Bowerbird and Ladybird are excited to introduce BLINDSPOT, a festival of music and dance taking place at Philadelphia’s historic Christ Church and Neighborhood House from February 24, 2011 through March 6, 2011. Highlights of the festival include: seven concerts by world class artists on Christ Church’s pipe organ; choreographed works by three Philadelphia-based companies, and ten all-new dance and music collaborations.
BLINDSPOT is an opportunity to see the huge diversity in music and dance today, and a chance to be curious about things you didn’t even know you were missing. A co-production of Bowerbird and Ladybird, companies dedicated to collaborating expanding the performance offerings in Philadelphia. BLINDSPOT is curated and produced by Dustin Hurt and Anna Drozdowski.
Pipe organ concerts will feature MacArthur Fellow John Zorn; pioneering minimalist composer Tony Conrad; Marshall Allen and Farid Barron of the Sun Ra Arkestra; the Dufala Brothers—recent recipients of the West Prize and creators of the infamous Toilet Trike Race; Barrymore nominated composer/sound designer Troy Herion; and Christ Church’s own music director, Parker Kitterman.
Dance evenings include reimagined performances of celebrated works by Philadelphia’s growing choreographic community: Subcircle, the collaboration between Pew Fellow Niki Cousineau and visual designer Jorge Cousineau, in collaboration with Geoff Sobelle (rainpan 43) and Michael Kiley (The Mural and the Mint) will present Only Sleeping a work in dialogue between video and dance. Moving Parts/megfoley and PIMA Group will re-visit their site-responsive works: Match vs. Match and ohhorror to inaugurate the Neighborhood House Theatre.
Christ Church, the parish of George Washington, Ben Franklin, William Penn and Betsy Ross, is considered one of the nation’s most beautiful surviving 18th-century structures, a monument to colonial craftsmanship and a handsome example of Georgian architecture. Pipe organ concerts will be performed in the sanctuary on The Christ Church Curtis Memorial Organ—allowing audiences a rare look at this instrument best viewed from the balconies not open to tourists. All other events will take place at the adjacent Neighborhood House, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and the completion of a major renovation including a newly renovated, and ADA accessible theatre.
BLINDSPOT also features two evenings of “Blind Dates”: never-seen-or-heard collaborations between twenty acclaimed dancers and musicians including: Pew Fellow Germaine Ingram & Leah Stein with trombonists Dave Champion & Dan Blacksberg; idiosynCrazy’s Jumatatu Poe with folk singer/harpist Gillian Grassie; Lorin Lyle & bass clarinetist Gene Coleman; Makoto Hirano of Omnibus & bassist Evan Lipson; Shavon Norris & Andrew Nelson from the Martha Graham Cracker Band; Lisa Kraus & percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and more.
ABOUT BOWERBIRD Championing local and international recognized artists, as well as the work of significant historical figures, Bowerbird is a nonprofit organization that presents music and dance at a variety of venues across the region. For more information visit www.bowerbird.org.
ABOUT LADYBIRD Since 2005 Ladybird has made big projects possible for the performing arts; offering services in production management and planning. Led by Anna Drozdowski, Ladybird focuses on individuals and organizations in flux and exchange-based creative development for culture.
For more information, including the full schedule, please visit www.blindspot2011.org, or contact Dustin Hurt at 267.861.4773 or dustin@bowerbird.org.
A Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with advanced degrees in Psychology and Education is an entrepreneur and CEO for several for-profits and non-profit corporations in the region. He is also an adjunct professor of Psychology with several local Universities.
Steven is currently the CEO of Delaware Valley on Line, one of the first regional Internet Service Provides that now focuses on business-class web hosting, design, and internet marketing. He is president and founder of Rainbow Promotions Inc., a special events and entertainment agency established in the late 70’s, that services corporate and retail accounts both locally and nationally.
Steven is the Founder of PhiladelphiaDANCE.org,the largest web presence and resource for the dance community in the greater Philadelphia region, and the Founder and Editor of The Dance Journal. His involvement in the dance community extends to being Director of Graffito Works, an international platform for dancers and performing artists to create site-specific work and to make it readily accessible to the public.
