danceJournal » MEG FOLEY

Retro/Introspective with choreographer Susan Rethorst

Whittington — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:45:30 +0000

Pictured: Jodi Melnick in the 2001 performance of Behold Bold Sam Dog Credit: Tom Brazil by Lewis Whittington for The Dance Journal At the Arts Parlor Studio on South Broad St. earlier this week, dancers Gabrielle Revlock, Meg Foley and Bronwen MacArthur rehearsed excerpts of Behold Bold Sam Dog, an “old work” as choreographer Susan Rethorst later termed it. The dancers referring to video from its initial staging only once, obviously they wanting to nail down all of the moves, but also talking about the choreographer’s style, recalling comments from Rethorst from previous rehearsals. Rethorst was supposed to be there for the run-through, but had double booked herself and instead was on the Bryn Mawr College where she was in the midst of orchestrating performances, open rehearsals, master-classes, collaborations and workshops for an ambitious series of events aptly billed Susan Rethorst: Inquiring Mind/Choreographic Mind. Rethorst joked she has “two assistants, so I’m very relaxed…actually that makes me nervous.” and considering the line up of events she made time to talk about the performance series. Pictured: Ensemble of "208 East Broadway" Credit: Julieta Cervantes LW: How did Bryn Mawr series start? SR: I think it started forming actually last year in New York at another retrospective - and I want to call it a retro-introspective and it had a similar series of events- and old piece a new piece, some dance making, open rehearsals, some panels we did. Some things to try and take a look at what goes on in choreographic thinking.” LW: Do you have changing philosophies with your choreographic approach or is it a continuum or is everything in your book A Choreographic Mind and I should read it. : SR: Everything’s- in- my- book-and-you-should-read it and tell all your friends to read it. (she joked) LW: Yes, I’m ordering now... SR: When I was in my 20s, I’d have to say, I was pretty quiet, not understanding much of why I was doing what I was doing. LW: Not articulating the process it to yourself? SR: Yeah, I was just doing it. it turns out, I was doing much the same thing as I do now, but I hadn’t brought the process forth to a conscious understanding. From those days up until writing the book a couple of years ago, making my way to articulating everything, how I came to certain creative decisions and why I valued it. LW: Why did you want to revive Beyond Bold? The sections I saw yesterday seemed so intimate and intense, but liberated. I was struck by the musicality, even though the dancers were rehearsing in silence and those gorgeous sequences the dancers move around each other and seem to trace their auras. The dancers referring to video from its initial staging only once, obviously they wanting to nail down all of the moves, but also talking about the choreographer’s style, recalling comments from Rethorst from previous rehearsals. SR: It’s one of my favorite dances. But it hasn’t been around. It was revived a year after it premiered, so this would be the second revival and then we’re going to do it in San Francisco in May. wanted to work with Jodie and Vicky (Shick) who was one of the original people, but she couldn’t do it this time. The dancers are Gabrielle Revlock, Meg Foley, Bronwen MacArthur, Eun-Jung Choi, and the two dancers from New York are Jodie Melnick (who is on the cover of Dance Magazine this week) and Heather Olsen. Rethorst said she had not changed anything for this revival, but recalled that when she initially choreographed changing the steps “a million times while I was making it.” Pictured: Ensemble of "208 East Broadway" Credit: Julieta Cervantes -Next, we touched on Rethorst’s new work, 208 East Broadway Part 5 (premiere) LW: Is the new work and the title has specific significance correct? SR: It references a situation I had for several years. I had a studio when I first started working in New York. Space was cheap and I had a studio and my loft and I worked there for 20 years. Then I didn’t have it and when I didn’t I realized how the role of being at home had played so much a part in my work. Sort of giving me a certain license and different kind flexibility that I didn’t have when I had to rent studio space. SR: I just had to change my art to work at home again, in another apartment. I sat frustrated with that thought and then I decided to make something in my living room. There was no place to put the furniture, so I’m just going to work around it, then whatever I can make within that and pick up the room and put it in the theater. That was the first installment. Then I got interested in how the architecture of the furniture relates to the architecture of the bodies- I realized the furniture should move and influence how the bodies moved. So it became more integrated. Then I started shooting video out the window and that became part of it.” LW: And this piece is with how many? SR: Its with all Philadelphia dancers and all people I’ve never worked with before. Well, I moved to Philadelphia and I’m ambivalent about it because I love, love, love New York, but was able to get a bigger place. So I can have people I’m working with stay here. Come and go. And can have a kind of residency for artists and that is so interesting to me and that is very satisfying. Actually ..it’s somewhere between satisfying and an honor and an embarrassment LW: How so? SR: Being given so much time and money and license in this beautiful space. LW: It must feel very validating though. SR: I feel like I’m still getting used to this recognition. It something I’m not used to. Believe me I’m not complaining about it, just confusing in some ways. It’s interesting. I’m trying to write about it. I feel like I’m almost as devoted to writing now as making work. LW: I think when the choreographers and dancers write from their perspective the rest of us learn so much. SR: There’s something happening in dance for several years now, dance artists are writing about their work more. LW: To wind up because we’re almost out of time, can you say a word about the dance scene here. SR: I’m getting to know it and I’m feeling very welcomed and comfortable. I have to say I’m very impressed. The crew at Bryn Mawr has been…well, fabulous . For more information about the series call 610.526.5210 | online - www.brynmawr.edu/arts/series.html

Student Author Progam – Review: Thirdbird’s The whole time in the meanwhile

DJ Guest Author — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:29:34 +0000

by Chelsey Nicole Hamilton for The Dance Journal This review is part of the Dance Journal’s Student Author Program. Chelsey was mentored by Dance Journal writer, Kat Richter. Chelsey is a sophomore at Temple University, majoring in Journalism and Dance. She has been dancing various styles since the age of four and is very excited for this opportunity to combine her two passions, as well as becoming more involved in the arts community of Philadelphia. Thirdbird presented The whole time in the meanwhile on January 24, 2013 at dusk at Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater in Old City. Conceived by choreographer Meg Foley, this performance was very different than a traditional dance concert, yet equally as captivating and creative. The performance starts in a dimly lit room, creating a dream like state. There is a clump of dancers laying on the ground, and a pile of chairs on the other side of the room. One by one, the dancers stand up, grab a chair, and hand it to an audience member along with a piece of candy and instructions of where to sit. Chris Forsyth, the musician for the performance, and Foley are sitting in two chairs in the center of the space looking straight ahead. Lenore Doxsee, the lighting designer, and Foley slowly stand up and open and close the blinds, letting a stream of sunlight into the dark room. In the program for the show, Foley writes about time passing, which I assume is what they are trying to show by opening the blinds around the time of the sunset. Forsyth, still sitting, throws a plastic egg and then gets up and retrieves it three times. An eerie red light peers over him as he starts to play his acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, two dancers in distinct polka-dotted pants start whispering as Foley starts dancing, and they join her. In an emotional twist to the performance, Forsyth starts to speak about his acoustic guitar that he has been playing, and then tells the story of a friend of his that got in a devastating motorcycle accident. Foley starts to dance to his story, and her performance speaks many emotions, and seems almost interpretive. The performers then ask the audience to get out of their chairs, lie down in a line, and stare at the ceiling. As audience members hesitantly do so, the dancers start to jump and dance over the line of people while making noises with their mouths. With colorful lights on the ceiling, the experience becomes captivating and magical, although unusual. Audience members are then instructed to walk up to the balcony seats. Foley performs a solo to the acoustic guitar, leading her to the balcony, where she gets up close and personal with the audience. She alternates between fast and slow movements and travels throughout the whole space, creating an illusion that is very strong and intense; it is hard to look away from her. Forsyth brings back the plastic eggs he was throwing in the beginning of the performance. As he shakes the eggs into the microphone they make a maraca noise, and Foley’s dancing becomes more of a hip-hop style in contrast to the rest of her performance. She freezes whenever he stops shaking the eggs, creating a really mysterious feel that changes up the style of the performance. To end the performance, the rest of the dancers re-enter the space and perform a very calm and in-sync quartet with Foley, before rolling out of the space as the lights dim. In the program, Foley writes about how this was a “first done” version of her work and how she believes that art should be interactive. Contrary to a common dance performance, this show was indeed very interactive and always had the audience on their toes about what was going to happen next.

REVIEW: Thirdbird’s The whole time in the meanwhile

Kat Richter — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:08:30 +0000

by Kat Richter for The Dance Journal Part thought-provoking Panopticon, part self-indulgent foible, Thirdbird’s The whole time in the meanwhile, conceived and directed by 2012 Pew Fellow Meg Foley, painted an unexpected picture upon the blank canvas of Christ Church Neighborhood House on Thursday evening. We are told to leave our bags and coats, to walk, to sit, to suck on a butterscotch candy, to form a line and lie down on the floor. It’s a show that as much about the audience—all thirty of us—as it is about the performers. The dancers (Foley, and Christina Gesualdi, Magdan San Millan and Annie Wilson) distribute folding chairs and guide the audience to two spaces on either side of the large, open room. They kneel, they babble, they frolic like Maurice Sendak’s “Wild Things” and they dance over us as we watch from below, lying on the hard, wood floor. It takes a while for the “real” dancing to begin. Lighting designer Lenore Doxsee, dressed in a long green and black gown, first opens the shades that cover the four windows on the right side of the theater. In all the shows that I’ve seen at Christ Church, this is the first time I’ve noticed those windows. Musician Chris Forsyth then tosses a plastic shaker egg across the floor, waits for it to fall still then walks to retrieve it like a baby playing dropsy with no mother to retrieve the toy. He repeats the process again and again—it’s infuriating, laughable and yet somehow endearing. Is this dance? And if not, why not? He tells a story about his guitar. For a moment, with the dancers in their bold polka dots and Foley kneeling on the floor, head and arm thrown back with flamenco-esque bravura, it feels like a tablao, but the tableau fades away as quickly as it came and again we’re on the move. Performances such as these are difficult to interpret—let alone evaluate. Foley’s solos reveal a truly gifted dancer, who manages to synthesize a number of movement styles through precise articulations and isolations of her limbs. She melts, she freezes and she wiggles all the while keeping her eyes pinned on Forsyth who has returned to the microphone with his shaker eggs for an improvised duet between dancer and musician. Gesualdi, San Millan and Wilson are all capable enough, and although the choreography does little to showcase their abilities, they do a good job of getting the audience to play along. Doxsee washes the space in a rainbow of hues and becomes part of the dance as she manipulates colored gels and gobos with her hands. But there’s no discernable plot, little in the way of theme, no virtuosity, no high-flying feats or acrobatics and no proscenium to tell you what’s part of the show and what’s not. I find instead that I’m hot, I’m cold, I’m tired of standing for so long and the blast of warm air at the top of the stairs behind the theater is making me sleepy. I’m irritated by the acoustics—the soundscape is intentionally impossible to decipher at times, too loud at others—but amused by the return of the eggs and the way that the quartet of dancers trace circles across the floor that echo the thick black marks on the wood. This—if Foley’s program notes are to be believed— is the entire point. She’s invited us to notice time passing, to experience shifting, to interact not just physically with the dancers and the space but with ourselves. And, for better or worse, we do. 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.

Thirdbird to present The whole time in the meanwhile

Steven Weisz — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:56:02 +0000

The whole time in the meanwhile. conceived by Meg Foley in collaboration with Chris Forsyth and Lenore Doxsee Thirdbird will be presenting Meg Foley’s "The whole time in the meanwhile", a twilight hour performance installation that uses the changing mood and light of sunset to create a shifting and immersive environment of movement, light, and sound. Conceived by choreographer Meg Foley in collaboration with lighting designer Lenore Doxsee and composer Chris Forsyth, the work resides in a place between visible and invisible, enticing the audience to redefine their perception of time, space, and bodies. In an expansive room continually re-imagined through color saturation and discretely spatial music, "The whole time in the meanwhile" responds to all bodies present, reframing the distinction between audience and architecture. The dance is not happening to you but with you, the installation a container for an experience that magnifies how we feel, hear and see time passing through our senses: this moment versus that, this moment versus many. Thirdbird is the not-entirely-new-but-newly-named wing of the shared endeavors of Anna Drozdowski (proprietor of Ladybird) and Dustin Hurt (founder of Bowerbird). It’s our way of sharing dance, music, and things between with one another and with you. A field guide to curiosities and bits of culture matter, an almanac of small pieces loosely joined. First hatched for the Blindspot Festival, thirdbird is a thing we are building – in good company - and slowly by design. Meg Foley is a Philadelphia-based performer, dancer, choreographer, and director of moving parts, a name ascribed to various dance- and performance-based acts. Foley composes architectural, movement-based worlds that focus on the sensorial experience of dancing and on the nature of performing itself. Based in the body, in the knowledge of moving, and in precise visual organization, her dances attempt to straddle the fine line between focus and freedom, using formal rigor to unleash reflective consciousness and emotional experience. Foley is a 2012 Pew Fellow in the Arts and 2012 Independence Foundation Fellow and teaches dance composition and performance practice at University of the Arts. Composer and guitarist Chris Forsyth has been an active presence in underground/experimental music circles since 1998. He has released a series of acclaimed records over the past few years. He has also collaborated with artists including Meg Baird, Tetuzi Akiyama, Mike Pride, Bhob Rainey, and Nate Wooley, and choreographers Miguel Gutierrez and RoseAnne Spradlin. Forsyth was awarded a 2011 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Lenore Doxsee is a New York City based lighting designer for theater, opera, and dance. She has collaborated with Miguel Gutierrez as well Morgan Thorson, Netta Yerushalmy, Karen Sherman, and has designed in many New York theaters including New York City Opera, La Mama, HERE Arts Center, Dance Theater Workshop, and The Kitchen. The whole time in the meanwhile. Wednesday, January 23rd, 5:00pm Thursday, January 24th, 5:00pm Friday, January 25th, 5:00pm Saturday, January 26th, 5:00pm Sunday, January 27th, 5:00pm Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater 20 N. American Street, Philadelphia, Pa 19106 $15 general admission $12 students / artists Space is limited to 30 people per performance. Advanced purchase or reservations are strongly recommended. Tickets: http://thewholetime.eventbrite.com/

Dance labs and academic vamping

Whittington — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:53:07 +0000

REVIEW: Philadelphia Dances (Selected works) Arts Bank, June 16, 2012 by Lewis Whittington for The Dance Journal Photos by Bill Hebert The choreographers who presented work in Philadelphia Dances at the Arts Bank, are all dynamic in their own right as experimenters and in their respective commercial entities. The collective’s concert at the Arts Bank, capping off a dance conference at the University of the Arts, was a mixed bag that was under rehearsed and with the atmosphere of work that wasn’t ready to be seen out of a studio setting. Still, the audience and the performers were game for an at ease performance, that veered from valid experimentation to clammy indulgence. Choreographer Meg Foley kicked off with a solo ‘Auxiliary Studies, With and Without You’ mixing free form improv, muscling (and sometimes slouching) toward structure. Loved those high releve struts that devolve into sensual repose or launch reverse phrases. Foley has such dynamic stage presence and is comfortable dancing with bald physicality hanging out, with only the soundtrack being her eventual heavy breathing. She would dance herself into a corner and look at the audience with frustration. Fascinating to watch whether she is writhing on the floor, or in bursts of urgent movement phrasing. An editorial eye may have called tightened for theatrical effect, though, to be fair, the title warned us that it was a dance 'study.' ‘Double Vision’ by Silvana Cardell was dynamic from the start with Bethany Formica in a floor length black flamenco gown, her breasts bound in surgical gauze seems like she is being pulled from behind. The music has dialogue of a patient being instructed on what to expect from surgery. A Bach guitar starts to play with the sound of medical equipment. A form appears out of her dress and it is Maria Urrutia and the two cleave in various lift patterns and poses against red lighting. Urrutia seemed to represent a protective specter. Cardell’s movement is sensually dramatic and evocative to the theme. Her inherent message being of the dignity of the body, even as it is ravaged. This intriguing work was all too brief. Merián Soto’s ’Tú y Yo (You and Me)’ made in 1989, plays on the theme of body objectification. Dancers Beau Hancock and Eun Jung Choi, in separate solos, come on, stare down the audience and then start to strip. They each pop distorted poses and then would throw a provocative stripper move. Hancock had a nice breakout section dancing amok with invertebrate fluidity and hyperextensions. Choi was more playful and editorial, making fun of herself in her caresses and checking the audience as she reaches for her top button, but instead shoves her hands in her pocket. At these dare to go the full frontal moments the lights go up at moments of strip, they were making the audience’s interest, prurient or otherwise, as exposed to examination as any revealed flesh. Once, twice, adroitly makes this point, after that it gets cloying. ‘Plastic City, re-set‘ choreographer by Jumatatu Poe and Shannon Murphy is a baffling duet with Poe partnering with Michele Tantoco. It reminded me of twister, limb tangles and body knots, otherwise a baffling scenario of dance kids in shredded, blood red togs, playing zombies with grotesque faces, body tic and lurches. They fling themselves on each other, cleave together, make goofy noises or pound out beats with their feet. Interesting comic dynamic, but done in by being self-consciously abstract. It got too cryptic to care about. The audience cracked up when Tantoco sprang from a torso-limb tangle like a masthead on a ship, accompanied by an Emperor’s gong. But one-note motifs had Tantoco instructing Poe to ‘keep his head down‘ while he was trying to tell us about an incident about an ominous car trip. We never got there.

New Performance Series Launches at Studio 34 This Spring – JUXTaPOSE

Steven Weisz — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:42:22 +0000

On April 14, 2012 at 7:30PM, Studio 34 will present JUXTaPOSE as a part of its Second Saturdays Series. JUXTaPOSE is a performance series curated by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, and produced by James Peniston, the Co-Founder of Studio 34. Picking up where Nicole Bindler left off over a year ago with her StudioSeries, Kosoko has created a showcase whose mission is to support the work of more matured artists. Kosoko writes, “When I say matured, I mean artists who have been making professional work for 8 to 10 years. All of the artists featured in JUXTaPOSE are veteran performers and artmakers. They all have a detailed understanding of their process, their vision, and the role their voices hold in the overall landscape of regional dance and performance.” The artists included in this year’s inaugural event are: Marcel Foster (Host), Eun Jung Choi, Meg Foley, Jillian Harris Farrell, Jungwoong Kim, and Rucyl Mills (DJ). This electric group of artists comes from a diverse range of performance backgrounds. From classical to post-modern, they each add a very special, subtle flavor to the gumbo of movement forms that will be presented on April 14, 2012 at 7:30pm. The event will be followed by a Dance Party. Biographies Host: Marcel Foster Marcel William Foster moved to Philadelphia to study with the Headlong Performance Institute and currently works as Mascher Space Cooperative’s Community Engagement Coordinator and manages research and coworking for CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia. He is thrilled to be part of the incredible dance-theater community of Philly, and presented several new works including Simians and Cyborgs, The Jane Goodall: Experience (with Hyphen-Nation Arts), and Sonso, Simians and Pierrot. His research and performance projects received support from the Illinois Arts Council, City of Chicago, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, MetLife Foundation, and the National Endowment of the Arts. Artist: Eun Jung Choi Eun Jung Choi has worked with numerous collaborators and dance companies nationally and internationally, including Limón Dance Co., Allyson Green Dance, Seán Curran Co., Laura Peterson Choreography, Risa Jaroslow and Dancers, Katija Wachter (Germany), Helena Franzén (Sweden), Pulso Cía. de Danza (Mexico), and Malashock Dance and Co. (San Diego). As a choreographer, she has received funds from Danspace Project’s 2006-07, 05-06 and 03-04 Commissioning Initiatives, Korean Cultural Services NY, and Dance New Amsterdam, and her works have been presented in places, including Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego), DancenOw, Danspace Project’s City/Dans,Global Exchange, Mexico Now Festival, Danceworks (Milwaukee), nEW Festival (Philadelphia), Daegue International Festival(Korea), Sexto Encuentro de Nueva Danza y Nueva Musica (Mexico City) and Seoul International Dance Festival. Currently she is artistic co-director of Da•Da•Dance Project, a duet repertory dance theatre. Artist: Meg Foley Meg Foley is a dance artist and the director of Moving Parts, a name ascribed to various dance- and performance-based acts that explore the materiality of dance and its relationship to form. Foley explores how art environments are made and tries to create elusive yet emotionally evocative performance experiences that straddle the fine line between focus and freedom. She is concerned with how somatic experience bumps up against visual experience – in seeing and in doing. Grounded in the body, she is exploring her relationship to herself, to others, and to the environment, asking existential questions about the basic experience of being. Her work has been presented by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Thirdbird, Bowerbird, Mascher Space Cooperative, Little Berlin Gallery, Vox Populi Gallery, the Community Education Center, Cirque De Verre, Scripps College, and in Movement Research at the Judson Church. She also loves baking, being in the woods, dressing up, and playing with her dog and two cats. Artist: Jillian Harris Farrell JILLIAN HARRIS toured nationally with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, performing works by noted choreographers such as Doug Varone and Moses Pendleton. Jillian was also a featured performer in the PBS televised broadcast of Della Davidson’s “Night Story.” Upon receiving her MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she went on to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers. Her choreography has been shown at venues like Joyce SOHO (New York City), Chi Movement Arts Center (Philadelphia), and The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (Salt Lake City). In addition to choreographing, Jillian maintains an active teaching schedule, conducting master classes in the United States and abroad. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Temple University. Artist: Jungwoong Kim Jungwoong Kim was born and raised in South Korea. As a student he trained in different kinds of martial arts and traditional Korean dances. He became very interested in the energy exchange of the bodies and the movement discipline of protection and play. He graduated from the Korea National University of the Arts in Seoul. As a dancer he was a member of the Korea, Japan, China Dance Exchange Project 2002, with whom he toured in Asia. In Seoul, he performed with a number of choreographers, including award winning Trust Dance Company with whom he toured across the country, as well as Kathy Duck’s improvisational group Magpie in Amsterdam. His choreographic work has been supported by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture and Arts Council Korea to produce full evening choreographies in a number of Seoul venues. Some of his other works include “Earthquake” presented at movement research Judson Church, “my son and a smile” presented at Flushing Town Hall, among other works at Etc. Series, Last Mondays and Falls Bridge Improvisation Festival. Artist: Jessica Morgan Jessica Morgan creates work that exposes somaticized memories and transforms personal and collective history into movement. Her work has been described as “unsettling and transfixing” (Dance View Times). She has been presented at Fresh Tracks at Dance Theater Workshop, Food for Thought at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Movement Research at the Judson Church, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Performance Mix Festival, BAX First Weekends, Studio 303 in Montreal, Brink Series at Dixon Place, The Tank’s New Work Series, thefidget space and Studio 34 in Philadelphia, and Dance Place in Washington D.C., among others. She has received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and has been supported by two residencies from Dance Theater Workshop. She has enjoyed dancing with Mariah Maloney, Juliette Mapp, Kathy Westwater, Stephanie Tack, Rebecca Davis, Ursula Eagly, and Paige Martin. Morgan is originally from New York City and received her BFA from SUNY Purchase. She recently had a new work commissioned by the Estrogenius Festival in November 2011. Disc Jockey: Rucyl Mills Rucyl Mills is an audiovisual artist, music producer and vocalist who experiments with sound and visual stimulus. In 2008 she built the Chakakhantroller, a wearable midi controller, and continues to experiment with new formats of visual and electronic expression. Original member of the Goats, an alternative hip hop group (Ruffhouse/Columbia Records) in the 90s, Rucyl continued a rogue musical lifestyle in New York, making beats, experimental soul and jazz mashup tracks until returning to her hometown of Philadelphia in 2009. She has a Bachelors of Science in New Media from New School University, a Masters degree in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University, and is a certified audio engineer. This year’s projects include sound and video stylist for This Town is a Mystery, an interactive dance project with Headlong Dance Theater premiering at the 2012 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and a new solo record. # # # JUXTaPOSE Studio 34 in partnership with The Philadiction Movement, a member of anonymous bodies art collective Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 7:30pm Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143 Tickets: General Admission $13 with Dance Box Office, $20 at the Door Student Admission $ 9 with Dance Box Office, $15 at the Door Dance Professionals $9 with Dance Box Office, $15 at the Door Online at http://danceboxoffice.com/product_details.php?item_id=31

THIRDBIRD PRESENTS BLOOM! Dance Collective plus four all new dance and music collaborations in May

Steven Weisz — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:59:55 +0000

Performances by: Matt Neenan, Meredith Rainey, Meg Foley, Megan Mazarick, Hannah de Keijzer, Michelle Stortz, Chris Colucci, Eugene Lew, Aaron Igler, Chris Powell, Michael Kiley, and Jorge Cousineau.

Thirdbird is pleased to present the U.S. debut of Budapest based BLOOM! Dance Collective, May 3 and 4, at 8pm. This international ensemble with artists from Hungary, Spain, and Italy will perform its award-winning work CITY, a bold and politically charged dance-theater piece. Each evening will be paired with fresh “Third Wheel Blind Dates”, all new trios where musicians and dancers are matched for first-time-ever collaborations. These performances reflect interests in collaborative and cross-discipline artistic collaboration, and a raw, human curiosity for possibility. Founded in 2009 and acclaimed for its sharp wit, BLOOM! draws on the diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds of its members to build thought-provoking collaborative performances. Conceived as a “political pamphlet entwined with movement,” CITY grapples with the dynamics of power, fear, manipulation, and faith, and the consequences of social conformity. Wittily playing with conventions of individual versus group behavior, CITY was created and is performed by Viktória Dányi, Csaba Molnár, Tímea Sebestyén, Moreno Solinas, and Igor Urzelai. Sound design by Alberto Ruiz Soler. Lighting by Kata Dézsi. Costumes and set design are by David J. Harris. CITY received a 2010 Rudolf Laban Award, an artistic residency at Prix Jardin D’Europe, and was selected to tour through Aerowaves 2010–2011. BLOOM! is supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union, Jardin d’Europe, Workshop Foundation, National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Florian Workshop – Moving House Foundation, Association of Independent Theatres, New Performing Arts Foundation, and SÍN Culture Center. Opening each night will be two new “Third Wheel Blind Dates”, a variation on Thirdbird’s popular “Blind Date” series, where musicians and dancers are matched with someone they have never performed with. Originally envisioned as a way to encourage new collaborations and cross-disciplinary dialogue, this new “Third Wheel” format ups the ante from duos to trios. The twelve participating artists are local luminaries in the dance, theater and music communities, including Pew Fellows, Barrymore award winners, directors of ballet companies and musical mainstays in Philadelphia. Movement: Meredith Rainey, Matt Neenan, Hannah de Keijzer, Michelle Stortz, Meg Foley, Megan Mazarick. Sound: Jorge Cousineau, Michael Kiley, Eugene Lew, Chris Colucci, Aaron Igler, and Chris Powell. Performances: Thursday, May 3, and Friday, May 4, at 8pm. Tickets are $15, $10 for students and artists, free with a UArts ID and will be available online in advance or at the door. Seating is general admission. For more information, please visit the thirdbird website at: http://www.birdbirdbird.org The Arts Bank is located at 601 South Broad Street (at South Street), on the campus of the University of the Arts. This project was made possible with the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the School of Dance at the University of the Arts. ABOUT THIRDBIRD Thirdbird is the shared endeavors of Dustin Hurt (founder of Bowerbird) and Anna Drozdowski (proprietor of Ladybird). This past season they have presented the work of Headlong Dance Theater, Eleanor Bauer, Levi Gonzalez, and the American première of French choreographer Xavier Le Roy’s More Mouvements für Lachenmann, featuring a selection of the Austrian new music ensemble Klangforum. Seen & Heard #3 took NY & Philadelphia performers to the Abron’s Arts Center in New York City on April 6 & 7. In 2011 Thirdbird produced Blindspot, a two-week festival of music and dance that took place at Philadelphia’s historic Christ Church with performances by John Zorn, Tony Conrad, and the Dufala Brothers on the pipe organ, and choreography by Subcircle and Meg Foley. Thirdbird website: www.birdbirdbird.org CONCERTS AT-A-GLANCE * denotes a World Premiere collaboration ** denotes a Philadelphia Premiere Thursday, May 3 (8pm) THIRD WHEEL BLIND DATES TRIO* MATT NEENAN, dance; HANNAH DE KEIJZER, dance; JORGE COUSINEAU, sound TRIO* MEGAN MAZARICK, dance; MICHELLE STORTZ, dance; MICHAEL KILEY, sound BLOOM! DANCE COLLECTIVE: CITY** Friday, May 4 (8pm) THIRD WHEEL BLIND DATES TRIO* AARON IGLER, sound; CHRIS POWELL, sound; MEREDITH RAINEY, dance TRIO* EUGENE LEW, sound; CHRIS COLUCCI, sound; MEG FOLEY, dance BLOOM! DANCE COLLECTIVE: CITY**

Troubles With Awesome: Meg Foley and "8"

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:43:00 +0000

Meg Foley uses many techniques when conceiving dances: storyboarding, visualization, real-time improvising, even blocking movement on graph paper.

"Match vs. Match married these things," Meg says about the dance she's performing on Tuesday and Wednesday as a part of the 2010 Live Arts Festival show 8: eight choreographers/eight new works. She says she's almost never in her own work, but she is this time—so I ask her how she imagines herself into her own dance realms.

"It's disassociation, a little bit," Meg says. "When I'm visualizing the dance, I'm trying through a formal lens: time, space, energetic quality.

"I think I was visualizing myself just as a body. But [the dancers and I] talk about our experience inside the dance. We each took a turn talking through the entire dance with the other performers. It made me really happy! It was interesting in moments of relationship [between the dancers] that the thing you were experiencing was vastly different than the others."

To some extent, this is a result of the structured improvisation techniques that Meg employed to compose Match vs. Match. But why include herself this time around?

"One reason I put myself in was to resolve the difficulty I was having talking about this with my dancers. I'm not interested in my dancers feeling lost or wandering. I'm not trying to toss them into the abyss."

Yet her plotting and conception, Meg says, creates a tension for her, and in Match vs. Match.

"That's where the richness of the work is happening," Meg says. "I come up against my analytical nature. I'm interested in heat, humanity, and messiness. If order wins out, it's too cool and delicate."

Meg also has been working on a larger project, portions of which you might have seen. It includes Natural, which she performed at the Rockys last year (don't forget Monday night's Rocky Awards at the Festival Bar!), a more recent work called Orienteering, and she wants to work them into an evening-length solo work.

"It's a lot about mapping my own experience inside dance," Meg says. "Visually, in terms of marking space, I've been imagining using tiny figurines to mark where action happened. Body painting is about illuminating sensation on my body. All of that is inside a conceit about performance identity and adornment."

For a dancer-choreographer attracting increased renown, Meg has some ambivalence about performance.

"I really love it and also really hate it. I feel it feeds the awesome parts of me and the not awesome parts of me. Showboating," which Meg says she often enjoys in the moment, "is a double-edged sword. You're placing yourself in this incredibly precarious position dependent on the audience reception of you."

In Natural, Meg says, "I start the section so pleased and enjoying the task. By the end I realize I'm finding the degree of awesomeness is dependent on what the audience is getting. By the end, I'm indignant."

But according to Meg, it's not because of you, Philly. You're down with good work!

"People are here to be excited and interested in new things." As an artist, Meg says, "It's easy to be here. Philly is great to come back to. It doesn't forget you."

It's hard to, when our 8 crew has so much talent. 8: eight choreographers/eight new works kicks off with the Meg Foley and Megan Mazarick pairing on September 7 and 8 at the Live Arts Studio, 919 North 5th Street, Northern Liberties. 8:00 pm both nights, $25.

--Nicholas Gilewicz

2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival Dance Line-up Announced

Wed, 05 May 2010 20:50:00 +0000

The 2010 Live Arts Festival brings world-class contemporary dance to Philadelphia while continuing to cultivate the work of the region’s top choreographers. Visiting artists include the celebrated New York-based choreographer Lucinda Childs, who will present the Philadelphia premiere of her rarely performed signature work DANCE. This seminal collaboration is an exploration of human motion, musical movement, and harmony, featuring a new company of dancers seamlessly interacting with Sol LeWitt's film of the original cast and backed by a powerful score by Philip Glass. Originally created in 1979, the remounted performance offers a fascinating view of a pinnacle in interdisciplinary contemporary art making, generating a dialogue about postmodern dance and aesthetics 30 years ago and today. French choreographer Jérôme Bel (The show must go on and Pichet Klunchun and Myself, ‘08) returns to the Festival with the U.S. premiere of Cédric Andrieux, a solo for the eponymous dancer Cédric Andrieux. The touching and humorous examination of the life of a dancer follows Andrieux, as he narrates and dances his way through the course of his career in this unusual performance featuring excerpts from work by Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Philippe Tréhet, and Bel. The Festival continues to expand and enhance its mission to support the development of new work by local artists. With a focus on Philadelphia-based talent, the 2010 Festival will feature premieres by Marianela Boán, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, and Brian Sanders, along with a showcase of eight emerging choreographers. With Decadere (“to decay” in Latin), Philadelphia-based, Cuban choreographer Marianela Boán (Voyeur, ‘07) offers a clash of music, language, humor, and violence across cultures and in a world of decline. The performance follows Boan’s “Contaminated Dance” style which radically merges different forms of art with dance performance. This U.S. premiere follows a successful international tour to the Dominican Republic and Bogotá, Colombia. The World premiere of TAKES by Nichole Canuso Dance Company (The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, ’09 and Wandering Alice, ’08) is a genre-bending exploration of dance, installation, and cinema with performances by Canuso and collaborator Dito Van Reigersberg (of Pig Iron Theatre Company), film by Lars Jan, and music by Mike Kiley. The visually captivating and physically daring Brian Sanders’ JUNK (Urban Scuba, ’09) will present Sanctuary, a new work exploring ritual and mistaken assumptions, performed along a 120 foot long wall with wild illusion and intense movement. The emerging artist showcase 8 will present eight rising contemporary choreographers from the Philadelphia region who have been commissioned by the Festival to create eight major new works, performed over the course of several days. The artists are Meg Foley, Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez, Jaamil Kosoko, Megan Mazarick, Shavon Norris, Olive Prince, Jumatatu Poe, and Daniele Strawmyre. The 14^th annual Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, which runs from September 3 – 18, 2010, will showcase 18 cutting-edge programs featuring over 35 original dance, theater, and music works by acclaimed U.S. artists from Philadelphia and New York, along with internationally recognized artists from France, China, and Ireland. With 12 World and 2 U.S. premieres and a long-term commitment to the development of new work, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival serves as a platform for both world renowned and newly emerging contemporary artists. Each year, the Festival presents innovative and highly interdisciplinary performing arts events, offering a snapshot of trends at the forefront of the international performing arts scene. Tickets will go on sale beginning mid-May at www.livearts-fringe.org. A full schedule as well as tickets for the Philly Fringe, the unfiltered Festival, where new and established artists of all disciplines produce their own work, will be available in July. Live Arts Festival performances will take place at venues throughout the city of Philadelphia including the Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, home of Philadelphia Theatre Company, Christ Church, World Café Live, and the Festival’s own Live Arts Studio, with additional venues to be announced. As an internationally recognized presenting organization, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival has garnered critical praise, national grants, and numerous awards while captivating legions of dedicated and enthusiastic audiences. The Festival runs for 16 days in conjunction with the Philly Fringe, in which hundreds of new and established artists stage their own works in both traditional and unusual performance sites throughout the city. Together, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe draw tens of thousands of people who come to be a part of “Festival time” in the city – to see innovative work, meet new people, and interact with over 2,000 artists performing in over 1,200 performances.

SHMD In Performance: 2009-10 Choreographers Project

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:46:41 +0000

On Saturday, January 16 and Sunday, January 17 at 7:30 pm, Susan Hess Modern Dance (SHMD) will present "In Performance: 2009-10 Choreographers Project” . For this first "In Performance" showing of the season, SHMD will present innovative works in dance from new resident Megan Mazarick, as well as dynamic works from returning residents Meg Foley and Erin Foreman-Murray. Megan Mazarick says she grew up drinking Dr.Pepper and watching Dr. Who reruns in suburban North Carolina. The self-professed movement geek uses dance to physicalize images, characters, and ideas. Utilizing a never-ending interest in the minutia of American life, she finds inspiration for movement within snippets of cell phone messages, through the transformable toys of 1986, between the tentacles of calamari from the local Vietnamese market, or inside the rusty gears of a diesel engine. Citing America's MTV Generation as influence, her work portrays themes of alienation set within a gritty, plastic, and absurdist landscape. Layering intricate movement material with visual design, her dances are dark comedies based on mundane events. Currently, Mazarick teaches modern technique and other dance courses at University of the Arts and Rowan University. She received her M.F.A. from Temple University in January 2007 and has been an active performer, teacher, choreographer in the Philadelphia community since 2004. Meg Foley, joyfully in her second stint as a Choreographer's Project resident, has been making dances and performing in Philadelphia since 2005. She directs Moving Parts, a company through which she aims to create elusive yet emotionally evocative performance experiences that straddle the fine line between focus and freedom. Her work has been presented at Susan Hess Modern Dance Studio, Mascher Space Cooperative, Vox Populi, the Community Education Center, and by Bowerbird. As a dancer, she works with Nichole Canuso and Lisa Kraus, and danced with Devynn Emory from 2005-2009. Foley was educated and influenced by the good people at Scripps College and Laban Centre London. She loves to teach both technique and critical theory and has led workshops on whether authentic movement really exists and on locating meaning within and constructing self-referential movement. Some of her favorite dances that she has recently seen are Bird Song by Siobhan Davies, Rammed Earth by Tere O'Connor, Keely Garfield's Limerance, and Jen Rosenblit's greatest hits duets. Second-year resident Erin Foreman-Murray makes dances, experimenting in kinetic physicality and acknowledging the intelligence of the dancing body. Erin's choreographic research seeks to redefine the relationship between audience and performer by building live performance experiences that are multi-layered, individually engaging, and relevant in contemporary society. Her creative work has been presented regularly in Philadelphia, with recent presentations by StudioSeries at Studio34, Susan Hess Modern Dance, Here[begin]'s Current, the Field/Philadelphia, and in the Philly Fringe. Erin was a two-year artist in residence at the Mascher Space Cooperative. Currently, she dances with Ring Dance Theater and readySetGO. Erin holds a B.F.A. in contemporary dance from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance. SHMD has a played a leading role in the Philadelphia dance community for more than 25 years by offering programs of consistent excellence and originality. The only independent modern dance institution in the area to invest in the professional development of choreographers and dancers, the organization’s mission is to serve choreographers, dancers, performance artists, and audiences in an environment where creativity and experimentation flourish. The Choreographers Project provides rehearsal space, performance opportunities, and other benefits each year to four select local artists. The Choreographers Project/Masters Exchange has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through Dance Advance. In Performance showings of the Choreographers project receive additional support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Suzanne F. Roberts Cultural Development Fund, RBC Dain Rauscher, and individual contributors. In Performance: 2009-10 Choreographers Project Saturday, January 16 and Sunday, January 17, at 7:30 pm Tickets: $12 Susan Hess Modern Dance Studio, 2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia For more information go to http://www.hessdance.org