Press
“Pros for the year:…experimental dancer Susan Hefner’s series of boundary-defying performances, especially her exhilaratingly chaotic improvisations with Kevin Shea.”
— Dave Mandl, The Wire December 2024
“Evans’s humour was at its zenith in the wildly original dadaesque performances staged with his longtime partner, choreographer Susan Hefner, in which he hammered out fractured rhythms on cobbled-together percussion rigs. These collaborations, presented in venues around the world and occasionally for small audiences in Evans and Hefner’s home, were frequently described as “zany” – a perfectly apt label, as a simple Google image or video search will corroborate.”
— Dave Mandl, The Wire August 2021
“‘Crosstown Dance’: Choreographers Balance Inspiration and a Long Commute”
— Claudia LaRocco, The New York Times, December 28, 2006
“The well-produced piece was unfailingly handsome looking.”
— Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
“Refreshingly, Susan Hefner’s protest against the stereotyping of women is not strident, and it hits some bull’s eyes lampooning false tenets of womanhood. Hefner and Gyllenhaal sketch witty movement characters, and Honour Molloy delivers diatribes of her own words, with vocal modulation and physical animation that are downright operatic — the music Evan Gallagher and Ladonna Smith play live at the rear of the theatre is always sensitive to the movement. It’s hard to keep from swiveling around to watch them produce their delightfully unlikely sounds with electric violin, keyboard/synthesizer and voice — an entertaining package of winning performances by two deft musicians and three talented women.”
— Gus Solomons Jr., The Village Voice
“Ms. Hefner’s flowing movements became a lyrical affirmation of being a woman. Among the best of the comic sketches was one in which Ms. Hefner, dressed as bride, gave birth to a mop. That image served as a dire portent of what lay ahead in life for this unfortunate newlywed. In other witty scenes, Kate Gyllenhaal portrayed a beauty queen obsessed with her bodily measurements and Ms. Hefner cast herself as a fidgety child truing to follow an etiquette manual written by George Washington.”
— Jack Anderson, The New York Times
“The work is imaginative — bold and bitter — the message gets an A.”
— Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
“Hefner is ravishing as a dancer, inventive and soulful as a choreographer — witty and accessible work.”
— Bill MacKay, Cover
“Distinctive in movement vocabulary…a sense of comedy”
— Jack Anderson, The New York Times
“Absurd, invigorating — strong in creative whimsy — inspired and beautifully done.”
— Oliver Roosevelt, The Birmingham News