Alexandra Tatarsky

2020 PEW FELLOW
Updated
5 Feb 2021

alexandra-tatarsky-2020-13-web.jpg

Alexandra Tatarsky sits on the floor of their studio with their legs extended and one arm propped on a box. They have light skin and are wearing a silver-sequined jacket, black & white parachute pants, and red plastic clown shoes.

Alexandra Tatarsky, 2020 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

alexandra-tatarsky-2020-11-web.jpg

Alexandra Tatarsky stands in a wide doorway with one arm extended against it. Their studio space is just visible behind them. They have light skin and a wearing a striped top, two-tone parachute pants, a bright purple clown collar, and gold hoops.

Alexandra Tatarsky, 2020 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

alexandra-tatarsky-2020-12-web.jpg

Alexandra Tatarsky sits in a chair in their studio surrounded by costume pieces and props. A wooden sign scrawled with the words “It’s Ok To Be Scared” is visible behind them. They have light skin and are wearing a white and black color-blocked top.

Alexandra Tatarsky, 2020 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

alexandra-tatarsky-2020-09-web.jpg

Pew Fellow Alexandra Tatarsky, VagueUS, performed at Gibney Dance, New York, NY.

alexandra-tatarsky-2020-02-web.jpg

Pew Fellow Alexandra Tatarsky, [SIGN FELT], Sad Boys in Harpy Land, performed at FringeArts. Photo by Jauhien Sasnou/Picturebox Creative. 

alexandra-tatarsky-2020-05-web.jpg

Pew Fellow Alexandra Tatarsky, Fear of the Discorded State: On Clowns, performed at the Bok Building. Photo by John C. Hawthorne.

“I seek the slippery edges of disciplines—where one becomes another—as a mode of questioning the categories we use to organize our experience.” 

Alexandra Tatarsky blends performance art, comedy, physical theater, and clown practices to probe the construction of meaning, self, and community. Playing with perceptions of language and narrative structure, their live performances are highly responsive to venue and audience, often breaking the fourth wall and embracing humor to reveal vulnerability and humanity. “Performance is a realm that allows us to think up worlds beyond walls and boxes,” Tatarsky says. They describe the clown as an “ideal model for our times” while also drawing on traditions like vaudeville, postmodern dance, comedy, and Russian futurism. Tatarsky has performed original, evening-length solo works at New York’s La MaMa and the Exponential Festival, the UK’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and in Philadelphia’s Fringe Festival, among others. They have an MA in performance studies from New York University and a BA in Russian literature from Reed College, and they studied devised performance at the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training.