Philadelphia choreographer Shannon Murphy, trusts her gut. She is known for her “beautiful, tense, and complex performances,” to quote Courtney Colón in The Dance Journal. Her collaborators, some of the most dynamic veteran performers in the Philly dance scene, Danielle Currica, Patricia Dominguez, Beau Hancock, Marisa Illingworth, Megan Quinn, William Robinson, Michele Tantoco, and Sara Yassky share a rich 4-year history of practice. They activate the digestive system as a score. Murphy and collaborators have developed practices that are inspired by the human body’s ability to sustain and collaborate allowing them to use the framework of digestion as proposals for communication and interdependence. The dances make visible the complex labor of togetherness. “If we can find this with ten of us in a room dancing, I am hopeful that we can find ourselves reevaluating what it means to move together on our streets and in our cites,” Murphy explains, “the guts have a lot to teach us.”
Home in the Dark, reveals all that has been found and all that has been left behind, Murphy’s maximalist approach exhibits a constantly reforming display of portraits, collage, poetry, dance, and live original music created in partnership with Steve Surgalski. The work is supported by the Painted Bride Art Center. Part gallery exhibit, part live performance, audiences can visit the Painted Bride September 18, 19, and 20th. Enjoy the installation ranging from tiny sketches on paper to large digital collages adorned with love notes from the guts before or after the 5 live performances which each run 60 min long. Audiences are welcome to contribute reflections or mementos to the already abundantly exposed artifacts of living at Home in the Dark. The event shares the overflow of practices that have developed since the stay at home order beginning in March of 2020. Murphy and her collaborators heavily rely on touch and deep felt listening in their research. During quarantine they did everything they could to feel connected to one another, creating multitudes of adjacent practices which resulted in a year long zine series titled “The Efforts of Moving Through Together.” Some of what is shared in the first three issues comes to life in new ways in the gallery, while other practices examining the porosity of time, place, and memory dilate the groups improvisational performance practice. The dance is bold, intimate, imaginative, and responsive to its environment. Light falls on sparkling entrails, exposing the insides. The feeling of home, love, and ecstasy seep through porous walls. The memory of touch, of holding and pushing floods over each performer and their sweat merges at the same rate that the past yields to the present.
Home in the Dark
Saturday September 18th 12 pm and 7 pm
Sunday September 19th 12 pm and 5 pm
Monday September 20th 7 pm
Painted Bride Art Center 230 Vine Street. Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tickets: $20 General Admission, $15 Students & 25 and Under https://fringearts.com/event/home-in-the-dark/
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