The graffitied, rain-soaked Wynwood Arts District became the backdrop for Inkub8‘s first Open-Studio Series, featuring Heather Maloney, co-founder and artistic director of Inkub8, and dancer-choreographer Liony Garcia. The Open-Studio Series at Inkub8, which runs every second Saturday from October 2011 through June 2012, grants the space free of charge to experimental artists in dance, sound, film and the multidisciplinary arts. The artists get to use the space for up to two nights throughout the season.

In the first Open-Studio Series of the season, Garcia and Maloney used the space to convey a somber, yet delicately choreographed, piece that mirrored the dark, stormy weather just outside the studio. Both dancers wore black, which reflected the mood of the piece, and they were bathed in blue light as splashes of pink and gold light filtered across the dance floor.

As the two dancers methodically moved across the space, each one seemed to collapse into the weight of their own bodies. They appeared meditative and detached, centered in their own inner world while they quietly orbited one another. Three quarters of the way through the performance, Maloney softly collapsed onto the floor, face up, and moved intermitantly, as if she were drawing fishing line out of her mouth. Liony quietly vanished out the side door of the studio space.

Although their movements were tight, precise, controlled, Garcia and Maloney’s steps flowed into the next, connected by an invisible thread that tethered them to each other. A seamless procession of monks in deep meditation is what came to my mind when the performance ended. They were ghosts possessed by an inner stillness that was anything but still.

When the performance ended, the dancers interacted with the small crowd of guests and colleagues who gathered. They shared ideas on the performance and chatted about everyday things. Before I left, I asked Maloney: What can we expect from the upcoming Open-Studio Series? “A surprise,” she said. “Lots of the Open-Studio Series artist performing this season are new to the scene. I wanted it that way to expand our reach and bring in those artists working on the fringes.”

For more information on upcoming events at Inkub8, visit http://www.inkub8.org/ or http://www.facebook.com/inkub8.