Philadelphia Dance Projects

Projects

Philadelphia Dance Projects supports contemporary dance through projects that encourage artists and audiences to more fully participate and engage in the experience and pursuit of dance as an evolving form. 

PDP achieves its mission by presenting stimulating performances, informances, workshops/classes, and film/video, screenings - for artists, aspiring artists, students and a broad-based audience. PDP also appreciates the depth of work being created today which plumbs dance precursors’ traditions.

PDP Presents

In 2009 Philadelphia Dance Projects launched Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents, a presenting series featuring dance performances, workshops, and “Informances” by individual dance artists and companies. PDP Presents provided an adventuresome series in contemporary dance within a broader local and global context through 2014. In 2015 the series was curtailed due to diminished funding support. From 2015-2018 PDP continued to do special presentations under PDP Presents.  The full series is being re-instituted in 2020.

Motion Pictures

Motion Pictures is a PDP presentation that explores how film and video serve as natural collaborative medium for dance, highlighting the power of image and motion in both. Over the years Motion Pictures has featured experimental and innovative shorts, documentaries, “moc”umentaries and animations. There have been documentaries about Pina Bausch, Maya Deren, Carmen Amaya, Geoffrey Holder and Carmen DeLavallade Mark Morris and the Paris Opera Ballet along with imaginative ground breaking work by Pooh Kaye, Hilary Harris and Lloyd Newson among many others.

Education Projects

PDP Dance Artists Residency

Since 2003, PDP has placed an ongoing educational project in a high school in Philadelphia providing students the opportunity to study dance techniques with some of Philadelphia’s best professional dancers and choreographers and to take field trips to see dance performances. For many young people this has been their first foray into dance, both through interaction with creative artists as well as attending a performance in a professional theater. Schools who have participated include Olney High School West, the Promise Academy at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School, and the Philadelphia High School for Girls. Dance Artists have included Tanaga “Princess” Payne, Dinita Clark, Lela Aisha Jones, Melanie Cotton, Clyde Evans, Jr. Alie Vidich and Philadanco’s dancers Karen Pendergrass, Tracy Vogt and LaMar Baylor, among others. 

PDP’s Dance Artists School Residency Project has been made possible with past support from the Lincoln Financial Foundation and current support from the Henrietta Tower Wurts Memorial.

DanceTAG (Teaching Artists Group)

Since 2009, in tandem with our school residency, PDP convenes a DanceTAG (Teaching Artists Group).  DanceTAG is a collegial gathering of teaching artists for movement ideas, information, discussion, and networking. We invite artists at all stages of their teaching- rookies, veterans, people currently working or those looking for work, and especially artists in schools and community situations who consider teaching to be an integral part of their artistic work. Mady Cantor, Dance Faculty at Bryn Mawr College is the PDP DanceTAG Director. 

All DanceTAG sessions are FREE!
RSVP: infoatphiladanceprojects [dot] org or 215-546-2552


Local Dance History Project

Mission: To affirm the presence of dance artists in the rich cultural history of Philadelphia’s recent past, present and future.