A creature of ritual and long-form research, Graczyk began Desire Motor in 2016 as a choreographic inquiry into the chimera of body and thought—oscillating between image, desire, the surreal, the natural world, and our urge to understand it both individually and through formal approaches such as scientific research. It also marked a personal crossing: a move from the West Coast to the East Coast, a mid-career leap.

Landing in New York City 10 years ago, she encountered a deep aloneness despite being scooped up into a company her second week there (thank you, Raja Kelly). This transition stirred a desire to investigate a queer interior of longing and disillusionment—shaped by the loss of a parent and a rupture in a creative and life partnership. What does the body hold? How can I listen to the incongruent feelings and images inside me—not to smooth them over or make them appropriate, but to release them into the structures of performance? Desire Motor emerged from this impulse: a commitment to make twelve works guided by the premise of listening—deeply—to the body and to the physical world in relation to it, both human and non-human.

Since 2016, six of the twelve pieces have been completed: Beast, One of You is Fake, Thirst, Thesis Things Do Not Bellow Long Together, Precipice, and Decay Delay: Cycles of Formation. These works have been developed and performed at Gibney Dance, Center for Performance Research, La MaMa, Movement Research, JACK, Kestrels, The Cell, and with Pioneers Go East Collective, as well as through residencies at Vashon Artist Residency, Hambidge Center, and Marble House Project.

The seventh piece in the series, A Body (un)becoming, is currently in development. Performances are slated for Portland and Seattle in October 2025.

Please see bethgraczyk.com for further history on each piece.