“Bridging the Distance,” Expansions Contemporary Dance Ensemble’s offering for the 25th Philly Fringe Festival, takes its audience on a tour of site-specific dance that ranges from a sculpture garden in Chestnut Hill to a skate park in South Philadelphia, an ocean shoreline in Florida and the wooded terrains of the Wissahickon and a Georgia state park.
The seven dance videos featuring a total of 13 dancers are the work of Christina-Castro Tauser, choreographer and founder of Expansions, and videographer Scott Tauser. The work builds on “Connecting the Distance,” Ms. Castro-Tauser’s interactive 2020 Fringe piece.
Like that piece, “Bridging the Distance” can be viewed as an interactive walking tour in Philadelphia neighborhoods in the Northwest and Eastern North Philadelphia. From September 9 to October 3, 2021, the $5 ticket accesses a map of posters with QR along the route. Viewers take the dance journey with Expansions while exploring a neighborhood coffee shop, art organization, or small business in the neighborhood. In the Northwest, the tour starts at the High Point Café in Mt. Airy and continues to points such as Outlaw Arts, the collaborative clay studio. In Eastern North Philadelphia, the show starts at Martha in Kensington and includes stops such as at the Norris Square Neighborhood Project and Taller Puertorriqueño. (There is also an option of following the map and watching the dance from anywhere.)
On the Allen Lane Station pedestrian bridge, dancers Gabrielle Mahler and Anna Bersin imagine the interaction of two commuters captured by the movement of the other in an intertwining, playful whirlwind.
Madeline McClurg dances within the lush beauty of Georgia’s Tallulah Gorge State Park. Courtney Pilgreen, Michele-Olivia François, and Coralie François dance an elegant trio among Woodmere Art Museum’s large outdoor sculptures. Another video features dancers at the Fingerspan Bridge in the Wissahickon. Alyssa Kennedy, Danielle Guibas, Giselle Tirado, and Catalina Walsh dance to Latin jazz on the Fringe stage. Cara Celeste dances a mesmerizing solo by the ocean, while b-boy Lucas Mikan brings his uncontainable passion for movement and swift moves to the FDR skate park.
Information and tickets at https://fringearts.com/event/expansions-bridging-distance/
Photo credit: Scott Tauser
