danceJournal » Manfred Fischbeck

Group Motion and Olive Prince Dance present JUNCTURE

Steven Weisz — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:45:48 +0000

In a double bill performance, Group Motion and Olive Prince Dance will share the stage on April 25, 26 and 27 at the Performance Garage during “Juncture.” This evening of revisited works will feature two Group Motion performances from the early 90s that stand as a hallmark of their generation, an in-depth work by Olive Prince Dance that explores the female psyche, and a new work by Group Motion co-founder Brigitta Herrmann.

Group Motion Company presents two revived works "Visitors" (1993) and "Inroads" (1992) in honor and celebration of their 45th anniversary. Both of these works represent high points of the 90’s generation of the company, with "Inroads" being considered the signature piece of that time.

The common ground or "juncture" between the Group Motion works is that of traveling, and the archetypes of arrival and departure. In “Visitors,” in a more fantasy driven or playful way, the 'travelers' arrive from 'the other side,' or a different space and time making impact or intervention on the inhabitants of the present reality, in "Inroads," in a more dramatic way, they escape an endangered and collapsing reality (that of isolation and alienation) and depart into a new one, making inroads into a new territory (that of connection and community).

Of this evening of performance Manfred Fischbeck, Artistic Director of Group Motion, says, “It is very meaningful and exciting to present these works in conjunction with Brigitta Herrmann's and Olive Prince's works, with whom the Group Motion Company shares long and important history.” JUNCTURE April 25, 26, and 27 at 8 PM Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130 TICKETS, $24 general admission / $12 students, seniors and dance professionals http://groupmotion.org/group-motion-company-dates/group-motion-shared-show-with-olive-prince/

REVIEW – Spiel Uhr by Group Motion

Kat Richter — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:24:23 +0000

by Kat Richter for The Dance Journal photo by Bill Hebert Group Motion’s history is impressive: as a contemporary modern dance company founded in 1968, Group Motion has performed around the world and at many notable American institutions including Judson Church and Jacob’s Pillow. Its founders include Brigitta Hermann, Helmut Gottschild and Manfred Fischbeck and in 1972, the company launched the Group Motion Workshop to teach improvisation. What’s most impressive about the company, however, is that it remains relevant after over four decades and the tradition of improvisation is alive and well if this weekend’s performance at the Community Education Center is of any indication. Spiel Uhr, which began in 1988, allows company dancers and guest choreographers to present new work. The title of the series reflects the background of the company’s original founders, many of whom came through the Mary Wigman School of Dance in Berlin; it refers to a music box and I can think of no metaphor more adept for describing the nine works performed on Sunday night. The evening featured new works by Brigitta Herrmann, Laina Fischbeck and Johan Charpentier, Darcy Lyons, Eleanor Goudie-Averill, David Konyk, Lindsay Browning, and an improvisation by the Group Motion Dance Company directed by Fischbeck. Each was imaginative, well-thought out and pithy. Eleanor Goudie-Averill’s For Members Only, which premiered during the Fringe Festival, featured a trio of dancers surrounded by dismembered mannequins and wooden sculptors. Goudie-Averill and Hedy Wyland performed a slow, automaton-like duet, one holding a torso and the other a pelvis. They twisted side to side then repeated the phrase without their props, getting closer and closer until they melted into an embrace. The work had an eerie, mad scientist feel to it at times but by the end, the dancers were jiving around one of the wooden sculptures like witches around a cauldron. Liberty, a work in progress by Aura Fischbeck, started off promisingly enough. Dressed in a flowing, mint green gown complete with a seven-pointed crown, Fischbeck swung a light up torch to the unmistakable sounds of Jimi Hendrix. It was just kitschy enough to pique my interest but there was little variety in the movements; Fischbeck whirled and twirled across the stage like a child playing in the grass for the duration of the song. Don’t Let a Fool Kiss You, choreographed by David Konyk and performed by Konyk and Wyland, was a delightful counterpoint. Danced entirely in the windows that frame the stage, it turned the typical duet into a slow, dream-like pole dance from two that was both charming and quirky. Wyland and Konyk swung out of their window sills, splaying their bodies across the wall between them then returned to their confined little boxes as if to consider matter before proceeding with their aerial flirtations. In Safekeeping by Darcy Lyons, four dancers crisscrossed the stage in symmetrical patterns only just narrowly avoiding collision. The piece explored themes of fear and security through spoken text, intricate partnering and the breaking of repetitive motifs. Lindsey Browning’s Untitled, which included live accompaniment provided by Manfred, text and five large black umbrellas, was captivating. One by one, Browning clasped each of the umbrellas in one hand, creating a sculpture that was larger than herself. In About Choice, Herrmann sauntered on stage hunched over a bag of confetti before performing an improvised solo that was simultaneously ethereal and grounded. Laina Fischbeck and Johan Charpentier shook things up in the second act with Breaking Patterns. Each had a thick black line painted across their body: Charpentier’s covered his mouth while Fischbeck’s covered her eyes, nipples and pubic bone. She performed in the nude, shaking and kicking with her wrist outstretched as if being injected while Charpentier tore through an original composition on the piano. Towards the end of the performance, the artists switched places: Fischbeck sat down at the piano and Charpentier walked to the center of the stage and began to explore the movement of his limbs just as the lights went out. The evening concluded with Five Point Star and Tableaux, in which company dancers Goudie-Averill, Konyk, Browning and Wyland performed a series of improvisations based on suggestions provided by the audience. To accompaniment by Tim Motzer, they animated ideas that only dance could bring to life. Kat Richter is a freelance writer and teaching artist. She holds an MA in Dance Anthropology and is also the co-founder of The Lady Hoofers, Philadelphia’s only all-female tap company. Her work can be found at www.katrichter.com.

Deborah Hay Solo Festival

Steven Weisz — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:52:20 +0000

Judson era dance luminary, Deborah Hay, spends a week in residence in Philadelphia, PA. November 6th - 11th, 2012. She will offer a workshop to professional dance artists at Mascher Space Cooperative and student participants from University of the Arts. The week will culminate in a festival co-produced by thefidget space and Mascher Space Cooperative featuring acclaimed soloists performing work by Deborah Hay from the past 15 years.

The lineup includes the following: Friday, Nov 9th, 8pm Nicole Bindler - I Think Not (2011) Manfred Fischbeck - I Think Not (2011) Sally Doughty - I Think Not (2011) Saturday, Nov 10th, 8pm Karen Schaffman and Eric Geiger - FIRE (1999) and Art and Life (2010) Grace Mi He Lee - Voila (1997) Hana van der Kolk / Jesse Johnson - Boom Boom Boom (2006) Sunday, Nov 11th, 3pm Melanie Stewart - I'll Crane for You (2008) Leslie Elkins - Boom Boom Boom (2000) Deborah Black - The Runner (2007) Hana van der Kolk / Jesse Johnson - Boom Boom Boom (2006) PLUS on Wednesday, November 7th, 11:30am at the Drake, 1512 Spruce Street (entrance on Hicks Street) Hay will perform her "Lecture on the Performance of Beauty" as a part of the University's "Knowing Dance More" series. This lecture is free to the public. Running time Approximately 45 minutes. A Lecture on the Performance of Beauty (2004) Choreography, text and performance: Deborah Hay Influential choreographer and writer Deborah Hay gives unique insight into her creative world. Here she talks openly about the process of performance and choreography, describing her relation to the field of dance. Her solo work Beauty, choreographed in 2003, is the basis of the Lecture. But is this really a lecture? Or is what’s really going on a performance disguised as a lecture? Deborah Hay is considered one of the pioneers of post-modern dance. Born in Brooklyn, she started her dance career in the 1960s performing in a group that later became known as the Judson Dance Theater, one of the most radical and explosive art movements of the last century. HAY'S SOLO PERFORMANCE COMMISSIONING PROJECT Dancers commission a solo dance from Deborah Hay. She guides and coaches them in the performance of the solo during an 11-day period in a residency setting. At the conclusion of the residency each participant signs a contractual agreement to a daily solo practice of the new piece, for a minimum of three months before their first public performance. What is unique about this project is that the dancers must raise the commissioning fee from within his/her community. This becomes the selection process by which a performer attends the SPCP. Community, whether family, friends, local, state, or national granting agencies, corporations, become the patrons for each dance. All patrons receive program acknowledgment every time the solo is performed by any of the participating dancers. With the Solo Performance Commissioning Project all participating artists commission the same solo dance choreographed by Deborah Hay. Hay rarely demonstrates solutions to the choreography. Rather, she conveys her concepts through directives that each performer translates individually into movement in his/her unique way. As part of the process, the artist is bound to the material through meditation-like exercises that are applied throughout the choreographed dance. In the latter half of the SPCP each artist is personally coached in his/her performance of the dance, with everyone present. Ultimately the solo is adapted by each performer through a period of practice that extends into the months following the project.

Deborah Hay Solo Festival

November 9th, 8pm

November 10th, 8pm

November 11th, 3pm

thefidget space

1714 North Mascher St

Philadelphia PA 19122

Market-Frankford El: Berks stop

click here for map

Buy tickets online. THE SOLOISTS Nicole Bindler, is a body-based performing artist, inspired by her studies of new dance, dance-theater, contact improvisation, and butoh. She is also a bodyworker and use somatic practices, such as Body-Mind Centering, yoga and Feldenkrais as a source of creativity, inspiration and physical training. Her work has been shown throughout the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Berlin, Tokyo, Beirut, Mexico and Quito, Ecuador. She has been presented by Shawinigan Street Theater Festival, Irtijal09', Performance Mix Festival, DraftWork at Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, Center for Performance Research, The Kennedy Center, Dance Place, D.C. Improvisation Festival, High Zero Festival, Transmodern Age Festival, Links Hall, Hampshire College, Mobius, Berwick Research Institute, Lesley University, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Live Arts Brewery, nEW Festival, Bowerbird & ThirdBird, CEC New Edge mix, First Person Arts and Philadelphia Dance Projects. Her work has been supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (through Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts) and Dance Advance. Her piece "I made this for you.", created in collaboration with Gabrielle Revlock, was a 2011 finalist for the A.W.A.R.D. Show! She has taught Somatics and Contact Improvisation throughout the U.S., Argentina and at International Contact Festival Freiburg in Germany. http://nicolebindler.com/ Deborah Black grew up in rural Western Pennsylvania, received a BFA in dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a second major in Art History, and commissioned two solos from Deborah Hay -The Runner(2007) and I'll Crane For You(2008). She has collaborated with Margot Bassett, Will Bond, Davina Cohen, Karl Cronin, Genevieve Beth Grady, Christianne Hommelsheim, Kinderenvandevilla, Caroline O'Meara, Sasha Welsh, and has danced for Diana Crum, Fitzgerald and Stapleton, Naomi Goldberg-Haas, Anneke Hansen, Susan Rethorst, and Peter Sciscioli. Black, with Karl Cronin, received funding from the Jerome Foundation in 2010 to travel to Childress, TX to research the town, the people, and its landscape. She studies the Alexander Technique with June Ekman, Delsarte with Joe Williams, and has trained with the SITI Company. www.deborahblack.net Sally Doughty is an independent dance artist based in Leicester, England. She has been making and performing work internationally since the early 90s and is published in the USA and Britain. In her early career she performed with many leading British choreographers including Laurie Booth, Sue Maclennan and Rosemary Lee, and she has since developed reputation as a facilitator and performer of improvisational practices. Her current interests include how improvisation can be used as a form of documentation, and investigating what informs spontaneous decisions made in the moment of improvising. She attempts to balance her work as dance artist with her role as principal lecturer in dance at De Montfort University, UK. Sometimes this works really well….. Leslie Elkins, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Dance at Rowan University. She teaches dance theory and technique and specializes in improvisational composition and performance. Body-Presence: Lived Experience of Choreography and Performance, her phenomenological-hermeneutic study involving work with noted artist Deborah Hay and Philadelphia-based dance artists, Grace Mi-He Lee and Tania Isaac, is published by Lambert Academic Publishing. She is also co-author on several published papers about the potentials and challenges of collaborative interdisciplinary teaching. Dr. Elkins is one of the founding members of Foursome, a collaborative arts ensemble in Philadelphia. Other performance work includes Quick Change, an improvisational dance-theatre collage with Paule Turner and Heidi Barr. Her current research focuses on the philosophy and use of play in education, as well as how the arts festival, Prospect New Orleans, can be used as a model of urban regeneration. Dr. Elkins received her Ph.D. in Dance from Temple University. Manfred Fischbeck is the Artistic and Executive Director of Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater. Originally from Berlin , Germany, he studied literature and theater at the Freie Universitaet and was professionally engaged as an actor in theater and film, before he moved to dance and joined the Modern Dance Company Gruppe Motion Berlin. In 1968 he relocated with Brigitta Herrmann and Hellmut Gottschild, co-founders and co-directors of Group Motion to Philadelphia. Since then, for more that forty years Manfred has been a vital force of the Philadelphia arts community, choreographing, composing, performing, teaching and touring with Group Motion locally, nationally, and internationally. He serves on the faculty of the University of the Arts as Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Dance, and as a lecturer in the Theater Arts Department at The University of Pennsylvania. He has received various grant awards and fellowships, including funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts and other foundations. www.groupmotion.org/ Eric Geiger was a company member of the Bill T Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company in New York City, the Lyon Opera Ballet in France, Djazzex Modern Dance in the Netherlands, and V-TOL Dance in London. As a guest artist he has performed with ODC in San Francisco, Lower Left, under the direction of Nina Martin, Allyson Green Dance, Gabriel Masson Dance, Yolande Snaith and Patricia Sandback. In San Francisco, he facilitated movement workshops for The Medea Project, Theatre for Incarcerated Women, directed by Rhodessa Jones. Eric is the Associate Artistic Director of McCaleb Dance in San Diego, collaborating with Artistic Director Nancy McCaleb, where he has performed, choreographed, and designed scenic elements and costumes for numerous works. Currently he is creating with Liam Clancy and Tara Knight making spontaneous dances with the camera, collaborating on the full evening work titled BARK, with Liam Clancy, Karen Schaffman and Leslie Seiters, and continuing his embodied practice with collaborative dance theatre LIVE. Eric is also a full time faculty member of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. In January of 2011 he, together with Co-Artistic Director Karen Schaffman, launched PADL West a 501(c)(3) organization committed to fostering innovative embodied research through art and conversation. www.padlwest.org Hana van der Kolk makes stuff, thinks, collaborates, performs and teaches in lots of different places around the world. Her projects are usually rooted in her background as a dancer, but are increasingly far-flung. They take place in a wide range of sites including outdoors, on film, in writing, on stage, and in warehouses, museums, and galleries. She began working with Deborah Hay in 2000, learning Boom, Boom, Boom in 2000 and The Ridge in 2004. After touring her adaptation of The Ridge extensively, in 2006 she collaborated with Layard Thompson in a duet version of the piece, as well as a film version of Boom, Boom, Boom with artist Jesse Johnson and sound designer Rafael Cohen. www.hanavanderkolk.com Jesse Johnson is a photographer, cinematographer, dancer and musician. She teaches and practices CI in NYC where her classes are deeply informed by her spiritual practice of bhakti, meditation and the exploration of the soul through the body. For the last 10 years, Jesse has been exploring the ever evolving medium created at the intersection of dance and film and is delighted to share “Boom, Boom, Boom” as an example of this research. During the weekdays, Jesse is a mathematics instructional specialist and works with math teachers in NYC public high schools, supporting kids and adults in the ultimately improvisational and inspiring process of teaching and learning. Grace Mi-He Lee's mind was blown 23 years ago when Deborah Hay taught Modern Dance III as Artist in Residence at Wesleyan University, where Grace was completing her BA in Dance and Sociology. Grace relocated to Austin, Texas to participate in Hay's 1992 and 1993 Large Group Workshops. In 1995 Hay proposed to Grace and Scott Heron, another former student, The Voilà Project: all 3 would each develop their own adaptation of Hay's new solo, Voilà, based on her written choreography libretto. They premiered Voilà at The Kitchen in 1997, concealing their adaptations from one another until the last night. During the summer of 1998, Grace travelled with Hay as her "Master Assistant" on Hay's US west coast tour, after stage managing a one-time, 3 hour-long performance with 80 local Austin performers, Italy: real and imagined, a collaboration between Hay and the late visual artist, Tre Arenz. In 1999, Grace choreographed BURN, a duet for herself and Leslie Elkins, as a response to Hay's libretto for Fire. In 2000 The Painted Bride presented both pieces on a program also featuring Simone Forti and Philadelphia based Eric Schoefer, who had previously worked extensively with Forti. Grace learned Boom Boom Boom from Hay during the 2001 Solo Performance Commissioning Project, and performed it in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival later that year. In 2009 Grace filled in as Tour Manager for The Deborah Hay Dance Company's Stockholm residency at Dansen Hus, running an audition for 80 Stockholm dancers. Karen Schaffman is a lifelong dancer investigating perceptual practice and embodied knowledge. With Eric Geiger, she co-directs PADL West (www.padlwest.org). A devoted collaborator, she is also performingBARK (with Leslie Seiters, Liam Clancy, and Eric Geiger), developing The Fantasy Project with Anya Cloud and Mary Reich, and participating in ReDANCE directed by Sara Wookey. She has collaborated with Veronika Blumstein, BodyCartography Project, Kristine Diekman, Sara Shelton Mann, Nina Martin, Lower Left (co-founder) and LIVE. Schaffman is a graduate of the European Development Center and earned a Ph.D. in Dance History and Theory at UC Riverside. She is Professor at California State University San Marcos, studies The Feldenkrais Method, and enjoys the water. Melanie Stewart creates darkly absurd movement driven theatre focusing on the nuanced, weird and vulnerable side of American culture. Through the integration of movement, text, and song she investigates ability of the body to carry meaning in original narratives. Her work strives to reveal the emotional under currents that drive the body to action, resulting in compelling dance theatre that is often ironic and intensely human. She is the Artistic Director of Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre, a critically acclaimed director/ choreographer and a recent nominee for a USA Artists Fellowship. Other awards include fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through Dance Advance, and The PA Council on the Arts. She has been a choreographer in residence at The American Dance Festival and Jacob Pillow’s Winter Pillow and a frequent producer on the Edinburgh, New York and Philadelphia Live Arts/Philly Fringe. She holds two degrees in dance; a B.A from Webster University and an M.F.A. from Temple University and is a professor and Chair of Theatre and Dance at Rowan University. www.melaniestewart.org

Group Motion at 44

Whittington — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 19:18:17 +0000

by Lewis Whittington for the Dance Journal photo credit: Rand Rosenblatt Glances Back “We had strong interest in American modern dance and also in the culture from Miles Davis to Andy Warhol and Alvin Ailey. So we came here in 1968 and the rest is history.” The eternally youthful Manfred Fischbeck told the audience at the anniversary celebration of Group Motion hosted by composer Andrea Clearfield in a special Salon at her loft in Center City last week. The ethereal environs was the perfect setting for a company victory lap, with performances of music, poetry and very game GM dancers Marie Brown, David Konyk, Lesya Popil, Hedy Wyland and Lindsay Browning. In attendance were current and former dancers, colleagues breaking bread, talking about art in general and Group Motion in particular. Clearfield’s historic 18^th century Alpine ceiling loft, home for 25 years of monthly Salons, bringing together collaborative arts by local, national and international artists. In his introductory remarks, Fischbeck provided a little company history. “We started in Berlin in 1962 and we’ve had 44 years of American existence, the three of us came over here in ‘68... to check out the situation. Someone who had worked with us in Berlin, had a sense that our work would go over well here, so we took a chance.” Fischbeck, then and now, with co-founders Brigitta Hermann and Helmut Gottschild, were not just pioneering in the dance world, but as part of a new artistic and cultural landscape in Philly. “It’s great to see such a beautiful mix of friends and people who have been involved with Group Motion these 44 years.” Fischbeck said. As company director, choreographer and composer, Fischbeck is as hands on as ever as he spoke to “Vital importance to have your support for the coming years.” Loretta Witt, attending Salon for the first time, was catching up with Group Motion and reminisced that she actually presented the troupe at Chestnut Hill College in 1969 as part of an arts festival that she organized while still a student. Witt said she doesn’t remember how they hooked, but that they “were so thrilled, it was one of their first performances in the US. I was a senior, organized this festival, we had everything from Louis Cahn, speaking about architecture to drama and all of the arts schools in the area involved, the blues singer Buddy Guy. Really great stuff, but I remember Group Motion was the highlight of the festival.” Fischbeck recalled those earliest years as artistic émigrés in his opening comments “The performance in 1968, our first year, we had a performance at Judson Church in New York, at that time it was the most important place for contemporary dance. We crunched in there and we got noticed, with strong response from the important critics. From there we felt encouraged, and decided to make Philadelphia our home. Which was a good choice because New York was crowded.” In capping off the evening Fischbeck presented Augurs based on what 44 could represent from the Numerology dictionary and the dancers picked the words at random. To music by Steve Reich, they expressed the given word and repeated each gesture, accumulating a choreographic phrase that broke into improv variations. Fischbeck, standing to the side, seemed delighted with the results, as was the audience. He read out the words afterward- inspiring, honor, expressive, joyous, adversity and faith- all numerogically connected to 44. The mysticism wasn’t lost on this loyal audience. It also was a fine representation, robustly conjured, of Fischbeck’s imprimatur of liberated dancer centric movement. What is a Salon without liberated literati, Fischbeck, accompanied by Clearfield on piano, read a poetry cycle titled The Rim of Love (Cliff-Canyon-Edge-Rim) inspired by a stay in Arizona, full of atmospherics and raw emotion, dramatic evocations, some of which seemed to evoke his sensibilities. “Dance in the mirror of clouds.” “You’re not waiting anymore/I’ll be there/ when you are not waiting” are just a few of the resonating lines. “Music always, but I started with literature, Fischbeck said later, “writing, theater and then dance.” In an interview after the event Fischbeck talked about his upcoming programs and even though there is always the fiscal realities to contend with he was energized about the company receiving a Pew Grant this year. Dance Forward “We are very lucky to have gotten a Pew Grant and that will be a substantial focus in the next two years. We have always created own repertoire and we have also collaborated with international guest artists. I’m very proud of that track…of Group Motion having provided input into the larger cultural community.” “We are doing another collaboration, working with Susan Rethorst, from New York. She also works in the Amsterdam and is on the international scene. She had a retrospective last year at Danspace in New York. A second generation Judson Church artist from downtown. She’s so in focus….in contemporary work. Bryn Mawr College is presenting a retrospective, she actually is moving to Philadelphia and our work will start in July. Her process in ours have similarities, and in many ways we are distinctly different, so the results will be interesting.” Touring at this point in question. We’re working on some touring… which may be …” he says he’d rather not jinx it. Earlier this spring enjoyed successful tour dates at Chicago University “it was wonderful. Rockefeller Temple we played with a wonderful orchestra, with Andrea’s music, based on Tibetan classicism.” he said. Upcoming touring is a question for the immediate future, “We’re working on some touring… which may be …” he says he’d rather not jinx it. “We continue with our Spiel Uhr (Play Clock) series at CEC, we will have a home season next spring.” he added. As part of Spiel Uhr series, Fischbeck is working on new music “an improvisational piece with the company, which I developed in a solo recently at Christ Church, I’ll be doing it again in the fall- it has a musical aspect with an ultrasonic beam, that is hooked up with a keyboard and when I move inside that beam, I generate music. It’s an invisible cone of ultrasonic sound waves extending 25 feet and I program this beam on the keyboard in pitches, scales and textures so I’m moving in and out of the beam and my movement is generating the music.” Call it reverse immersion, uber-interdisciplinary or maybe Manfred Wi. Stay tuned.

Sam-Gam BAM!, triple-power dance at Drexel

Merilyn Jackson — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:59:55 +0000

By Merilyn Jackson For The Inquirer Philadelphia's dancers have built a community that's the envy of other cities around the country. A Washington City Paper article last month cited Headlong Dance Theater as a ringleader, quoting one of its founders, David Brick, as saying, "You have to figure out how to do things on your own." Sometimes that requires contorting into unlikely partnerships such as the one between Headlong, another long-established dance group, Group Motion, and Viji Rao's newer Three Aksha. Their show, called "Sam-Gam BAM!", opened at Drexel's Mandell Theater last weekend and continues Thursday through Saturday. Headlong is the postmodern, hipster/brainy dance company that relocated in Philadelphia from Wesleyan University in the early 1990s; German expressionist Group Motion had arrived from Berlin back in 1968. Traditional Indian dance company Three Aksha's been around for the better part of the last decade. "Sam-gam" - Sanskrit for "flow together" - is the title and overarching theme of the new works presented by the three companies, whose flowing together was pure serendipity. "Group Motion had reserved the Mandell for two weekends," said company director Manfred Fischbeck, "and since Headlong and Three Aksha inquired about the Mandell for the same dates, it made sense to join forces with the support of the Dance UP rental subsidy program." READ FULL STORY...

Group Motion in City Dances Parkway II

Mon, 03 May 2010 16:33:15 +0000

City Dances Parkway II is an interactive walking tour of public art sites led by Group Motion Dance Company, May 6-9, 2010. Presented by PNC Arts Alive, it incorporates contemporary dance and music with the sculptures along the east end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. By creating a site-specific performance piece that utilizes iPods and speakers attached to the dancers’ bodies to create “moving music,” Group Motion has developed a unique multi-disciplinary work of art that opens a dialogue between contemporary dance and music with five public sculptures from 1964 – 1974 on the Parkway. Starting at the Northeast corner of 17th Street, the performance visits the following sites in this order:

Alexander Calder’s Three Disks, One Lackin (17th St at the Parkway)
Three Way Piece Number 1: Points by Henry Moore
The Prophet by Jacob Lipkin
Monument to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs by Nathan Rapoport
LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana (near 15th Street)

Manfred Fischbeck, Artistic Director of Group Motion, has suggested a set of themes to the dancers, choreographers and composers for this performance. Derived from the five sculptural sites of abstract art that are explored by the performance, these themes are: suspension, balance, vision, remembrance and connection. Throughout the tour, the dancers and the music will engage in a dialogue with each sculptural site; not to illustrate or interpret but to reflect and interact with them in a way the artist responds. They invite audiences to experience this interaction from their own perception and to respond by writing on Group Motion’s blog. The playlist, featuring music by Phil Kline, Tim Motzer, and Andrea Clearfield, will be available online at www.groupmotion.org. Choreography by Manfred Fischbeck, Silvana Cardell, Lesya Popil, and John Luna. Featured Choreographers: Manfred Fischbeck John Luna Silvana Cardell Lesya Popil Featured Composers: Phil Kline Tim Motzer Andrea Clearfield Performance Times: Thursday, May 6 @ noon Friday, May 7 @ noon Saturday, May 8 @ 3pm Sunday, May 9 @ 3pm Group Motion Dance Company began as a contemporary modern dance company, pioneering the art form of multi-media dance theater. Originally founded in 1962 as Gruppe Motion Berlin, a chamber dance company evolving from the Mary Wigman School of Dance, the company performed throughout Germany and Europe, being one of very few modern dance companies in Germany at the time. In 1968, under the direction of Brigitta Hermann, Helmut Gottschild, and Manfred Fischbeck, the company relocated to Philadelphia and quickly received critical recognition, making historic appearances at Judson Church in New York in 1968 and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1969, and by joining the National Endowment for the Arts touring program in the 1970s. Group Motion came under the sole artistic direction of Manfred Fischbeck in 1989 and has been consistently committed to the teaching and presentation of dance and interdisciplinary art forms, and to providing performance opportunities for local, national, and international artists. Group Motion is one of Philadelphia’s longest running contemporary dance organization and is a locally, nationally and internationally-respected dance company. Artistic Director Manfred Fischbeck brings to Group Motion over 40 years of experience choreographing, directing, performing, and touring, both in the United States and abroad. The company holds its place in the forefront of contemporary dance and dance theater for four decades, creating a substantial body of over 50 works. Group Motion also has a long history of collaboration with prominent international artists, dancers, and choreographers, including Carol Brown (London), Kenshi Nohmi and Akiko Kitamura (Japan), Oscar Aruiz (Argentina), Wally Cardona (NYC) and Philadelphia locals such as Rennie Harris and Kun Yang Lin. The company began a world-wide touring program in the mid- 1990's and has since taken its repertory to France, Argentina, Japan, Cyprus, Taiwan, and Poland, as well as to venues throughout the United States. Our work has been recognized by funding from organizations such as The Pew Charitable Trusts' competitive Dance Advance program and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In recent years, we have been selected to participate in the Philadelphia Fringe and Live Arts Festivals, the Wilma Theater’s DanceBoom! Festival, the Kimmel Center’s Fresh Ink Series, as well as many other dance festivals around the world such as Japan, Poland, Germany and Lithuania. Photo credit: BH Photos

Spiel Uhr on Valentine’s Day weekend

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:26:50 +0000

Group Motion will present new works by local choreographers at Spiel Uhr on Valentine’s Day weekend, February 13 & 14, 2010. Spiel Uhr, meaning “play clock” in German, features local choreographers and performers as they perform original dance works for the first time. The program starts at 8 p.m. at the Community Education Center Meetinghouse Theater at 3500 Lancaster. “Spiel Uhr provides a platform for local dancers to showcase new works,” says Artistic Director Manfred Fischbeck. “It is important because it highlights many Philadelphia choreographers.” Guest choreographer, Brian Sanders and his company, JUNK, will present a short excerpt from their upcoming Live Arts Festival project premiering this Fall 2010. In this sneak peak of his work in progress, Sanders uses 80s pop music such as Duran Duran, Wham! and Yaz. He describes it as making “for a bunch of soaring, yet twisted knots of flesh.” Choreographer Eleanor Goudie-Averill and visual artist and puppeteer Nicole Donnelly come together to create an intriguing work featuring new music by composer Caleb Engstrom. “Penumbra” reveals into half light the goings on of shadows, showcasing vibrant dancing, grand yet quirky gestures, sweeping subtleties, and live shadow puppet theatre. In "Stasis," choreographer John Luna combines video projection and movement to capture the idea of a holographic woman that has been shattered into pieces. Leanne Grieger performs to music by Jacaszek, Dntel, and Burial. Sara Yassky and Gregory Holt explore the realms of communication that are slow to unfold in their piece “Say No More,” in which they both choreograph and perform. “It’s like time-released Ritalin,” explains Yassky. “It will digest over time.” “And so we are singing!” is a fun, new work choreographed and performed by Shannon Murphy and Jumatatu Poe with music by The Smurfs, Steve Surgalski, Port O Brien, and Power Animal. “and so we are singing” is the result of the exploration, and inspiration of the Calcaneus (heel bone), where the dancers slide out under pressure and spiral up and in to rise, over and over again. Join Jumatatu Poe and Shannon Murphy for this virtuosic investigation of a bone rhythm, its metaphors, and the heel’s ability to store beliefs, memories, and emotions. Shannon is a level two certified Franklin Method teacher, which she applied as a platform for the process of this piece. Shannon and Jumatatu are taking the actual movement of the Calcaneus, and exploiting it through dance...and so we are singing! Spiel Uhr Performance Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater Saturday, February 13th & Sunday, February 14th at 8 p.m. The CEC Meetinghouse Theater at 3500 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104 $15/ $10 discounted tickets, available online or at the door. ABOUT GROUP MOTION Group Motion Dance Company began as a contemporary dance company, pioneering the art form of multi-media dance theater. Originally founded in 1962 as Gruppe Motion Berlin, a chamber dance company evolving from the Mary Wigman School of Dance, the company performed throughout Germany and Europe, being one of very few modern dance companies in Germany at the time. In 1968, under the direction of Brigitta Hermann, Helmut Gottschild, and Manfred Fischbeck, the company relocated to Philadelphia and quickly received critical recognition, making historic appearances at Judson Church in New York in 1968 and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1969, and by joining the National Endowment for the Arts touring program in the 1970s. Group Motion came under the sole artistic direction of Manfred Fischbeck in 1989 and has been consistently committed to the teaching and presentation of dance and interdisciplinary art forms, and to providing performance opportunities for local, national, and international artists. Group Motion is one of Philadelphia’s longest running contemporary dance organization and is a locally, nationally and internationally-respected dance company. Artistic Director Manfred Fischbeck brings to Group Motion over 40 years of experience choreographing, directing, performing, and touring, both in the United States and abroad. The company holds its place in the forefront of contemporary dance and dance theater for four decades, creating a substantial body of over 50 works. Group Motion also has a long history of collaboration with prominent international artists, dancers, and choreographers, including Carol Brown (London), Kenshi Nohmi and Akiko Kitamura (Japan), Oscar Aruiz (Argentina), Wally Cardona (NYC) and Philadelphia locals such as Rennie Harris and Kun Yang Lin. The company began a world-wide touring program in the mid-1990's and has since taken its repertory to France, Argentina, Japan, Cyprus, Taiwan, and Poland, as well as to venues throughout the United States. Our work has been recognized by funding from organizations such as The Pew Charitable Trusts' competitive Dance Advance program and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In recent years, we have been selected to participate in the Philadelphia Fringe and Live Arts Festivals, the Wilma Theater’s DanceBoom! Festival, the Kimmel Center’s Fresh Ink Series, as well as many other dance festivals around the world such as Japan, Poland, Germany and Lithuania.

Group Motion’s City Dances/Parkway Continues Post-Fringe

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:30:16 +0000

After a successful run at the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Group Motion continues its City Dances/Parkway program under the auspices of PNC Arts Alive program. City Dances/Parkway is an interactive, traveling performance involving dance, music, art and technology. Take a walking tour with Group Motion dancers to experience some of Philadelphia’s public art sites including Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, Mark di Suvero’s Iroquois and Jacques Lipchitz’s Prometheus Strangling the Vulture. The performances are free to the public and will be held on October 22nd and 23rd at Noon, and then again on October 24th and 25th at 3pm. The tour begins at The Rodin Museum Courtyard, located at 22nd and the Parkway. Before starting your tour, be sure to download the City Dances Playlist to your iPod or other favorite music player. The City Dances Playlist, featuring original music by Phil Kline (NYC) and Tim Motzer (Phila) will be made available for download off the Group Motion website, www.groupmotion.org, beginning on October 1, 2009. You will then be ready to be led on this “traveling performance” with “moving music”, creating a personal experience of contemporary dance and music with Philadelphia's famous cultural sites. Choreography for City Dances/Parkway is by artistic director Manfred Fischbeck and company choreographers, John Luna and Olive Prince. Group Motion Dance Company began as a contemporary modern dance company, pioneering the art form of multi-media dance theater. Originally founded in 1962 as Gruppe Motion Berlin, a chamber dance company evolving from the Mary Wigman School of Dance, the company performed throughout Germany and Europe, being one of very few modern dance companies in Germany at the time. In 1968, under the direction of Brigitta Hermann, Helmut Gottschild, and Manfred Fischbeck, the company relocated to Philadelphia and quickly received critical recognition, making historic appearances at Judson Church in New York in 1968 and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1969, and by joining the National Endowment for the Arts touring program in the 1970s. Group Motion came under the sole artistic direction of Manfred Fischbeck in 1989 and has been consistently committed to the teaching and presentation of dance and interdisciplinary art forms, and to providing performance opportunities for local, national, and international artists. Group Motion is one of Philadelphia’s longest running contemporary dance organization and is a locally, nationally and internationally-respected dance company. Artistic Director Manfred Fischbeck brings to Group Motion over 40 years of experience choreographing, directing, performing, and touring, both in the United States and abroad. The company holds its place in the forefront of contemporary dance and dance theater for four decades, creating a substantial body of over 50 works. Group Motion also has a long history of collaboration with prominent international artists, dancers, and choreographers, including Carol Brown (London), Kenshi Nohmi and Akiko Kitamura (Japan), Oscar Aruiz (Argentina), Wally Cardona (NYC) and Philadelphia locals such as Rennie Harris and Kun Yang Lin. The company began a world-wide touring program in the mid-1990's and has since taken its repertory to France, Argentina, Japan, Cyprus, Taiwan, and Poland, as well as to venues throughout the United States. Our work has been recognized by funding from organizations such as The Pew Charitable Trusts' competitive Dance Advance program and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In recent years, we have been selected to participate in the Philadelphia Fringe and Live Arts Festivals, the Wilma Theater’s DanceBoom! Festival, the Kimmel Center’s Fresh Ink Series, as well as many other dance festivals around the world such as Japan, Poland, Germany and Lithuania.

Shadow and Light

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:33:25 +0000

Group Motion, as part of their 40th Anniversary Season, will present Shadow and Light at the Painted Bride on March 13th and 14th. Featured on the program is LUNGTA, a new work by Artistic Director, Manfred Fischbeck, COURAGE by Co-Founder Brigitta Herrmann, and A SHADOW IN THE AEOLIAN PALACE by guest choreographer, Megan Bridge. The Tibetan Buddhist prayer flag is called the “Windhorse”, or LUNGTA, after the horse which carries the prayers of the faithful upwards towards the heavens. The Lo Monthang region of Nepal is home to a horse culture that is threatened by the encroaching pressures of the outside world. Fischbeck creates a new work in collaboration with composer Andrea Clearfied, Network for New Music and artist Maureen Drdak, inspired by Tibetan symbolism and art. *Saturday matinee includes Network for New Music, performing the music live for LUNGTA. Brigitta Herrmann presents Courage, to which she says, “Last summer, Mukhtar Mai’s book “In the Name of Honor” came into my hands. Reading it, I was deeply touched by her story and by the still ongoing, life threatening circumstances of women in tribal areas of Pakistan. This dance was created to bring attention to her story and her courage, and to energize healing for her and all women who suffer from exploitation and injustice.” A Shadow in the Aeolian Palace, choreographed by Megan Bridge, is joined in the creation of this work by her long-time collaborator, composer and video artist Peter Price. Although the pair have been making dance and multi-media work together in Philadelphia for close to a decade, this season they've newly launched their own company . Bridge says "Several years ago the pianist Ben Whitten introduced us to the work of painter Tom Bostelle (1925-2005). At that time Bostelle was still living in his "Aeolian Palace" on the Brandywine creek, and his shadow sculptures still populated the grounds outside his studio. Bostelle's shadow paintings and sculptures have an inherent theatrical quality, despite their insistence on pure unadorned form that lends itself readily to choreographic exploration. And the mise en scene of the artist’s life in this dilapidated old dance hall in Wyeth country was compelling to us." SHADOW and LIGHT Tickets: (*student/senior price) Friday, March 13 @ 8pm $30/$25* Includes post performance party Saturday, March 14 @ 2pm $20/$15* Includes live music by Network for New Music & post performance Q & A Saturday, March 14 @ 8pm $20/$15* For tickets: Group Motion: 215-387-9895/Painted Bride: 215-925-2914 or www.paintedbride.org

Group Motion presents The Wind Horse in collaboration with Network for New Music

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:16:29 +0000

Network for New Music, the award-winning chamber ensemble dedicated to commissioning and performing works by living composers, proudly presents WINDHORSE, the second concert in a season-long exploration of the many connections between the creation of new music and visual arts. WINDHORSE features the world premiere of Lung-ta, a Network for New Music commission by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield. Clearfield and visual artist Maureen Drdak trekked by horseback to the remote Lo Monthang region of Nepal, where they collected samples of the indigenous music and art from the Buddhist monasteries and villages. Upon their return, they collaborated on a multi-dimensional chamber work, using the material they collected. The form and content of Clearfield’s work incorporates the sights and sounds of the restricted area of Upper Mustang; she says “all of our experiences there became the window into a vast sound world for me that has manifested into the music of Lung-ta.” Her work is written for an octet of musicians, each playing their own instrument plus one Tibetan Buddhist instrument brought back from the trek; it also uses recorded melodies taught to her by of Tashi Tsering, Royal Court Singer. Drdak has created three immense Buddhist prayer flags (which are known as “lung-ta,’ which means “wind horse,” after the wind-borne horses that carry prayers to the heavens). These flags each represent one of the 3 protector deities of the Rigsum Gompo, structures found near the entrances of the villages in the high mountains of Upper Mustang to protect the village. The flags will be suspended across the hall above the musicians as they perform the music written by Clearfield. Philadelphia’s Group Motion Dance Company will perform original choreography to the work, created by Manfred Fischbeck, Group Motion’s Artistic Director. The dancers are working with three colors associated with the 3 protector deities, and wear scarves brought back by Clearfield from Kathmandu as elements of their costumes. They are also integrating some Buddhist hand gestures, as well as images of clouds and wind, swords and flowers. There will be a colloquium from 5 – 6 PM in Dorrance Hamilton Hall with composer, artist, choreographer, and Network’s Artistic Director Linda Reichert, who will discuss the development of this major work. (Free to ticket holders.) The concert will also include chamber music for flute and harp by Toru Takemitsu, performed by veteran Network for New Music Ensemble members Edward Schultz, flute, and Sarah Fuller, harp. CONCERT: WHEN: Friday, March 6, 2009, 8:00 PM WHERE: Dorrance Hamilton Hall, University of the Arts 320 S. Broad St., Philadelphia TICKETS: In advance: available online at www.networkfornewmusic.org, or by phone at 215.848.7647. General admission, $20; Seniors, $15; Students with ID, $10 At the door: General admission, $25; Seniors, $20; Students with ID, $15 Free with ID to University of the Arts students and faculty NETWORK FOR NEW MUSIC has a nearly twenty-five year history of adventurous and innovative programming and virtuoso performances, and this season is no exception. Artistic Director Linda Reichert draws in the very best composers from across the nation and the world, and programs their work with that of the best and most interesting Philadelphia composers. As performed by the brilliant Network for New Music Ensemble (many of whom are also members of The Philadelphia Orchestra), the result is an invigorating and exceptional take on the best of contemporary music, and a window into the future’s standard repertoire. Network's creative programming and spectacular musicianship has attracted world-class guest artists and composers such as Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin, William Bolcom, Christoph Eschenbach, and many others; and Network often collaborate with artists from the worlds of dance, video, poetry and theater. Through residencies, workshops, and outreach concerts, the ensemble nurtures the gifts and enthusiasm of students who write and play the music of the next generation. ANDREA CLEARFIELD: Composer Andrea Clearfield’s recent commissions include works for The Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra 2001, Network for New Music, The Debussy Trio, Dolce Suono Chamber Music Series, the Mendelssohn Club and the Turtle Creek Chorale. She has been praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for her “virtuosity”, “compositional wizardry” and “mastery with large choral and instrumental forces”. Ms. Clearfield has received grants and awards from ASCAP, the NEA, The Leeway Foundation, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, the International Alliance for Women in Music, the Independence Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has been in residence at Yaddo, where she was awarded the Aaron Copland Residency for an American Composer as well as the MacDowell Colony, the Blue Mountain Center, Ucross, Ragdale, The Wurlitzer Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. A native of Philadelphia, Ms. Clearfield received a D.M.A. in composition from Temple University. Host and founder of the Philadelphia SALON Concert Series since 1986, she also serves on the composition faculty at The University of the Arts and is pianist for the Relâche Ensemble. MAUREEN DRDAK is an award-winning artist now living in the Philadelphia suburbs. Drdak is inspired by the tension and duality found between physical form and spiritual aspiration, and her visual art explores the emotional and expressive vitality created by that duality. Her work is found in the permanent collections of public, corporate and private entities, including the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College; the LUAG Permanent Collection at Lehigh University; the Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem; the private collection of King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan; and many others. Drdak’s paintings have been included in many juried exhibitions and have won awards throughout the United States. She graduated with a BFA from the University of the Arts, and received a certificate in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; she has also studied at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA. GROUP MOTION DANCE COMPANY: Group Motion’s mission to promote dance and movement as vehicles for personal and artistic expression, education, transformation and collaboration is very much alive in the work that Group Motion has continued to do for over 38 years. This mission manifests through the mediums of 1) A professional modern dance company dedicated to the exploration and performance of multi-media dance theater; 2) Ongoing improvisational movement workshops for the public, classes, and educational outreach; 3) Exchange with other local, national and international artists. Group Motion’s professional dance theater company is comprised of versatile artists, melding dance, theater, music and visual arts into a provocative performance experience. The diverse company, under the sole artistic direction of Manfred Fischbeck since 1989, carries members chosen for their technical and creative abilities – choreographers in their own rights – regularly contributing to an extensive body of dance theater pieces.