Friday, March 5, 2010 - 7:30pm
Saturday, March 6, 2010 - 2:00pm
Saturday, March 6, 2010 - 7:30pm
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.
Program II - Performance Descriptions (March 5 and March 6)
Local Dance History Project | Jano
Cohen | Terry Fox
Terry Fox reconstructs Stolen Poem, a solo
performed by Alie Vidich. Jano Cohen presents two works, including Wonder
of Living Things, a solo performed by Megan Mazarick (also seen in the
SCUBA program), with narration by Jeremy Nowak. Danced to the pure sound of
ocean waves, Cohen’s Snow Falling on Waves features
Navila Acosta, Theresa Cermanski, Megan Mazarick, Heather Murphy, Jodi Obied,
Gabrielle Revlock, and Alie Vidich.
Next Up | Chris Yon | The Very Unlikeliness (I’m Going to KILL
You!)
“In this duet, choreographer Chris Yon and dancer Taryn Griggs imagine and
execute speculative systems with tendencies towards a schematic simultaneism,
performing contrary actions alongside one another. The two will maul,
mangle and make mincemeat out of these unglamorous actions. They will not
tremble, drawing the threads of notions, the interlacing of opposites,
zigzagging through a treacherous mixture of dream and deed. They will not
be sentimental. (They will be very sentimental.)” – Chris Yon
Additional Local Dance History Project Programs
The post-show discussion The Relevance of Yesterday to Today, moderated by Anna Drozdowski,
Philadelphia-based
dance writer and Curatorial Advisor for Next Up, will be held following
the Saturday
matinee programs on February 27 (Program I) and March 6 (Program II). The discussion will look
at how the reconstructed works in the program relate to a younger
generation of contemporary artists. The Local
Dance History Project Forum will be held on February 28. The all-day event
will feature a class with project artists, panel discussions, and
presentations.
The
Local Dance History Project is made possible by a grant from the Pew Center for
Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance, with additional support from the PA
Humanities Council’s “Our Stories, Our Future” initiative and the
Dolfinger McMahon Foundation.
Dancer and choreographer
Jano Cohen created dance works in what was considered a postmodern style in
Philadelphia from 1975 to 1994.
She first took dance classes at the age of
eighteen at Wolf Trap summer program at American University where she studied
with Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Eric Hawkins, and Murray Louis. From 1972 to
1974 at Bennington College she trained with teachers who had danced with Merce
Cunningham and Jose Limon or who were alumnae of the Judson Theatre. She was
one of five choreographic members of the Seminole Dance Coalition that produced
performances together during that time. Cohen was later a member of ICE
(Independent Choreographers Exchange). In 1981, she received her M.F.A. from
Temple University. She taught dance for children for 11 years at Settlement
Music School where she also created a dance program for disabled children as
part of the Kardon Institute of Music for the Handicapped. She was twice a
recipient of Choreographic Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the
Arts. She has created and performed for the Painted Bride Art Center, South
Street Dance Company, Naked Feet Dance Company in Baltimore, and Two to Go
Dance Company.
Philadelphia Dance
Projects Executive Director, Terry Fox is a former choreographer and dancer. As
an artist, she was one of the first in Philadelphia to explore post modernism
with improvisational structures in performance.
She often collaborated with
choreographer and dancer Ishmael Houston Jones, and musicians Charles Cohen and
Jeff Cain. Fox studied Horton Technique and performed with
Joan Kerr Dance Co., the Clark Center with James Truitte, the New Dance Group
Studio with Judith Dunn, and attended ADF in 1968 and 1969, where she studied
repertory with Alvin Ailey and performed Trio
A and other works with Yvonne Rainer in her Continuous Projects Altered Daily. In Philadelphia, she has performed
with Group Motion Dance Company, 1970-1972. In 1975, she and a number other
dancers and musicians opened a studio at 217 Church Street in Old City to
rehearse, create work and teach classes and workshops. Her signature
choreographic work of improvised structures for dance and music was seen at
local venues including the Painted Bride, Etage, Harold Prince Theater, and Conwell
Theater as well as outdoor sites in public parks and Old City alleyways. She was presented further afield at PS 122 in NYC, WPA in DC and TanzFabrik in
West Berlin. Her work received support from the PA Arts Council, The
National Endowment for the Arts and Yellow Springs Arts Fellowships among
others. Fox has a BA from New York University (1983). She participated
in the Whitney Museum of American Art, Independent Study Program (1984), and traveled
and studied in India in 1978.
Chris
Yon is a Minneapolis-based choreographer, originally from Los Angeles where he
studied with Rudy Perez. His work has been presented in New York City by Dance
Theatre Workshop, Symphony Space, Danspace Project and PS 122, among others.
Yon has been commissioned by Irish Modern
Dance Theater and performed abroad in Ireland, France and Canada. He is a 2005 recipient of a “Bessie” New York
Dance and Performance Award. Together,
Yon and Taryn Griggs have presented their programs at Bryant Lake Bowl, Walker
Art Center, DanceTheatre Workshop, La Mama E.T.C., and PS 122, among other
venues nationally.