Community Education Center (CEC) and Meeting House Theatre present the final artist of the 2009 New Edge Resident Artists Performance Series: Meredith Rainey with Look Inside.  Meredith Rainey is best known for his years as a soloist in the Pennsylvania Ballet.  He has been choreographing throughout most of his dance career, and it is with Look Inside that he feels he will cement himself as an audacious choreographer.

Meredith was accepted into the Pennsylvania Ballet in 1989 as a dancer in their Corps de ballet.  He was promoted to soloist in 1998, finishing his career there as a professional ballet dancer eight years later.  He is currently dancing as a freelance artist for local companies.  Meredith has been choreographing since 1988.  Some of his more recent local choreographic works include Seven to One (2008), This Is It It Is This (2007) and Near Miss (2007).  Far from a stranger to awards and fellowships, Meredith was awarded the Swarthmore College Artist in Residency in 2006 along with the CEC New Edge Residency in 2008.

Meredith’s affinity for choreography began with his desire to produce work that challenges the norm while expanding the language and expressive capacity of dance.  He saw choreography “as a means of reshaping a world of (classical) movement that seemed very beautiful, yet rigid and resistant to change.”  In an effort to escape from the world of classical ballet language in which he was immersed, Meredith took a year to explore different movement practices that would enable him to more intensively develop his vision and vocabulary as a choreographer.  This past year has given him the opportunity to participate in workshops with Ralph Lemon and Wendy Rogers, as well as to work with innovative choreographers such as Jérôme Meyer and Isabelle Chaffaud.

Look Inside is a personal take on voyeurism; it is a performance based in the artist’s experiences and observations of our voyeuristic tendencies as humans.  Meredith was inspired to choreograph a piece themed in voyeurism when he realized that he was gravitating toward the act rather than experiencing things firsthand.  This piece allows him to question—why voyeurism?  Why would one choose to watch others live their lives as if it were just as rewarding as living one’s own?  Look Inside is Meredith’s first collaborative choreographic effort (dance, set, sound, video), a fulfillment of his desire to experiment with various approaches to visual perception and perspective.

This residency opportunity at the CEC has altered Meredith’s outlook concerning where he is as an artist and choreographer, inspiring him to start a company of his own entitled Moving Parts.  He is teaming up with dancer Jonathan Stiles, associate director, in this creative effort; Look Inside is to be the jumping off point.

Meredith has gathered a phenomenal creative team for Look Inside.  Jorge Cousineau, best known in the world of dance as co-director of Subcircle, is the award-winning production designer for the performance.  Dramaturg for Look Inside is Anna Drozdowski, former manager and director of Headlong Dance Studio.  Jonathan Stiles, current dancer for the Pennsylvania Ballet, is the production assistant.

Dancers include Francis Veyette and Rosalia Chann.  Francis is currently a soloist for the Pennsylvania Ballet, for whom he has danced since 1997.  Rosalia is a dancer for BalletX, a new Philadelphia dance company whose goal is to redefine ballet and bring it into the new century.

Performances are June 19-21: Friday and Saturday, June 19-20 at 8pm, and Sunday, June 21 at 3pm in the CEC Meeting House Theatre located at 3500 Lancaster Avenue in Powelton Village/University City.  General admission is $12, $10 for students and seniors.  For further information call 215-387-1911, and/or go to our website at www.cecarts.org.

***Photo Credit: Deborah Boardman