Live Arts/Philly Fringe recap, Sept. 5-8
I had such grand plans to blog every day during the festivals, and I started out doing ok, but my duties as publicist kind of hijacked my blogging time. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to handle PR for a 16-day festival that includes over 160 shows, about 85 venues, and hundreds of performances - well, it’s a blast but insanely exhausting.
So, I thought I’d post a few recaps of what I saw. I managed to get to about 24 different shows including work in both the curated Live Arts Festival, and the open-to-all Philly Fringe. Mason’s already written about Ps & Qs, House, and Amnesia Curiosa which were all amazing. I was particularly smitten with House from Kate Watson-Wallace who is quickly becoming my new favorite local choreographer. Philly has some incredible talent in the dance community and I was fortunate to see so much of it in the last few weeks.
Miro Dance Theatre presented a new work in collaboration with German choreographer/visual artist Antony Rizzi which I thought was extremely risk-taking and new. The movement language was intriguing and not always pretty - which I really respect. These dancers are ballet trained but willing to experiment with movement that is raw and edgy but still pleasing to watch. A section in which two dancers mirrored video images of a fountain was particularly lovely.
Every year I see one show that I know I will be talking about for years to come, and The Convent from Jo Stromgren Kompani was that show this year. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it and I won’t do it justice with words. In fact, words aren’t really appropriate because the 70-minute performance used an entirely made-up language. The story involves three nuns in a remote convent where food and drink are scarce. In the bleak surroundings, the nuns begin to struggle with hunger, faith and start to taunt each other. Sounds like a hoot, right? Actually, it is. I was surprised at how much humor the performance had and how the gibberish language made complete sense. It sounded real, but I had no idea what they were saying, and it didn’t matter. I loved the concept of presenting a narrative story devoid of text. The mix of theatre, dance and singing was stunning as were the performances from the three women. If the company returns to the U.S. do not miss them.