A series at The Tavern
Anatomy Avant Garde
Sound performance, medical inquiry and energy work in one room.
What it is
Anatomy Avant Garde is an experimental performance format in which the body becomes part of the piece. It began at The Tavern in March 2024, combining several of the explorations happening here at the time: sound baths, live painting and listening to the body itself.
At the first one, Liam Dember lay on the floor with a stethoscope attached, so the room could hear his heartbeat through the speakers. Aidan Samp and Peyton Pleninger gave a sound bath around him, and everyone could hear how the singing bowls affected his heart as it happened. Above his body, John Ackerman live-painted a clear acrylic sheet over the course of the performance. The aim was to bridge the gap between sound performance, medical inquiry and energy work.
The format today
In its current form, each session lasts about half an hour. We often present Anatomy Avant Garde as a marathon, with one session after another, which gives the audience a chance to hear how different people's hearts sound to begin with, and then how each one responds to different sounds.
History
Anatomy Avant Garde ran as The Tavern's Thursday night series from March to May 2024, closing on May 9 with music by Peyton Pleninger and Myron Cohen, heartbeat by Jessy Reine and painting by John Ackerman. It returned on July 20, 2025 as a marathon fundraiser for Weirdos in the Woods, and again on August 23, 2026 as a marathon fundraiser presented with Weirdos in the Woods 2026.