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Find your Glo

GloAtl. Performance Art - Photo by Thom Baker.
You had me at the first Glo. Photo by Thom Baker.

Finding Glo

There was almost a serendipity in how I found Lauri Stallings and her incredible breadth of creative work. I was at the art gallery when I picked up a brochure about art events in Atlanta. When I came home, it took just a few lines, without even a picture in the review, for me to know that something special had landed in Atlanta. This is how I found Glo.

Lauri Stallings, the founder of gloATL, embraces creativity across many mediums. From her interactive compositions to building scenes in forgotten lots, she blurs the line between life and public art. The ebb & flow of communion between the audience, dancers, and space creates a dynamic I have never felt before. She breaks the fourth wall.

The search for the exceptional -  lauri stalling
gloATLs multimedia performance “The Search for the Exceptional”. In the swimming pool. Photo by Tijana.


Tender Choreographies

The performance “Pour” was happening on the streets at an abandoned building in a gentrified part of the city. Everything about it sounded exhilarating. The artists would pour through the historical landscape, filling unexpected spaces with dance, music, def poetry, and rich visual poetry.

To my dismay, I looked at my watch and realized that it was too late and I couldn’t make it. So, I searched online and found Lauri’s email and asked if she could let me know when she was performing next. She immediately invited me to a rehearsal for the piece Halo’ that was going to New York.

Lauri Stalling, Halo - GloAtl
Halo’. An original full-evening site-based work for Duo Theatre, East Village’s 1940s vaudeville house, music by Part, Beethoven, Bizet, and Santiago, with elements of swimming, floating, vogue, and waltz. Photo from gloATL archives/website.


The Search for the Exceptional

With help from the local community, GloATL transformed an abandoned swimming pool into an incredible (if not extraordinary) performance venue for just a few nights for The Search for the Exceptional. Another instance is when the former historic cotton gin factory at the Goat Farm became the stage for This is a World / Chapter III. Both venues became exciting places to see art in the city.

Glo also creates world-class works such as Orfeo, with Grammy Award-winning Maestro Robert Spano from Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Orfeo is Christoph Willibald Gluck’s 1762 opera featuring 157 artists. Other collaborations included Mother/JUMP that involved local children.

Glo’s initiatives have focussed on the revitalization of the Deep South, creating temporary hubs and migrations for racial minorities and the poor in remote areas, which serve as catalysts for discussions on equity, race, history, and who gets to dance.

– Lauri Stallings
Bloom - Contemporary dance by Lauri Stalling.
Bloom. It was a major snowstorm (for Atlanta – catastrophe) but still, I showed.
I am wearing the black coat in the background. GloATL’s Archives photo from their website.


To learn more about Lauri Stallings and gloATL, please read this informative article by Andrew Alexander at Creative Loafing.


Glo at the High Museum of Art. The Supple Means of Connection.
Very tender and meaningful.


Check the gloATL’s website to find info about the next performances. Visit Lauri’s website for a unique insight into her world. Or you can watch a wonderful short documentary about gloATL at your leisure.

2 comments

  • Roberto Melendez

    Any initiative to a more balanced and fair society is loable and need it, now the world is facing a tremendous challenge.
    The chance to go back to old society wrong doing is still there, still the chance to improve even a bit also has a chance.
    The answer was, it is and will be always on us the whole humanity.
    Through art is a beautiful way to manifest a belief or thought.

    • zestandcuriosity (author)

      What a beautiful comment. Art was always my happy space. Now that I had have tactively lost it in the pandemics, I achingly miss it. We need art in our lives to inspire and enrich our humanity. Thank you so much! I appreciate you.

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