| Philadelphia Dance Projects

What audiences and critics had to say about PDP Presents 2010

Jano Cohen's Snow Falling on the Waves

Published on March 29, 2010 - 11:47am

More photos from PDP Presents 2010 by Brian Mengini

Photos from Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents 2010 by photographer Brian Mengini. Visit Brian online at www.bmengini.com!

Two Men Dancing

Two Men Dancing

Published on March 29, 2010 - 11:46am

Dance Talk: Q&A with Red Thread artists Lisa Kraus and Meg Foley

This week, curatorial advisor Anna Drozdowski interviews Red Thread co-choreographer Lisa Kraus with dancer Meg Foley, offering an inside peek into the creative development of both artist’s work.

Anna Drozdowski: Why did you choose to sew several generations together for this project? Lisa Kraus: It came up because I saw how the Gee’s Bend quilters pass on their ways to daughters and nieces. Also, if you ask what it means to be dancing as an older person, you end up contrasting that with what it’s like dancing in your twenties or thirties. Meg, Michele and Gabi are around the ages Eva, Vicky and I were when we first met. It made sense to see how the two kinds of energy and ability and interest work together.

Tell me about the things you’ve learned from your younger contemporaries in this process.
Lisa: We’ve gone into using movement language you don’t usually associate with older people - moves from hip hop. Meg and I captured some of her improve and we’ve scored some sections around that quality. It’s segmented and small, interesting in contrast to all the flowing Brown-esque quality we know so well. Gabi is very offhand with her humor and her presence magnetizes me. I’m studying it. And Michele, who is delicate physically but has the capacity to be gargantuan and thrilling has us thinking about how you light fires and spark abandon…

Published on March 8, 2010 - 4:09pm

Philadelphia Dance Projects in print, online, and on the radio

Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents 2010 is all over the news. Follow the links below to learn more about PDP Presents and the artists participating in the series, in print, online, and on the radio.

The Philadelphia Inquirer dance critic Merilyn Jackson interviews PDP’s Terry Fox and Lisa Kraus in a feature story on the series: The old, the new, moving together
Bruce Schimmel writes about the series and the Local Dance History Project in his Philadelphia City Paper column: Dancing About Politics, Bodies in motion can rebalance the body politic
From WHYY’s Arts and Culture desk, Peter Crimmins interviews Dan Martin, Terry Fox and Tom Whitehead about Philadelphia’s dance history and the challenges of preserving dance performance: Homemade films help dancers re-stage past performances
The Dance Journal offers An Interview with Terry Fox

Published on March 5, 2010 - 4:03pm

Watch the trailer for Little Ease [outside the box], a Motion Pictures selection

Check out the trailer for Little Ease [outside the box], one of the many films being shown at Motion Pictures Annual Shorts Program on Thursday, March 4. Little Ease is a new take on a classic piece of choreography conceived in 1985 by extreme action pioneer Elizabeth Streb.

In its current incarnation Ami Ipapo has been called to take on the box. As a performer she is concerned with how much to honor the past and how much of herself to bring to the piece. As a member of the current STREB company, Ami is keenly aware of the evolution of Pop Action and uniquely suited to exploring this in her role as performer.

Published on March 1, 2010 - 11:28am

Dance Talk: Q&A with Ishmael Houston-Jones

This week, curatorial advisor Anna Drozdowski interviews Local Dance History Project artist Ishmael Houston-Jones, offering an inside peek into the creative development of the artist’s work.

Anna Drozdowski: Tell me about DEAD, in two sentences.
Ishmael Houston-Jones: When my late mother saw DEAD for the first time her only comment was, “Bess Truman isn’t dead.” My reply was, “But she will be one day.”

What was happening in 1980 (or thereabouts) that was important to your artistic growth? Ishmael: By 1980 I had left Philadelphia. I moved to New York on Thanksgiving Day 1979. During the 1970s when I lived here, besides the Ballet, the main players on the dance scene were Group Motion, Zero Moving Co., Philadanco, Juba, Arthur Hall’s Afro American Dance Ensemble, South Street Dance Company, Joan Kerr Dance Company, Sybil Dance Company and Ann Vachon/Dance Conduit. Toward the end of the decade there was a movement of independent choreographers many gathered around Terry Fox’s studio in Old City. I taught and rehearsed there, as did Terry, of course. Jano Cohen, Wendy Hammerstrom, Anne Marie Mulgrew and others were part of a core of artists centered on the Church Street Loft. Terry lived there with composer Jeff Cain so there were always many musicians on the scene as well. At this time Old City was transitioning from being a rather desolate district of light manufacturing and warehouses to an artists’ neighborhood. It was still possible to find really cheap live/work spaces so there were a lot of visual artists living and making work in the area.

Ishmael Houston-Jones and Michael Biello today; image by Jacques-Jean Tiziou

Ishmael Houston-Jones and Michael Biello today; image by Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net

Published on February 16, 2010 - 1:22pm

Dance Talk: Q&A with Chris Yon

Leading up to Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents 2010, we’ll be featuring a fresh interview with a series choreographer or dancer, offering an inside peek into the creative development of the artist’s work. This week, we talk with Chris Yon, a Next Up artist.

As part of PDP Presents 2010, you will present the imaginatively titled new work The Very Unlikeliness (I’m Going to KILL You!). Is there a story behind this performance title? Chris Yon: There is a “flashback” sequence in this piece - a sequence that if this were a concept album, it would be the title song - an attempt at a Fred & Ginger type number. And this was the most romantic title I could think of…

Taryn Griggs and Chris Yon in The Very Unlikeliness (I’m Going to KILL You!)

Published on January 29, 2010 - 12:53pm

Write on Dance

Two Faces: Review of Brigitta Herman's Physiognomy Of The Spirit by Steve Antinoff

Review of Brigitta Herman’s Physiognomy Of The Spirit
By Steve Antinoff

Performed by: AUSDRUCKSTANZ // Imprints in Motion
Choreographer: Brigitta Herrman
Venue: Meeting House Theater, Community Education Center, Philadelphia
Date: May 16-18, 2008
Cast: First dream figure: Brigitta Hermann; Second Dream Figure: Kristin Narcowich; Three Essence Holders: Rebecca Patek, Zornitsa Stoyanova, Emily Sweeney

In Brigitta Herman’s Physiognomy Of The Spirit death has two faces. One is called death. The other is called life.

The first face is Ms. Herrmann’s. My introduction to this face was decades ago, brought by a friend to a rehearsal of Group Motion. As I entered the studio a woman was moving with astonishing speed across the dance floor, every few steps convulsing maniacally. It was as if the protagonist in Edvard Munch’sThe Screamwas driven to dance. This woman was Brigitta Herrman. I was twenty and knew nothing about modern dance. She was the first “art-dancer,” and the first true artist, I had ever seen.

Published on May 16, 2008 - 2:33pm

Write on Dance

Write On Dance: Journal V4

This latest ‘07 entry for Write on Dance is about changes that two dancers have recently faced. One is told in the third person, the other in first person. Dancers changing cities; one with success, the other with disappointment. But both overcoming physical obstacles with emboldened spirit. The spirit that ultimately is their reservoir of strength may very well be the same that dance embodies in the first place.

Hunting For The Right Moves
By Lewis Whittington

Last spring, Pennsylvania Ballet soloist Phil Colucci danced in Val Caniparoli’s ‘Lambarena’ portraying one of the hunter-warriors. Few in the audience were aware that this was his symbolic company bow out- He had been pursuing fresh territory as a dancer for three years.

Published on December 1, 2007 - 12:00am

Write on Dance

Write on Dance: Journal V3

The Perils of Performing Works-In-Progress
By Lewis Whittington

You better Cut!

Playwright Terrence McNally was in Philly this summer ‘freezing’ his new play ‘Some Men’ by The Philadelphia Theater Company before it premiere’s this fall in New York. He had already dumped two whole scenes before the month long run here and he was mostly making line cuts noting audience responses (such as laughs) for pacing. McNally told me that the audience was ‘the ‘last creative collaborator’ in the process of finishing a work.

It used to be the out of town circuit that tested the viability of a performance, but those days are long gone. In these hard economic times in theater and dance artists have to be inventive about ways to create buzz and otherwise see what works on the public stage.

Published on October 31, 2007 - 11:00pm

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