Just blocks away from where Benjamin Franklin conducted his own experiments in electricity, the new dance theatre production from Miro Dance Theatre is sure to generate its own sparks.

More precisely, “Generate. Degenerate.”, part of the first-ever Off the Grid Theater Festival, will generate up to 200 watts using bicycle-powered generators, enough energy to power the projections and other visual elements of the show.

Miro Dance Theatre will present “Generate. Degenerate.” at the Painted Bride Studios at 230 Vine Street in Old City, Philadelphia on September 10 – 13. Tickets are now available for $15 at www.mirodancetheatre.org.

“Generate. Degenerate.” represents a major departure from Miro’s most recent original work, “Spooky Action.”  “Spooky Action” demanded two state-of-the-art digital projectors, three computers, dozens of lights and a synthesized score; for “Generate. Degenerate.”, Miro uses a 80-year-old phonograph, an antique slide projector and found vintage art to present a distinctly different vision – a vision that conjures *Twin Peaks*-like imagery of haunting stillness.

All the electricity needed for the production will be generated during the show by two stationary bicycles connected to custom-made electrical generators. The bikes will be pedaled by producing artistic director Tobin Rothlein and lighting designer James Clotfelter, who will together generate between 100 and 200 watts.

The generators were originally designed for use with windmills and re-engineered to connect with the bicycles with help from Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Bike Works. The slide projector was converted to run on 12-volt power from the bikes.

The 1920s era PAL brand vintage phonograph, purchased from eBay, uses a wind-up coil for power and a horn to amplify the sound; in today’s world of perfectly replicated digital audio, the analog sound is both hypnotic and more than a little unsettling.

The unique set-up is a response to the challenge presented by the Off the Grid Festival: create an original production using only sustainable or self-generated power.

“Everyone in the audience will feel a real connection to the power,” says Rothlein. “When we slow down, the lights will flicker and dim. The energy we generate – through audio, video and dance – will be a major character in the show.”

The haunting, ethereal atmosphere will be carried by the show’s choreography, too. Miro’s artisitic director, Amanda Miller – who is the sole dancer in the production — choreographed “Generate. Degenerate.” to explore the concepts of beginnings and endings, inertia and momentum.

“The movements give the audience the sense that this woman has just dispensed with this world – that she is running away,” says Miller. “For her, it is both a beginning and an end.”

About Miro Dance Theatre

Miro Dance Theatre creates and performs original work that explores the collaborative intersections of contemporary dance, video, and visual art.

In 2004, dancer and choreographer Amanda Miller and video and visual artist Tobin Rothlein founded Miro Dance Theatre in order to realize their unique creative vision, and explore the intersections of contemporary dance, video, and visual art. Miller, with ten years experience as a dancer at the Pennsylvania Ballet and choreographic studies in Europe under Siobhan Davies, is at the helm of Miro’s choreographic exploration.

Rothlein, whose work as video artist and visual designer for Rennie Harris Puremovement and others has garnered accolades nationally and internationally, oversees the company’s work in combining dance, multi-media and visual arts. Miro produces the work of Miller and Rothlein alongside special collaborations with invited friends and guests.

Miro Dance Theatre is Artist-in-Residence at Girard College and receives funding from the William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Independence Foundation, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Girard College, and individual donors.

About Off the Grid Theater Festival

Off the Grid is the first festival powered entirely by solar panels, a wind turbine, human energy and bicycles and will take place in the heart of Old City, Philadelphia at the Painted Brides’ New Studios at 230 Vine Street from September 4 to 19, 2009. The festival was conceived by Thaddeus Phillips and Tatiana Mallarino, co-artistic directors of Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, and will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Off the Grid challenges artists to work within new materials and expand the creative potential of alternative & renewable energy use in the theater, while it challenges audience members to look at performance in an entirely new way and experience how much can be done with very little. For more information, visit offthegridfest.org.