorized wheelchair.
To See, and Be Seen
Heidi’s vision is “to disrupt space and redefine beauty and virtuosity through performances and discourse" so, in ON DISPLAY, she gathers together performers of different ages, races, disabilities, genders, body shapes, and ethnicities. We invite people to stare at us. To take pictures. To make videos. And we look back — with the option to change focus if we feel uncomfortable. Depending on each particular installation, we have different tasks to accomplish, but stillness becomes more important than action.
Heidi chooses to enhance the exquisite beauty of our company and our surroundings by having us dressed in white, wearable art. Our distinctive costumes, created by Rose Weinberg and NUVU Studios, with fashion wear by Anna Kathleen, intensify our presence as sculptural art.
A Weekend at Wave Hill
For this installation, Gabriel de Guzman, the director of arts and chief curator for Wave Hill, requested "some dancing within the sculpture court." Heidi coordinated with a smaller group of dancers who understood the sparseness of the installation, and the balance between movement and restraint.
The day before the presentation we rehearsed in the huge, bright open studios of The Mark Morris Group in Brooklyn. (I love this space). Heidi had us create short individual phrases to be integrated into the hour-long installations. While most of the phrases created were frenetic (definitely the Heidi Latsky style) she preferred my phrase to be slow and stretchy. I enjoy luxuriating in movement!
On our first Saturday performance, spread out on the lawn. We followed a sequence and took visual cues from one another. By Sunday, Heidi placed more of us off the lawn under a trestle and trees that were situated along the Hudson. Here we needed to key into our internal rhythm and "feel" when others might be moving.
I spoke with one of HLD’s longterm company members, Nico Gonzalez, who has been working with with Heidi since 2015 (right after graduating from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.) He participated in the very first ON DISPLAY at Lincoln Center.
There were so many more music cues in that installation he told me. "You couldn't let yourself just zone out or you would lose track of what came next." But in other iterations he has found that one can "really drop into a the meditative state that stillness creates, and become lost in time."
Witnessing and Being Witnessed
Visitors are always encouraged to join us in movement, which they often do. Children tend to ponder us curiously, then follow along. A staff member moved alongside me for quite some time. It’s funny, although people were walking around, dancing, and sometimes sitting right next to us on benches, there was a deep serenity in the atmosphere. Occasionally Heidi would come by and whisper for us to repeat our phrase.
I would like to share a note that Heidi received from Gabriel de Guzman following the installation:
"Thank you SO much, Heidi! The performances were so compelling and beautiful. And I loved that each one was different so that audiences each got a different experience. The way you adapted the piece to the setting and the circumstances really made the work site specific. We got a lot of feedback from visitors and colleagues. Many people told me how moving they thought it was. I am grateful to all of you."
Heidi’s Journey
What made this weekend even more meaningful was knowing the challenges Heidi has faced recently. Symptoms she thought were long COVID in 2024 turned out to be a benign brain tumor—an echo of her mother’s long history with similar tumors. Heidi underwent surgery, recovered, and continues to navigate ongoing effects.
And as she always does, she turned the experience into art. She created a film called LIVING IN THE GREY. When our worlds turn upside down, what are the stories we tell?" It premiered December 3rd at the Marlene Meyerson JCC—just hours before ON DISPLAY returned to the United Nations for International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
