Philadelphia Dance Projects

Each Local Dance History Project program is paired with a Next Up performance, providing a unique look at contemporary dance, past and future. Program II features Local Dance History Project artists Jano Cohen, Terry Fox and Next Up artist Chris Yon.

The Local Dance History Project offers an informative look at the development of contemporary dance in Philadelphia by showcasing the work of five dance and movement artists who were among the first to explore post modern, improvisation and performance genres in the city during the late 1970s and early 80s. In 1980, dancers Dan Martin and Michael Biello, Jano Cohen, PDP’s Terry Fox, and Ishmael Houston-Jones were featured in Dance & Dancers, a sold-out presentation at the Harold Prince Theater at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts. Now, in PDP Presents 2010, these five dancers will reunite to revisit and reconstruct their work, which will be performed by young Philadelphia dance artists. Next Up features work by some of the freshest emerging choreographers – Chris Yon and Otto Ramstad, visiting from Minneapolis. Both choreographers represent a younger generation of dance artists who are not only building on the canon of what comprises contemporary dance, but who are widening its definition by asking questions of why we dance, and what roles or purpose dance artists’ work has in the lives of others.