Leah Stein's "Urban Echo' at Fringe Festival

Singers, dancers, generations: Breaking the city's boundaries

Urban Echo: Circle Told was perhaps the most transfixing event of Philadelphia's recent Fringe Festival: a brilliant melding of two different generations of artists who share defining commitments to improvisation, as well as a spiritual connection between their creative souls and their external environments.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 24, 2008 · Articles · 8 minute read

Scrap's "Tide' at Fringe Festival

The roar of the city, the peace of the garden

Amid mirrors, trash and other lost objects of urban life strewn about Isaiah's Magic Garden, Myra Bazell's Tide reflects a world in which humans have disconnected from the natural environment. It's a treasure hunt for performers and audience alike.

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

Sep 23, 2008 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Factor T' at Fringe Festival

When a dancer asserts an idea in the program notes, and that idea is executed beautifully in performance, but the idea is not quite true, or even false –– has that artist succeeded or failed? That’s my question for Factor T, as performed by Poland’s Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre.

Factor T. Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre of Poland. Directed by Laszek Bzdyl; music by Mikolaj Trzaska. Through September 7, 2008 at Christ Church Neighbor

Steve Antinoff

Sep 13, 2008 · Articles · 5 minute read

Pink Hair Affair's "oOOoOoOo'

Pink Hair Affair’s sophomore effort at the Fringe Festival offered nine works— most of them playful, some of them breathtaking and ethereal. What the evening lacked was a unifying vision.

oOOoOoOo. Presented by Pink hair Affair through September 13, 2008 at Susan Hess Dance Studio, 2030 Sansom St. www.livearts-fringe.org/2008/details.cfm?id=5483

Jim Rutter

Sep 13, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Erica Saben's "Inside' at Fringe Festival

How can a body seem alive without moving? Through the demonic negation in her eyes, Erica Saben discloses her “Inside,” the title of her piece. This interiority has a voltage; it is charged, in her case, with psychic danger.

InFlux. Works in Progress by Mascher Space Cooperative, including “Inside,” by Erica Saben. August 29-31, 20087 at Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St. www

Steve Antinoff

Sep 08, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Live Arts Festival's "Sea of Birds'

Sebastienne Mundheim’s Sea of Birds is a remarkable collaboration of music, dance, puppetry, theater, video— and engineering, too.

Sea of Birds. Created and directed by Sebastienne Mundheim; score by James Sugg; choreographed by Kate Watson-Wallace. September 2, 2008 at Ice Box Projects Space, 1400 N. American St. www.livearts-fringe.org/2008/details.cfm?id=2882

Lesley Valdes

Sep 07, 2008 · Articles · 1 minute read

Nichole Canuso's "Wandering Alice'

Normally, I dislike performances that ask the audience to join in. With Wandering Alice, we never feel manipulated or imposed-upon. Rather, we feel liberated.

Wandering Alice. Written, directed and choreographed by Nichole Canuso with Suli Holum. Nichole Canuso Dance Company presentation through September 13, 2008 at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St. (215) 413-1318 or www.livearts-fringe.org

Steve Cohen

Sep 02, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Headlong's "Hotel Pool' in New York

Thanks to Headlong Dance Theater’s New York revival of its 2004 aqua dream play, Hotel Pool, we now have an alternative vision for the Michael Phelps Beijing pool experience, as well as, perhaps, an awareness of how the potential for sensual and pleasurable experiences can be denied amid the demands of commerce and competition.

Hotel Pool. Headlong Dance Theater presentation through August 16, 2008 at Rector Square, New York. (215) 545-1995 or

Jonathan M. Stein

Aug 19, 2008 · Articles · 3 minute read

Ballet X: Female Choreographers

For its “All Female Choreographers Project,” Ballet X commissioned new works by three women. Unfortunately, as Ballet X’s co-director Christine Cox acknowledged during the post-performance talkback, good women choreographers (other than herself) are hard to find.

All Female Choreographers Project: Still Life, by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; Numb Roads, by Christine Cox; Union, by Helen Pickett. Presented by Ballet X through July 27 at Th

Jim Rutter

Jul 26, 2008 · Articles · 7 minute read

The dancing orphans of Rwanda

The contemporary Philadelphia choreographer Rebecca Davis recently spent four weeks teaching dance steps to street orphans in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, a suffering land known mostly for its 1994 genocide. To her surprise, she discovered a passion for dance that transcends anything found among American teenagers. “These kids taught me that dance has the power to change lives even in the most difficult of circumstances,” she contends.

Rebecca Davis

Jul 20, 2008 · Articles · 6 minute read