Since the beginning of time — in community, clan, congregation, and club — humans have developed systems, both utopian and dystopian, for moving together in unison in large groups. The Oath, a film based on Annie-B Parson’s stage choreography, explores humanity’s dance of vernacular and poetic group actions. Set in a vivid universe of color, the work spans time, from the primeval age and into the future, and features seventeen women and femmes moving as one for purpose and for pleasure, to gather, to bond, to intimidate, to believe, to fight, to promise – to dance.

About the artists
Annie-B Parson is the artistic director of Big Dance Theater. Outside of Big Dance Theater, some of the artists she has choreographed for include David Byrne, David Bowie, Lorde, St. Vincent, Kim Deal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, Anne Carson, Esperanza Spalding, Suzan-Lori Parks, Laurie Anderson, Salt n Pepa, Martha Graham Dance Co.,  Jonathan Demme, and Sadlers Wells’ Company of Elders. Parson choreographed and did musical staging for Tony award-winning David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway, and the film by Spike Lee. She was nominated for a Tony for her choreography in Byrne’s musical Here Lies Love on Broadway and The National Theatre. She choreographed Byrne’s world tours with Brian Eno, and with St. Vincent. Parson choreographed Elektra on the West End, Candide/Lyon Opera, Antony and Cleopatra, The Hours, and the upcoming Tristan & Isolde at The Metropolitan Opera. Her book, The Choreography of Everyday Life, is published by Verso Books/London.         

Alla Kovgan is a Moscow-born, New York-based filmmaker who has worked at the intersection of cinema and the performing arts for over 25 years. She is best known for the 75th Prix Italia-winning feature Cunningham (2020); the short “Nora” (2008), which won 30 awards worldwide; the Emmy-nominated documentary Traces of the Trade (2008); the 3D VR experience Devil’s Lungs with the Finnish band Suistamon Sähkö, winner of the 2018 Vienna Shorts Grand Prix; and, most recently, The Oath (2025), her collaboration with choreographer Annie-B Parson, a film and public art installation presented on 29 screens at New York’s Penn Station; short Italian film musical Grape Maestro (2025), and “nothing personal, just everything” (2025) –  a performance-installation with five other women artists that included 48 video collages presented on 16 screens, which premiered at the Chocolate Factory, NY.