Release the Horses (fka hydra) is a new performance work commissioned by the Office of Public Programs and Engagement at Columbia University School of the Arts for the Year of Water. In 2019, Phoebe Osborne began developing a trio titled hydra; a many-headed collective body in constant change, set to be performed in April 2020. Due to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, hydra lost this particular tendril of existence and a new solo work, Release the Horses (fka hydra), took its place. This solo attends to a void while carrying the imprints of hydra and the many voices that it held.

Choreography and performance: Phoebe Osborne '18
Sound Score: Colin Self
Costume Design: Anne Cousineau
Videography: Lazar Bozic with assistance by Sam Taffel 

Pre-pandemic Collaborators: Talya Epstein (performer), Lu Yim (performer)

Phoebe Osborne would like to offer special thanks to the following colleagues involved along the way: Sher Doruff (advisor), Will Rawls (mentor), Karol Tymiński​ (dramaturg), Yasi Alipour (text editor), Andrea Woodner, Jeroen Fabius, Annick Kleizen, Mikki Stelders, Jordan Strafer, and Laurel Atwell.

Courtesy of Phoebe Osborne '18

Statement from Phoebe Osborne: This live performance is taking place on the unceded Lenapehoking land of the Lenape peoples. We ask you to join us in acknowledging the Lenape community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. Phoebe Osborne and the collaborators involved in this project also acknowledge that this performance is possible upon severe and violent exclusions and erasures of many Indigenous peoples, including those on whose land this institution is located. This acknowledgement is anchored in our commitment to the urgent and ongoing process of working to dismantle the deep-seated legacies of settler colonialism.