The Labor Union makes performances.

We experiment. We collaborate. The work liberates itself (and us) from the shackles of originality. Yes- everything may have been done before, but that is not an excuse not to make art. Our work is born out of necessity.

Our efforts are to activate the thinking body and dancing body simultaneously. We frequently use reference to locate ideas and copy them. Appropriation is dead. Watch us copy. See how it transforms.

The Labor Union was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn in the fall of 2004. It was the coming together of friends and then roommates Isabel Lewis, Erika Hand, and Chris Lancaster behind the necessity of artmaking even in a situation of extremely limited resources. The Labor Union is an agreement to make work and support each other.

The Labor Union is rooted in the ten year history Lewis and Hand share as performers and research partners. The two met at Booker High School Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Sarasota, FL as dance majors. Both Hand and Lewis continued their studies at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA where they worked alongside one another, Hand pursuing majors in Dance and Women's Studies and Lewis in Dance and English with a focus in Literary Criticism. The two now live in Brooklyn, NY have maintained a rigorous rehearsal/research process.

The past projects of The Labor Union have culminated in dance performances choreographed by Lewis and have included dance artists Neal Beasley, Nancy Foreshaw-Clap, Beth Gill, Erika Hand, Matthew Rogers and Anna Sperber and musicians Chris Lancaster and George Lewis of the band The Black Sounds. The Labor Union has been presented at AUNTS, Chez Bushwick, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, Movement Research at Judson Church and PS 122.

Lewis and Hand premiered their latest collaborative effort, THE LIVE PERFORMANCE by The Labor Union at Dance Theater Workshop on February 7-10 2007.