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Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

Event Slides Per Node 1415

  • A group of dancers features some standing bent at the waist and on their left legs with their arms and right legs extended straight back, while other dancers in the background stand tall while they look to the back of the stage.
  • A dancer does a back flip while another looks on from a kneeling position.
  • Six dancers wearing baggy pants and tank tops or plaid button-down shirts jump with both feet into a slanted position while they hold their arms up bent at the elbow.
  • A dancer leaps with legs extended in opposite directions and arms up and hands clenched in a fist.
  • Six dancers, three men in pantsuits and women in miniskirted dresses, jump up with their legs straight and feet pointed down in an inverted V while they extend their arms straight down.

Straight Outta Philly
featuring Rennie Harris Puremovement and Philadanco!

7:30 pm Friday, October 27, 2017

Two of Philadelphia’s most spectacular movement companies come together to communicate social and political ideas through hip-hop and contemporary dance in Straight Outta Philly.

“The evening had a wonderful flow,” writes a reviewer for The Philadelphia Tribune, “alternating between the hardcore, mind-blowing pace of the street dancers, to the controlled emotion and dynamic precision of the contemporary artists … . For the shared experience of the pure joy of dance, it doesn’t get any better than Philadanco and Rennie Harris Puremovement.”

Nuttin’ But a Word!!!, choreographed by Harris and performed by his company, takes its title from an African-American expression about someone’s words being hollow.

A Movement for Five, choreographed by Dawn Marie Bazemore and performed by Philadanco, was inspired by the case of five New York City boys wrongly accused of a serious crime.

A Day in the Life, created by Harris and performed by two male dancers, is excerpted from a suite of works suggested by the choreographer’s “personal abuse and my current and past state of consciousness politically, socially, and economically.”

Folded Prism, choreographed by Thang Dao, finds Philadanco evoking “a dreamlike state where the dancers seemed to move as flawless, pristine bodies,” observes a critic for The Dance Journal.

The companies unite for the finale, Philadelphia Experiment, choreographed by Harris and danced before a backdrop of images reflecting the history and energy of the City of Brotherly Love.

Philadelphia Experiment offered both a celebration of Philadelphia’s culture and a defiant stand against its social shortcomings,” notes the Journal writer. “… With the supremely talented, highly trained contemporary dancers out of their theatrical garb and dancing side-by-side with RHPM’s hip-hop dancers, it was impossible not to compare and contrast,” writes the Tribune critic. “While the street dancers danced ‘down in the floor’ with total abandon, the contemporary dancers instinctively ‘pulled up’ and made it look pretty. It was an interesting juxtaposition, and watching them ‘battle’ was absolutely thrilling.”

After the performance, the artists will participate in a conversation with audience members.

Adult $38
University Park Student $15
18 and Younger $28

All In

sponsors
Rich and Sally Kalin

This presentation is part of the Center for the Performing Arts Diversity and Inclusion Collaborative, which seeks to: immerse an array of people in the performing arts; educate the community about cultures and art forms different from the familiar; influence thinking so we become a community that embraces diversity and promotes inclusion; ensure the activities of the collaborative have a sustainable impact on the community. Funds from across Penn State and throughout the community support the initiative. The University’s Equal Opportunity Planning Committee provides lead funding. Sandra Zaremba and Richard Brown provide support.

 

Secondary Events on Each Event

A Movement for Five:
Dialogue with Choreographer Dawn Marie Bazemore

12:00 pm Friday, October 27, 2017

Arts and Design Research Incubator
Borland Building ground floor

Free and open to the public

Hear choreographer and former Philadanco dancer Dawn Marie Bazemore in conversation with Kikora Franklin, associate professor of dance at Penn State. Bazemore created A Movement for Five for Philadanco in 2015. She will discuss the subject of the work—the case of the Central Park Five—and her connections to it. She will also describe the development of the dance and the reasons why socio-political art is vital to the community. Feel free to bring a lunch. Dessert and bottled water will be provided.

A Philadelphia-based performer, choreographer, and dance educator, Bazemore is assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rowan University. She has been a master lecturer/artist in residence at The University of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of North Carolina School for the Arts. After being a member of Philadanco from 1998–2009, Bazemore performed featured roles in Broadway and regional productions of the first national tour of The Color Purple, Dreamgirls, and All Shook Up. In 2001, she performed Strange Fruit, choreographed by Pearl Primus, for the Emmy Award-winning American Dance Festival documentary Dancing in the Light. That performance is on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Bazemore has created work for Philadanco and Grace Dance Theater, and has presented solo work at the American Dance Festival. After the premiere of her ballet A Movement for Five, she wrote an essay documenting her experience. It was later published in the online journal The Dancer-Citizen. A native of Brooklyn, Bazemore trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballet Academy East, and Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn. She earned a bachelor of fine arts from the State University of New York at Purchase and a master of fine arts from Hollins University. She was a finalist in the 1994 ARTS Recognition and Talent Search, and is a recipient of the Bonnie Pfeifer Evans Educational Scholarship and Helen Tamiris Award for Excellence in Dance.

This presentation is part of the Center for the Performing Arts Diversity and Inclusion Collaborative, which seeks to: immerse an array of people in the performing arts; educate the community about cultures and art forms different from the familiar; influence thinking so we become a community that embraces diversity and promotes inclusion; ensure the activities of the collaborative have a sustainable impact on the community. Funds from across Penn State and throughout the community support the initiative. The University’s Equal Opportunity Planning Committee provides lead funding. Sandra Zaremba and Richard Brown provide support.

Artistic Viewpoints

6:30 pm Friday, October 27, 2017

Eisenhower Auditorium

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring Joan Myers Brown, founder of Philadanco, and Rodney Hill, company manager of Rennie Harris Puremovent, is offered one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity, so seating is available on a first-arrival basis.

Audio Description

Audio Description logo

Audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available for this performance at no extra charge to ticket holders. Reservations are required at least two weeks in advance of the performance. Phone 814-863-0255 to reserve this service.