On Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 7:30pm, Philadelphia Dance Projects (PDP) will kick off their 2009 season with an Informance by Jennifer Monson at the Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia. PDP Presents annual series strives to give fresh insight into adventurous dance trends by showcasing local artists alongside their national peers.
Jennifer Monson and her intrepid troupe of dancers have followed the migration routes of Gray Whales from Baja California, Mexico to Vancouver Island Canada; Ospreys from Maine down the Eastern Seaboard through Cuba and Venezuela and Ducks and Geese from Coastal Texas up the Mississippi Flyway to Northern Minnesota. Her daring BIRD BRAIN Projects links the natural world with her experimental dance practices. She has investigated migratory patterns and habits of birds and animals as well as their bio physical and metaphorical relationship to humans, contemplating the way we traverse the world together.
In this PDP Informance, Monson will talk about her migratory dance project BIRD BRAIN (2000- 2008) as well as its evolution into a series of urban migrations that radically impose dance into the urban environment. This presentation will include video excerpts from the international projects, as well as excerpts from Urban Migration including the 14th Street Migration and Flocking Dances in Times and Union Squares and Fulton Street Mall in Brooklyn.
She will generate an open a discussion about the metaphorical implications of bird migration and border crossings as they relate to the migrations of culture. Birds link global ecosystems in similar ways that human migrations link economic and cultural systems. How does dance in particular capture the fluid adaptive systems of culture? How does culture connect us across distances? What creates sustainable habitat for the rich biodiversity that allows systems to thrive? Dance, like migration patterns is imprinted through the body. What kind of physical intelligence transfers across cultures? What metaphorical links can we make that inform the delicate balance of healthy, adaptive cultural systems?
For Monson, her experience dancing is a rich connective language that translates across borders of language and cultural difference. With BIRD BRAIN she employs many of her long held strategies as an artist. Its fluid, traveling format aims to weave a web of connections between diverse communities of artists, scientists, environmentalists and students that will support and provoke a dialogue about the symbiotic, contradictory and confrontational relationships between art, technology, environment, power and place.
Monson’s dance work illuminates the issues of migration, navigation and conservation, artistic creativity and freedom. The audience is invited to engage in this dialogue through the lens of migration in culture.
If you go…
Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents ’09
Jennifer Monson
January 31, 2009
7:30PM
Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia
Tickets are $15 and available online on Dance Box Office. Seating is limited and advanced ticket purchase is recommended.
