Philadelphia Dance Projects

Informance with Faye Driscoll, curated by Choreographer Meg Foley

Faye Driscoll, originally from Venice Beach, CA, was hailed as “1 of 25 to watch out for in ‘08,” by Dance Magazine. Her second evening length work 837 VENICE BOULEVARD was named “one of the top five dance shows of the year” by the New York Times and received a 2009 NY Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award.  In 2009 Driscoll’s dance video LONELINESS was on display at the New Museum’s ‘Younger Than Jesus‘ Triennial Exhibit, featuring 25 international artists under the age of 33. In 2010 she made THERE IS SO MUCH MAD IN ME, commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop where it premiered, sold-out, and got brought back later in the season for a second run. Her newest work NOT…NOT is being commissioned by The Kitchen where it will premier in April 2012. Her work has also been presented by; the Joyce Theater, Wexner Center for the Arts, Chicago Dancing Festival at MCA, American Dance Festival, Fusebox Festival, Dance New Amsterdam and HERE Arts Center. Driscoll is a 2011 choreographic fellow at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and an Artist-In-Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts and will be an Artist-in-Residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2012.

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Leah Stein Dance Company’s 10th Anniversary

With Choreographer Sean Feldman, Poet Josie Foos,  Musicians Toshi Makihara and Sarah Cunningham among other special guests. 

Dancer/Choreographer Leah Stein has directed her company for 10 years and been performing in the Philadelphia region, nationally and internationally since the late-80’s.  Stein will celebrate this milestone in PDP Presents 2012 by reprising solos, duets and small group works  featuring present and past company members and other artistic collaborators.

For over a decade Leah Stein has forged the territory of site-specific work here in Philadelphia, which in turn has emboldened a newer generation of artists to explore that performance genre.  Still uniquely, Stein’s site-specific work calls attention to place by incorporating dance within it, rather than super-imposing movement on sites as one would a stage.  She invites the viewer to a comprehensive contemplation.  

Beginning in simple meadows in Fairmount Park and towpaths along the Schuykill, her dances have enlivened and been integrated with abandoned urban spaces and formal gardens.  She has incorporated the sounds of place with simple percussion, and created “mass” works with the Mendelssohn Club chorus that have been stunning and evocative.  In contrast, her solo work for interior spaces exudes a deft skill as a dancer and performer often with sly sense of humor. 

The LSDCo Anniversary program among other works, will include an early duet with consummate percussionist/performer Toshi Makihara - “cabbage piece,”  a reprise of “Kite” - a duet created in collaboration with  Sean Feldman, choreographer for the Scottish Dance Theatre,  “A Lily Lillies” a group work created in collaboration with poet Josey Foo to live music composed and performed by Sarah Cunningham. Local dancer/singer/performing artist Germaine Ingram, who has worked with Stein most recently in Shofuso (2011), will participate in the Anniversary celebration along with Leah Stein joined by stellar company principal members David Konyck, Michelle Tantoco and Jungwoong Kim.

These concerts are rare opportunity to see a spectrum of elegant work by a seasoned dance artist, Leah Stein.

Press:
“Movement so satisfying on a moment-to-moment basis…the kind of work that repays repeated viewing”.  ~ 
Philadelphia City Paper   

“Intuitive, inventive, and enticing,” her dances “unfold like a free verse,…with an underlying sense of unity”.  
~ Dance Magazine

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