Default: Joy

What happens when the foundations of our reality shift? In moments of uncertainty, what state do we return to?
In Default: Joy, Selcouth Dance Theatre invites audiences to reconsider the baseline of human experience — to imagine joy not as an outcome, but as a starting point.

Defying the notion that all transformation requires collapse, Default: Joy proposes a radical reorientation: that openness, liberation, and communal presence can pave the way to renewal. The work reflects on the choices we make in moments of challenge, and on the belief that every ending gives rise to a new beginning.

Drawing from Greek traditional dances, communal celebration rituals, and intimate personal gestures, this intensely physical dance-theatre work channels collective energy into movement. Spiraling rhythms, ecstatic motion, and heightened physicality generate a shared space of exuberance and release. Through grounded footwork, interlaced bodies, and ensemble structures, the performers navigate vulnerability, resistance, and ultimately expansive joy.

Choreography: Marianna Varviani

Performance/ co-creation: Tyler Law, Maya Peterson, Simon Chernow

Original music composition: Yvonne Yifeng Yuan

Light Design: Alex Bennett

Creative design director: Berfin Ataman

Assistant designer: Hailey Jeon

Production Assistant: Emma Ross

Stylist consultant: Amrahu Ibraheem

Produced by: Selcouth 

Movement Research during the Residencies at: Keshter  Dance and Center for the Arts (ABQ) and, HomeGrown LA organized by the DRC

Co-Produced by: Culture Flow Projects

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Default: Joy is a result of three residencies at: Keshter  Dance and Center for the Arts (ABQ), HomeGrown LA organized by the DRC (LA), and Piyoda Flow organized by Culture Flow Projects (LA). 

It premiered in February of 2026 as part of the Odyssey Dance Festival at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles. 

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* photo credits: Preston Projecc