Local dance/theatre company, idiosynCrazy productions, premieres its newest evening-length venture, FLATLAND 2010, at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts as part of the ByLocal Series.  FLATLAND, directed by choreographer Jumatatu Poe, will be presented on January 15, 2011, at 8pm.  Last seen in the 2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in September, idiosynCrazy productions is becoming known for its works “full of precise, but full throttle contact” (Lisa Kraus, dance artist and writer).  With a cast of dancers shared with local companies such as Philadanco, Dance Theatre X, Leah Stein Dance Company, and Brian Sanders/JUNK, this show promises a charged performance full of virtuosic movement and up-close audience interplay.

FLATLAND 2010 is idiosynCrazy productions’ first evening-length work and offers 70 minutes of movement, with spoken text and other vocalizations. Take a magnified look upon the world of FLATLAND, as you watch 11 of its inhabitants figure out how to communicate in a place where everything is so, well, one-sided. This is a world in which abbreviation and simplification rule, where the sound byte supersedes substance, where the instant message overpowers the intimate one. Performed by 11 phenomenal dance artists, FLATLAND 2010 is a highly physical struggle for depth in two dimensions.  A workshop version of this work was shown in October 2009 at the Performance Garage under the title Flatland: Presented in 2-D.

Jumatatu Poe directs and performs with idiosynCrazy productions, a dance/theatre company producing work that synthesizes vivid narrative imagery with bold physicality in the creation of contemporary, urban psychological fables.  Poe’s ironic works create fabled characters from caricatured images of metropolitan figures, characters often struggling with labels and constrictive categories (as pertains to race, class, gender, etc.).  While directed by Jumatatu, company works are generated/choreographed collaboratively. Other collaborators include Catherine Lee (lighting design). Jumatatu Poe hails from California, by way of Philadelphia, PA. He is an alum of Swarthmore College and a graduate of the MFA program at Temple University. Jumatatu has trained at Philadanco, at the Jacob’s Pillow and Illadelph Legends festivals, and in Amsterdam with the Anouk van Dijk company. In 2008, Jumatatu was one of the resident choreographers of the Susan Hess Modern Dance Choreographers’ Project.  For the 2010-11 season, Jumatatu is a Fellow with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival’s LAB (Live Arts Brewery).

The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts shows its continued dedication to local Philadelphia artists with the 2010/11 By Local Series. Funded in part through The Wallace Foundation and the National Endowment from the Arts, and curated by the Annenberg Center’s Director of Operations Madison Cario, the series showcases both emerging and established Philadelphia talent. The 2010/11 By Local season features an eclectic mix of world and classical music performances, as well as theatre and dance performances and even Chinese puppetry. “The 2010/11 By Local Series at the Annenberg Center presents a sampling of the high quality, entertaining and stimulating work of Philadelphia-based artists. This season features an eclectic mix of music, dance and theatre, and of course those events that defy definition,” said Cario.

What:     FLATLAND 2010
Who:     idiosynCrazy productions
Where:     Harold Prince Theatre of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut Street
When:     Saturday, January 15th, 2011 – 8pm
Tickets:     $25; $15 students -  purchase at the door or online

Directed by: Jumatatu Poe; Lighting Design by: Catherine Lee
Cast of performers includes: Kristel Baldoz, Justin Bryant, Danielle Currica, Christine Gerena, Gregory Holt, Maya Johnson, Shannon Murphy, Shavon Norris, Gabrielle Revlock, William Robinson, Michele Tantoco