Philadelphia dances.Surveying the city's dramatically renewed Avenue of the Arts from atop his City Hall pinnacle 500 feet above Philadelphia, the totem of founder William Penn has twelve-foot arms and five-foot-long bronze shoes, and bemoans the fact that he can't dance. But the city over which he presides makes a perfect partner for the booming dance arts and education here. The city today is home to more than forty performing dance companies, large and small, and more than 2,000 professional dancers. Drawing on a unique alchemy of passion, perseverance, and cooperation, Philadelphia dance companies light up the City, tour the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and abroad, and receive impressive reviews from dance critics wherever they travel. Philadelphia is securely stitched into the fabric of American history. In Old City the unpretentious red brick Independence Hall, where President George Washington delivered his farewell address to those who wanted him to stay on as king, stands alongside such national icons as the Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross House The Betsy Ross House is generally recognized as the place where Betsy Ross lived when she may have made the first American Flag. Several of her surviving family members, including daughters, grandchildren and a niece said that this was the location of the legendary event. , and a gleaming new National Constitution Center--historic landmarks and tourist magnets that serve as daily reminders of what it means to stake a claim to democracy and tolerance. Across the centuries, from Penn's 1682 arrival to today, Philadelphia's very DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. screams independence. Before there was Indie rock Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that primarily exists in the independent underground music scene. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with underground music as a whole, though more specifically implicates that the music meets the criterion of being rock, as or Indie film, there was Indie dance. A native-born and quintessentially independent art form, American modern American Modern was a distinct American design aesthetic formed in the period between 1925 and World War II. American Modern was created by a pioneering group of designers, architects and artists, among them were Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey, Henry Dreyfuss, Paul Frankl, dance showed itself early here: Isadora Duncan frolicked barefoot before adoring crowds at the famed Academy of Music; Joan Kerr and Nadia Tchiakowski built local modern dance institutions. Today's next-generation contemporary dance companies hold the territory now thought of as "classical" modern dance and folk dance folk dance, primitive, tribal, or ethnic form of the dance, sometimes the survival of some ancient ceremony or festival. The term is used also to include characteristic national dances, country dances, and figure dances in costume to folk tunes. that has morphed into exciting new professional genres, as well as cutting-edge performance art and street-dancing-derived hip-hop narratives. That's not just a mouthful, it's a soulful eye-full. OUT ON THE EDGE The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, modeled on the Edinburgh Fringe This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details. This article has been tagged since September 2007. Festival by dancers Eric Schoefer and Nick Stuccio, attracted more than 40,000 performing arts patrons in 2003 for performances by 220 different groups for 16 days in early September. The festival has helped change the way the city's audiences think of the arts by bringing down traditional "high art" barriers and guaranteeing wide accessibility via cheap tickets and free stuff. "The Fringe brought the Philadelphia underground above ground with a bullhorn, says Stuccio. "It's had a great effect on the community. It has built a core audience for local groups, it has built the taste of" audiences, and it has inspired artists to continue to make work and stay here." The Fringe Festival strives far a mixture of Philadelphia-based and non-Philadelphia-based artists in the belief that guests with good reputations can serve to demonstrate that local artists are making work that's as good as some of the most famous ones. "It's important to us to present our artists on par with their peers elsewhere," says Stuccio. He began studying on scholarship at the school of Pennsylvania Ballet The Pennsylvania Ballet is a ballet company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, established in 1963 by Barbara Weisberger. The company became a regionally important institution, and performed in New York for the first time in 1968. and was taken into the company, where he danced for almost a decade before retiring in 1995. The experience had its complicating factors. "As a ballet dancer I saw that we were performing for the tiny cultural elite.... In starting a festival we thought that this was finally a way to give access to our work to the other 99 percent, the bus drivers and people like us who couldn't afford to see ourselves dance." Stuccio credits the William Penn Foundation, which offers dance companies organizational support, with taking a chance on the Fringe On The Fringe is a popular Pakistani television show on Indus Music. It is hosted and scripted by the eccentric television host and music critic, Fasi Zaka and directed by Zeeshan Pervez. Festival seven years ago with a first-time grant of $30,000. Not insignificantly, Stuccio's initial experience with production was the 1993 debut of an independent philanthropic effort, created by four dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet, which they called "Shut Up and Dance!" That project, which returns to Forrest Theatre for its eleventh annual show on March 13, is a one-night concert of original choreography for the benefit of MANNA (Metropolitan AIDS Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance This article is about the Metropolitan AIDS Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance in Pennsylvania. For the religious Israeli food, see Manna. The Metropolitan AIDS Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance ). It was conceived as a way to honor the death of fellow dancer Edward Myers, and to give to the community'; this annual performance continues the tradition of raising money to help people living with AIDS. ON TRACK WITH A MISSION Pennsylvania was a colony based on the idea that people of diverse religions, nationalities, and ethnic backgrounds could five together in peace. The best remembered Penn legend tells how, rather than build a barricade around his colony, he negotiated a treaty of friendship The Treaty of Friendship was a treaty signed in 1946 between the post-war states of Yugoslavia and Albania. The treaty was an economic agreement which resulted in customs union. Some Albanians immigrated into Kosovo during this period. with his indigenous Lenni Lenape Len·ni Len·a·pe or Len·i Len·a·pe n. See Delaware1. neighbors. Visitors to the Fringe Festival are likely to be struck by the multitude of historic houses The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. List of historic houses is a link page for any stately home or historic house. of worship of every denomination. As the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal church African Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist denomination (see Methodism). It was established in 1816 in Philadelphia with Richard Allen as its first bishop. In 1991 there were about 3.5 million members in the United States. , founded here by former slave Richard Allen There have been several famous men with the name Richard Allen:
NOT ALWAYS SO BLACK AND WHITE But despite its famous Quaker background, Philadelphia has not been free of intolerance of dissent or difference. In her recent book the Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon coon: see raccoon. to Cool (2003), scholar, dancer, and Professor Emerita Emerita is a honorary title retained corresponding to that held immediatey before retirement. (associated with retired from service) --Kabir4you2002 11:55, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
Noun, pl the relations between members of two or more races within a single community race relations npl → relaciones fpl raciales often remain divisive factors in dance." She speaks from her own experience and from that of numerous interviews with dancers of all backgrounds. Nevertheless, in terms of diversity and mission, African-American arts and artists have always been central to the city's creative life--leading with sounds of urban tap, and jazz dance. The Nicholas Brothers Nicholas Brothers, African-American tap dance team consisting of Fayard Antonio Nicholas, 1914–2006, b. Mobile, Ala., and Harold Lloyd Nicholas, 1921–2000, b. Winston-Walem, N.C. are fondly remembered for having created their brilliant tap and acrobatic act here in Philadelphia. Fayard and Harold Nicholas Harold Nicholas, (March 17, 1921 – July 3, 2000) was an African-American dancer specializing in Tap, the younger half of the world famous tap dancing pair The Nicholas Brothers, known as two of the world's greatest dancers. lived in the city long enough (1926 to 1931) to attend its integrated schools and develop their unparalleled duo dance act. Then they hoofed away to fame and fortune in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and Hollywood. The late Arthur Hall Arthur Hall can refer to:
n. A person who is 70 years old or between the ages of 70 and 80. adj. 1. Being 70 years old or between the ages of 70 and 80. 2. Of or relating to a septuagenarian. hoofer hoof·er n. Slang A professional dancer, especially a tap dancer. hoofer Noun Slang a professional dancer Noun 1. LaVaughn Robinson was a recipient of a National Heritage Award, and is regarded as a national dance treasure. The widely celebrated Philadelphia Dance Company, affectionately known as Philadanco, founded by Joan Myers Brown some thirty four years ago, is now one of the resident companies of the city's new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a large performing arts venue located on Broad Street, along the stretch known as the "Avenue of the Arts", in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Kimmel Center, Inc. . Temple University's Kariamu Welsh This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. Asante, described by writer Merilyn Jackson as "an elder stateswoman of African-American dance in Philadelphia," is the founding director of the National Dance Company of Zimbabwe and director of Temple's Institute for African Dance Research and Performance, as well as being active as a choreographer and performer. Kulu Mele African American Dance African American dances in the vernacular tradition (academically known as "African American vernacular dance") are those dances which have developed within African American communities in everyday spaces, rather than in dance studios, schools or companies. Ensemble is an impressive African dance and music troupe that has grown and developed in the city for twenty-five years under director Dorothy Wilkie, who continues to travel to Africa to study her art. ON PHILADANCO STREET Philadanco grew out of Joan Myers Brown's still-flourishing Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, a neighborhood school she began in 1960, a school that has trained generations of Philadelphia dancers. On tour throughout the year with a schedule of fifty to sixty concerts that reach live audiences of more than 100,000, Brown's company members are on fifty-two-week contracts. In 1981, the company was the first city dance group to purchase its own headquarters and studio, and in 1986 it created the first artist-housing program for its principal dancers. Recent Philadanco repertoire has included works by resident choreographer Milton Myers, as well as choreography and commissions by artists Bebe Miller, Alonzo King, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Elisa Monte, David Brown, and Christopher Huggins. The annual "Danco on Danco" showcase of new works provides opportunities for homegrown choreographers, including Shawn Williams, Zane Booker, and Paule Turner. Philadanco's spring concert at the Kimmel Center is April 1-3. "There has always been a vibrant dance community--specially the African-American dance community--in Philadelphia," says Brown. "So many wonderful African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. dancers have come from here." Honi Coles, Judith Jamison, Robert Garland (assistant artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem Dance Theatre of Harlem, the first black classical ballet company. The group was founded in Harlem, New York City, by Arthur Mitchell, then of the New York City Ballet, the first black principal dancer of a classical company of international standing. ), Billy Wilson (who has chore(graphed for DTH (Direct-To-Home) Typically refers to satellite TV broadcasting directly to a dish antenna on the roof of a house. See DBS. and Netherlands Dance Theater), John Jones, and Dolores Dolores (or Delores) was a common given name (until the 1960s in the USA); it is cognate with the English word "dolorous" (meaning sorrowful) and equivalent in meaning. Brown are just a few names from her long list. Brown is known as a tireless advocate and spokesperson for dance and a model of tenacity, hope, and discipline. She proudly displays a plaque that carries Alvin Ailey's tribute to Philly dancers, "All of whom enrich our repertory, with their versatility, technical fire, unparalleled commitment to the art of dance, with their Philadelphia-bred genius." Another "genius" is the original and sensational urban tap and hip-hop artist Rennie Harris. Acclaimed for its dazzling athleticism and intensity, Rennie Harris Puremovement, founded in 1992, has become, together with Philadanco, the city's biggest dance export. On tour year-round, nationally and internationally, Harris and his collaborators are credited with introducing the social art form of hip-hop into the world of concert dance. As a teenager, Harris started his own stepping company, and after he finished high school, he went on the road as a dancer for the country's biggest names in hip-hop, Run-DMC, Fat Boys, and Whodini. "Philadelphia stepping is something different, indigenous to the city," says Harris. "Basically you think you're seeing tap dancers.... All the moves are tap dancers' moves, and they're doing all the rhythms, but they don't have taps. Philadelphia was a major tapping place anyway, so there was already a connection. It made sense that this hybrid version of hoofing and tapping would come from that." "Philadelphia supports dance strongly," says Harris, "and the state of Pennsylvania is a major supporter of dance. Continuing to straddle In the stock and commodity markets, a strategy in options contracts consisting of an equal number of put options and call options on the same underlying share, index, or commodity future. the worlds of pop and concert dance, Harris also presents Illadelph Legends, a ten-day Philadelphia summer dance festival at Temple University that celebrates the evolution of hip-hop music and dance, featuring its innovators and master practitioners. Illadelph Legends (this July) makes the city a national magnet for hip-hop innovation, and has helped launch concert careers for such Philadelphia dancers as Sabela Grimes, Clyde Evans, Ron Wood of Zen One, and Raphael Xavier of Olive Hip-Hop Dance Theater. The racial and cultural elements in Philadelphia dance aren't all black and white. "The Philadelphia dance community is immense, says Nick Stuccio. And now they all find a way to perform. The city's ongoing offerings range from African, Middle Eastern, and Spanish dance to Native American, Ukrainian, Chinese, and Korean dance to American tap, contact improvisation, hip-hop, and jazz dance. The Philadelphia Folklore Project has been instrumental in nurturing and presenting non-Western dance including Middle Eastern dance The Middle East (Near East, Southwest Asia) has a rich and varied tradition of dance, spanning all of the Arab world, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and also much of Central Asia and South Asia. and music, and South African and West African dance and music. The Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble performs at Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art, established in 1875, chartered in 1876. When the city of Philadelphia planned to erect a building to house the Centennial Exposition of 1876, provision was made to keep the building permanently occupied; the Pennsylvania Museum and School January 28. THEN THERE WAS BALLET As turn-of-the-century vaudeville gave way to the movie matinee, ballet emerged and stayed in Philadelphia. Catherine Littlefield, with her dance-teacher mother Caroline and sister Dorothie, became the founding mothers of Philadelphia's ballet community when they created America's third homegrown ballet company in 1935, the first to be organized, directed, and staffed entirely by Americans. One of the Littlefield sisters' students and a Balanchine protegee pro·té·gée n. A woman or girl whose welfare, training, or career is promoted by an influential person. [French, feminine of protégé, protégé; see protégé.] Noun 1. , Barhara Weisberger, founded Pennsylvania Ballet in 1963. Now under the directorship of Roy Kaiser, Pennsylvania Ballet celebrates its anniversary season with a company of forty dancers. Its state-of-the art facility on the Avenue of the Arts houses studios, offices, a physical therapy center, and the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet. Maintaining the Weisberger legacy in celebrating the centennial of George Balanchine's birth, the company opened its fortieth anniversary season in October 2003 with a program that comprised Balanchine's Concerto Barocco and The Four Temperaments. Still to come for the anniversary season is The Taming of the Shrew shrew, common name for the small, insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, related to the moles. Shrews include the smallest mammals; the smallest shrews are under 2 in. (5.1 cm) long, excluding the tail, and the largest are about 6 in. (15 cm) long. , February 20-28, at the Academy of Music; Rhythm and Blues rhythm and blues (R&B) Any of several closely related musical styles developed by African American artists. The various styles were based on a mingling of European influences with jazz rhythms and tonal inflections, particularly syncopation and the flatted blues chords. , with works by Peter Martins and Trey McIntyre, April 14-18 at the Merriam Theater; and the company's new million-dollar, full-length production of Swan Lake by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon June 4-12 at the Academy of Music. Roy Kaiser, who started as a dancer with the company back in 1979 and became artistic director in 1994, says that the change in the climate for dance that he has seen over twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. has been pretty dramatic, hut most notable over the past five or six years. "The Fringe Festival played a big role in encouraging a lot of small companies and individual artists to work in Philadelphia," he says. "The higher the number of dance performances, the more variety is presented in the city, and that is a good thing for all of us." Kaiser encourages company members to choreograph. Phrenic phrenic /phren·ic/ (fren´ik) 1. diaphragmatic. 2. mental (1). phren·ic adj. 1. Of or relating to the mind. 2. Of or relating to the diaphragm. New Ballet is the creation of three members of Pennsylvania Ballet, Christine Cox, Amanda Miller, and Matthew Neenan, with filmmaker Tobin Rothlein. Two of the three dancers remain in the company, and both Neenan and Miller have also created new works for the Ballet. SOLVING THE HOUSING PROBLEMS The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which provides a new home for the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, has been a great help to Pennsylvania Ballet, its former tenant at the Academy of Music. "Before the Kimmel we were constantly struggling to get the dates we wanted," says Kaiser, noting that the 2000 debut of the company's now-popular Halloween production of Ben Stevenson's Dracula had to take place in August, the only open date. New theaters and the new Avenue of the Arts give Kaiser an optimistic outlook. "I love the centralization," says Kaiser. "I think it's wonderful, and I know it is encouraging more participation from audiences from the suburbs. It's beautiful and there's so much activity. We have the Academy of Music, the Merriam, Verizon Hail, the Perelman, and the Wilma--five theaters in just a few blocks, plus all those restaurants. All the stages are active and a lot of it is dance--and that's a good thing." Another addition to the city dance scene is Jeanne Ruddy Dance, founded in Philadelphia in 1999 by a former principal dancer of the Martha Graham Company. The company has enjoyed a favorable reception and, just a year after its founding, received The Independence Foundation Fellowship Award. Ruddy has developed a new center for dance that she calls the Performance Garage, designed as an incubator for classes, rehearsals, workshops, and performances. Jeanne Ruddy Dance performs in concert at the Mandell Theater of Drexel University June 17 to 19. "BOOM!" An important spin-off from the multi-art Fringe Festival is DanceBoom! Now heading into its third year, the annual winter festival, presented by the Wilma Theater and curated, in 2004, by Nick Stuccio and Joan Huckstep, takes the temperature of Philadelphia's independent dance scene. The series is designed to take risks and make some introductions. Some of the featured companies' names alone--SCRAP Performance Group, Moxie, Phrenic New Ballet--are sufficient to give the sense that these companies mean business. DanceBoom! is a platform for the plethora of small independents that constitute the city's diverse and remarkably cooperative dance community; for many, this is their first presenting opportunity with lull-scale professional production facilities. DanceBoom! is not only about presenting the work, but also providing the artists with career tools to go forward. The Wilma, Broad Street's 300-seat theater, is a coveted cov·et v. cov·et·ed, cov·et·ing, cov·ets v.tr. 1. To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). See Synonyms at envy. 2. To wish for longingly. See Synonyms at desire. setting for Philadelphia's dance companies; Blanka Zizka and Jiri Zizka direct the Wilma Theater and sponsor DanceBoom!, January 21 to February 8. Freed by the Wilma staff from handling their own technical work and public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most , companies like Group Motion, Phrenic New Ballet, Headlong, and Flamenco Old turned in stellar performances in the first DanceBoom! Mixed bills have become a powerful audience-building tool. The curators make effective contrasts and comparisons pairing dissimilar dance groups. Bringing small companies's core audiences together has generated significant crossover interest among audiences. Prior festivals paired the cool cerebral dance of Leah Stein with the wild abandon of Kulu Mele African American Dance, and the culturally powerful dance theater of Merian Soto with the deadpan postmodernism of Nichole Canuso. Big hits were the Koresh Dance Company, a jazz-flavored company led by Ronen Koresh, and the Olive Hip Hop Dance Hip hop dance refers to dance styles, mainly street dance styles, primarily danced to hip hop music, or that have evolved as a part of the hip hop culture. The first and original dance associated with hip hop is breakdance, which appeared in New York City during the early Theater led by Raphael Xavier. The 2004 DanceBoom! concert offers programs by some of the city's most innovative and successful choreographers, as well as some notable newcomers. Featured will be Headlong Dance Theater, Group Motion, Melanie Stewart Dance Theater, the Philadelphia Chinese Opera, Roko Roko is a title used by Fijians of chiefly rank specifically from the Lau Islands. Its equivalent from the Kubuna Confederacy is the Bauan form of Ratu and Ro from parts of the Burebasaga Confederacy. Kawai, Charles O. Anderson, Sabela Grimes, and Subcircle (Niki Cousineau with U.K. choreographer and dancer Carol Brown). DanceFusion, a 20-year veteran of the city's dance scene, will refresh its legacy with a staging of Time Plus Seven, a work choreographed by Anna Sokolow fur Pennsylvania Ballet in 1968. POSTMODERN STABILITY Among the city's most long-lived independent dance companies is Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theater, transplanted from Germany and founded anew as a three-person collective in 1968 by Hellmut Gottschild and Brigitta Herrmann (both students of Mary Wigman), and Manfred Fischbeck, who was also a filmmaker. Now solo as the company's artistic director, Fischbeck is celebrating the company's thirty-fifth season. Fringe 2003 featured the collaboration of Group Motion's and Kenshi Nohmi/Dance Theater 21 from Tokyo, Japan. Group Motion traveled to Tokyo in fall 2003. Group Motion's three-part Culture and Species dance with visual and sound collages, respired by Fischbeck's return to Africa in 2002, is also on the Fringe Festival program, and will be presented at Dance Boom! 2004. Fischbeck and Herrmann also created the Group Motion Workshop, an improvisational dance workshop for the public based on the structures used by the dance company. The workshop has been offered every Friday night in Philadelphia since 1972, and is also offered on tour and in special week-long retreats. In 1996, Fischbeck was instrumental in establishing a model dance company collective, the Kumquat kumquat (kŭm`kwŏt), ornamental shrub of the genus Fortunella of the family Rutaceae (rue family), closely related to the orange and other citrus fruits. Dance Center, a cooperative, artist-driven alliance that shares performance programs, performance and rehearsal space, and operational resources. Kumquat presents its annual festival there April 16-18. ALL TOGETHER NOW Whether due to Group Motion's model or coincidence, the artists' collective reigns in Philadelphia. In Fact there are not that many dance companies in the city that don't call themselves collectives. One booming collective, co-founded by three friends from Wesleyan University--Andrew Simonet, Amy Smith, and David Brick--Headlong Dance Theater, now comprises a core of five dancers. Currently embarking on a new Hotel Pool project to be performed in the swimming pools of hotels across the country, Headlong credits its freewheeling free·wheel·ing adj. 1. a. Free of restraints or rules in organization, methods, or procedure. b. Heedless of consequences; carefree. 2. Relating to or equipped with a free wheel. energy to the lack of a single artistic director. In 1999 the company won New York's coveted Bessie Award for its creation Star Wars. A most insightful dance commentator, Headlong's Simonet, wittily identified "Eight Things That Work in the Philly Dance Scene:" Collaboration; Love--folks in Philly are supportive (seeing each other's work, giving feedback, and not being territorial about dancers); Cross-Pollination; Dancers That Are Choreographers That Are Dancers; Dance Theater Camp; Bill Bissell and The Pew Charitable Trusts Pew Charitable Trusts, philanthropic foundation established (1948) by the children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew (1886–1963) of Philadelphia to provide funds for "general religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. ; Alien Iverson; and The Rockies. Simonet suggests that in Philadelphia the traditional isolation of the solitary, visionary choreographer is being replaced by a complex web of creative relationships. He cites as a model the collective Moxie, a group that supports individual dance projects and also serves as a steady pool of dancers and collaborators. Simonet observes that such long-term ties can shine in ensemble dances where the performers know each other from top to bottom, inside and out. And beyond these intense working relationships is the community's casual camaraderie. "Philly is a small enough community that the various branches intersect. Even a freaky freak·y adj. freak·i·er, freak·i·est 1. Strange or unusual; freakish. 2. Slang Frightening. freak dance theater person like myself can connect with folks from Pennsylvania Ballet and Rennie Harris's company," writes Simonet. Headlong has contributed to the contemporary dance scene here through its inception of Dance Theater Camp (originally known as Dance Camp) in 1995, an urban summer experience in which dance artists work and create together, and teach classes, improvisational workshops, and performances during the month of August. Dance camp provides another illustration of the cooperative nature of the diverse dance community: "On some level, all art is local," Simonet says of Headlong Dance Theater's commitment to its community: "We really care about Philadelphia as a place." Headlong and its collaborator, the Arrow Dance Company of Japan, perform in Kyoto, Japan, January 13-15, and at Philadelphia's Dance Boom January 21-February 8. ART ON HIGH Not all visitor pilgrimages lead to Independence Hall. Another kind of independence radiates like a beacon from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA PMA (papillary-marginal-attached), n a system of epidemiologic scoring of periodontal disease devised by Schour and Massler in which the symbols denote the areas involved in gingival inflammation. PMA Progressive muscular atrophy ). Throughout the 1980s, the stone staircase that rises to the parthenon-like art museum on the hill was familiar the world over from its cameo appearance in the string of Rocky movies starring Sylvester Stallone as the Philadelphia working stiff who gets a shot at the world heavyweight boxing championship title. Today Stallone's namesake endures in the form of the Rocky Awards, the Fringe Festival's offbeat off·beat n. Music An unaccented beat in a measure. adj. Slang Not conforming to an ordinary type or pattern; unconventional: offbeat humor. artist-to-artist awards, given by ten individuals to anyone from the past year they want to honor. Each year's winners are then anointed "Anointed" redirects here. For the process of anointing, see Anointing. Anointed is a Contemporary Christian music duo consisting of siblings Steve and Da'dra Crawford. Their musical style includes elements of R&B, funk, and piano ballads. to select the following year's awardees. WHO ELSE PUTS ON THE SHOW? There's Philadelphia's Painted Bride, an independent art center that, under former dance curator Terry Fox, has had a history of presenting independent dance. Fox is now director of Philadelphia Dance Projects. The Painted Bride hosts DanceFusion's Spring Concert April 2-4. One long-time dance presenter is F. Randolph Swartz, artistic director of Dance Affiliates, and sponsor of the much-lauded Dance Celebration Series, now in its twenty first season as part of the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Presents at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is a music venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It helped to popularize the works of composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass; the Center has also hosted shows by performers ranging from the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra to Ladysmith . This year's season includes England's Ballet Boys, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson's Complexions, Parsons Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago  This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for , using . , Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Sydney Dance Company The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australia's most successful and well-known contemporary dance companies. It was renamed in 1979 by Graeme Murphy and fellow dancer and collaborator Janet Vernon, who had joined its predecessor, the Dance Company (NSW), in 1976. , Pascal Rioult Dance Theater, and Pilobolus. A unique phenomenon in this city is Philadelphia's dancers-presenting-dancers. In the absence of many year-round dance producing organizations, Susan Hess Modern Dance and Melanie Stewart Dance Theater have become presenters of concerts, workshops, and guest artists. Despite this plethora of dance activity, Philadelphia is without a full-time dance critic or reviewer on staff at a major newspaper. Nonetheless, in 1999, the national professional organization, Dance Critics Association, held its annual meeting in the city in conjunction with the "2000 Feet Festival." And DCA's annual national conference returns to Philadelphia with its three-day meeting for professional critics, dancers, choreographers, and dance scholars June 4-June 6. SUPPORT FROM ABOVE Philadelphia's dance renaissance could not have happened without a plan. It began in 1991, when Edward G. Rendell was elected mayor on the strength of his visionary campaign platform for replacing the city's dwindling dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. manufacturing base with a new industry built on the city's history, culture, and, most of all, the arts. Within two years, he had created an independent nonprofit agency to coordinate and support cultural development along North and South Broad Streets, already home to some thirty arts organizations, and now known as the Avenue of the Arts. Less than a decade later, the dream was realized with the December 2001 opening of the Kimmel Center fur the Performing Arts, a $265-million vaulted landmark designed by Rafael Vinoly The three-stage venue is now home to eight resident companies and is rarely dark. More recently, amidst the record budget deficits of 2003, when state arts councils across the nation were under siege, Governor Ed Rendell became one of the few governors to place his arts budget in one of those "lockboxes" safe from the desperate grasp of the budget balancers. While federal funding evaporated and many states threatened to do away with financial support for their arts altogether--thus wiping out even the state arts agencies and councils--Rendell stuck to his demonstrated conviction that the arts are revenue generators and nut revenue drains. Philadelphia's political will is backed by philanthropy. If you ask dancers what makes Philadelphia a different kind of city to be struggling in, they will invariably in·var·i·a·ble adj. Not changing or subject to change; constant. in·var  i·a·bil recognize the city's charitable foundations. The William Penn Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Independence Foundation are among those investing in the city's cultural stock. And thanks to Governor Rendell, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) is an agency serving the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.Established in 1966, its mission is "to foster the excellence, diversity and vitality of the arts in Pennsylvania and to broaden the availability and appreciation of those arts is also a player. The Pew Charitable Trusts' Dance Advance program has been funding dance in the five-counties area since 1992, with annual grants totaling around $700,000. Under the direction of Bill Bissell and a small staff, these project-directed grants to choreographers and companies are partly responsible for the wealth of new work and collaborations taking place across the city. ANCHORING THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY Philadelphia Dance Collection at Temple University (PDCAT PDCAT Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies ) is now home to efforts to protect and display the unique identity of Philadelphia's dance legacy. The user-friendly permanent archive is the invention and passion of curator Mary Edsall. It documents and educates the city's artistic communities on the inherent value of dance heritage preservation. Edsall's explicit goal for PDCAT is to "put Philadelphia in its proper historical place as the wonderful and important dance town that it is." "The dancers [here] seem less ego driven that other places I've lived," boasts Edsall. "They go and see each other's dance events. It's a welcoming city, and there seems to be a place for everybody. As soon as I arrived here, I was brought into the fold. I was accepted as having something to give--whether or not they knew exactly what it was. When you ask people why it's a good dance town they might say funding--but it's not just the funding. There's a greater sense of support here that goes beyond financial support. It's a feeling of humanity." BLOOMING WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED "Generally, you could say that there has been a renaissance over the past six to eight years," says Nick Stuccio. "The dance community may have an issue with a notion of a renaissance here, but I think there's been a renewed interest in all forms of dance, I've been told that before this time there was a feeling that those who gained the slightest bit of quality in their art making left to pursue it in other places where there were more resources and more audience. This is no longer true." Philadelphia seems ideally positioned to become a national model for creative leadership in stick to-itism. Pluralism, diversity, cohesion, accessibility, cooperation, support--and a touch of the utopian dreams of William Penn and the Dada spirit of Marcel Duchamp--make Philadelphia an independent dance city with a wide-open future. Go see for yourself. Philadelphia's incubator colleges occupy a special place in the overall dance picture because they provide a platform for dance students to grow, experiment, and interact with the panoply pan·o·ply n. pl. pan·o·plies 1. A splendid or striking array: a panoply of colorful flags. See Synonyms at display. 2. of professional dance residents here. Their facilities shelter rehearsals and performances. Many students stay in the community after they complete their programs. Swarthmore College is a 1400-student coeducational co·ed·u·ca·tion n. The system of education in which both men and women attend the same institution or classes. co·ed liberal arts institution located in suburban Philadelphia. The dance department, directed by Sharon Friedler. s committed to studying and presenting dance from a variety of perspectives: current studio offerings include African dance, ballet, contact improvisation, flamenco kathak, modern dance, lap, taiko
Temple University's main campus is in north Philadelphia, while the university maintains other campuses around the region and the world. If offers BFA BFA abbr. Bachelor of Fine Arts BFA abbr BFA, B.F.A Bachelor of Fine Arts; first degree in Fine Arts. . MFA See multifactor authentication. , EdM, and PhD degrees. Facilities include three molar studios, a small rehearsal roam. a book/video collection and media centers. and easily accessible university computer labs. A 200-seat theater is used for classes and performances throughout the year. Performances include work by students, faculty, and guest artists. Alumni are members of dance companies, professional choreographers, dance educators in K-12 cad university and arts administrators. Luke C. Kahlich, dance department choir, is available at 215.204.5169, danceadm@temlple.edu University of the Arts (Uarts) is the nation's only university devoted exclusively to education and professional training in the performing, visual, and media arts. Located on Avenue of the Arts next door to the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. the university offers undergrad and graduate degree programs to more than 2000 full-time students from 50 states and 30 countries. Contact with other arts and artists broadens dancers' perspectives through their integrated educational experience. The university's annual Summer World of Dance highlights an internationally diverse guest faculty, Susan B, Glazer is director of the school of dance. For information 1.800.616.ARTS DeSales University is jus, fifty miles from Philadelphia. It offers a BA in dance within a liberal arts curriculum. Basic to the instructional programs are ballet, modern dance, choreography, dance history, and kinesiology, Majors take elective classes in dance, movement tneory, methods of teaching, musical theater, makeup, film, lighting, costuming, set construction, and managing to develop a well-rounded artist. Performing and teaching opportunities are available. The Performing Arts Center houses three theaters, two dance studios, one TV/film studio, and a costume shop Contact Vincent Brosseou. director of the dance program, at vincentbrosseau@desales.edu or call 610.202.1100 Other Colleges: Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College, at Bryn Mawr, Pa; undergraduate for women, graduate coeducational; opened 1885 by the Society of Friends, with a bequest from Joseph W. Taylor of Burlington, N.J. Modeled on a group curriculum plan at Johns Hopkins Univ. emphasizes its modern dance program. Contact Nicole Greaves greaves cracklings, an edible raw fat from the meat trade. The skimmings from the preparation of this fat are also called greaves. They represent a low grade of meat meal. Dougherty, Coordinator of the Performing Arts Series. a1 610.526.5212 Franklin-Marshall College has a new performing arts, theater, and dance program. Muhlenberg College, in Allentown. offers a BA in dance Students study ballet, modern, jazz, and rap, and perform in productions. They can also audition and perform in the regional Muhlenberq Summer Music Theatre and study in London, Karen Dearborn is director of the dance program; call 484.664.3335 Anne-Marie Mulgrew, here in Lemon Lady, is also education director of Dance Celebration. |
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