Rural Legacies Features New Works By Paige Phillips, March 28-30 and Annie Wilson, April 4-6

DANCE UP CLOSE 2023 concludes its season with the premiere of works by Paige Phillips and Annie Wilson in a program entitled Rural Legacies. In two separate week-long runs each artist will present movement/theater works tracing lineages that embody personal and public perceptions, both inward and outward: Paige Phillips’ Tale of the Slaughtered Hog on March 28, 29 and 30 at 7:00 PM and Annie Wilson’s Always the Happy Hour on April 4, 5 and 6 with entry times every half hour beginning at 6PM. All performances are at Icebox Project Space, 1400 North American Street. Tickets $20 are available at philadanceprojects.org. Due to the content of both works, these performances are recommended for mature audiences only.

Midway through the two-week run PDP will host a free Day of Rural Legacies on April 1 from noon – 7PM, also at Icebox Project Space, 1400 North American Street, with theme-related lectures, a line-dancing session, and a happy hour.

Paige Phillips’ interdisciplinary work Tale of the Slaughtered Hog weaves her girlhood memories of growing up in coal country West Virginia with radical Appalachian histories. Her new work The Tale of the Slaughtered Hog is a lively and raucous performance. Highlighting patterns of labor exploitation and wealth inequality, this sweeping narrative demonstrates that these issues exist everywhere, creating a dialogue that’s both rural and urban. Through bold visual components, movement and text, audiences will learn about the Coal Wars, a series of armed labor conflicts led by a group of multiethnic and multiracial miners. Phillips, a daughter of a coal miner, grapples with redneck tropes and questions why there is so much animosity toward our nation’s rural poor. The Tale of the Slaughtered Hog is directed and choreographed by Paige Phillips, who also will perform, and has been created in collaboration with the performers: Jeffrey Evans, Nick Jonzcak, Celine McBride, Chloe Newton, Paule Turner, Judy Williams along with set Installation by Evan Dawson, Sound by Liam Ze’ev O’Connor and Light Design by Matthew Lewandowski.

Annie Wilson’s new work Always The Hour is a durational, immersive performance that traces the influence of her grandfather, Gub. He grew up in rural western New York, was a bomber pilot and POW in WW2, developed alcoholism after the war, and died long before she was born. Using her liver as the site where his ghost lingers, Wilson asks in Always the Hour: How do we metabolize familial and generational harm? What does my body already know about the damage he inflicted and that which he endured? What choreographic strategies in the lineages in which I work give me access to that knowing?

Paige Phillips’ artwork is at the intersection of the performing and visual arts, engaging most frequently with dance, installation and video. Originally from West Virginia, she resides in Philadelphia. Her work has been presented nationally and abroad at the Bangkok Art and Cultural Center, the National Museum of Singapore, Park Gallery (Kathmandu, Nepal) the Judson Church through Movement Research (NYC), Velocity Dance Center (Seattle), and Urban Arts Center (Columbus), along with Philadelphia venues Mascher Space, Group Motion’s Uhr Spiel Series, Vox Populi, High Tide Gallery and Little Berlin. Her work has been supported by the US Embassies in Nepal and Singapore, Ohio Arts Council and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. She was awarded a residency at the Marpha Foundation and also a BILATERAL artist residency through PDP in Budapest. Paige has performed with Cyrus Khambatta, Yael Bartana, and Josiah McElheny. She holds an MFA from The Ohio State University.

Annie Wilson is a Philadelphia-based multi-disciplinary artist. Her dances are animistic, pop-magic church services focusing on the experience versus the appearance of the body. She is a 2017 Pew Fellow in the Arts, a 2015 Independence Fellow, and a two-time Barrymore award nominee. Her work has been presented by JACK, FringeArts, Bryn Mawr College, fidget, Műhely Alapítvány, CounterPulse, and others. She has directed shows for MK Tuomanen and Almanac Dance Circus Theater, and performed in the work of Nichole Canuso Dance Theater, Meg Foley/moving parts, Lucinda Childs, Applied Mechanics, Pasión y Arte, and fidget.

These performances are made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Paige Phillips – Tale of the Slaughtered Hog
March 28, 29 and 30 at 7 PM
Icebox Project Space, 1400 American Street, Philadelphia
Tickets $20
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/philadelphiadanceprojects/836734

Annie Wilson – Always The Happy Hour
April 4, 5 and 6 beginning at 6PM with multiple entry times
Icebox Project Space, 1400 American Street
Tickets $20
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/philadelphiadanceprojects/845489

April 1 A Day Full of Rural Legacies
Noon-7PM
Icebox Project Space, 1400 North American Street
Admission to all events if free

Noon-Talk reintegration into society after WW2
1 pm- Talk on the liver, its function and symbolism
2 pm- Talk on labor rights that span the urban/rural divide
3:30-5 line dancing workshop taught by Inthedance LLC. All dance levels and ages are welcome to attend this free and fun workshop to learn the basics of line dancing.
5-7 pm Always the Happy Hour. A free social gathering featuring food from local restaurants, and music from DJ Robinette. Videos and scenic design from the performances will also be on display, creating a surreal indoor/outdoor environment.