FringeArts 2018 and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival was on the forefront of contemporary performances in Philadelphia. Bridging theater and dance became a driving force to the emergence of style, genre, and fashion in volumes of visual storytelling. The stage, made it an acceptable place of diversity drawn from the art and culture from around the world.
Séance
Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Fringearts
Tania El Khoury
Gardens Speak
How much do we know about the ongoing massacres of the civil war in Syria? How much do we comprehend about the tragedies of more than five million refugees and innumerable martyrs – or “shuhada” – in this blood-fueled fight?
In “Gardens Speak,” Tania El Khoury takes a different approach to intervention, setting aside graphic visuals we may encounter in the media. The installation is an auditory and sensory encounter with tragedy in its rawest form. El Khoury rejects the traditional channels that have failed to speak for Syrian communities. Instead, she hands over the narrative to the voices beneath the ground – to those who took their stories to the grave.
An investigation of performing artists during 2018, in theater and dance illuminated the arts. For instance, NextMove Dance a series at The Prince Theater welcomed press for Phindie author, Chuck Schultz to sketch throughout that year. Then, in 2021, I designed a visual review of Dorrance Dance at Penn Arts Live. Ella’quent Holiday Swing.
NextMove Dance
The influence of Dance by this time tied in many themes, and different lands in a continuation of diverse performance styles.
October 2017
Hervé Koubi
Blend of Arabic and French dance influences explored aerobatic and street performing styles. The Algerian choreographer explains an autoethnogaphic search into his family history
December 2017
Ronald K Brown/ Evidence
Hip-hop, African and Caribbean movement philosophies in the spirit of high energy and gospel spirituals.
Hervé Koubi, What The Day Owes To The Night, 2017.
When NextMove Dance introduced the choreographers of difference dance companies it left an impression on the way we think about dance. Beginning with where, and how they found their form in dance raised its own intrigue.
EgoPo Classic Theater
An emphasis on learning new forms, and languages with drawing observational sketches. The research showed depth into the programs presented. During this time, from 2016-2018 I was a liberal arts student at the University of Pennsylvania.
The creative community felt welcoming to my curiosity as an artist. I was interested in the collective work of theaters, dancers, and the distribution of programs across the city. In this context, EgoPo Classic Theater season long partnership with Cape town, South Africa brought an interesting theme to politics in the US. The company, Abrahamse & Meyer’s adaptation of Eugene Oneill’s Desire Under The Elm was in response to the results of the 2016 US Election, and they compared it to the end of Apartheid in South Africa 1994.
There is simplicity in a familiarity of themes which expand on our world through understanding troubling subject matter. Audiences of some of Philadelphia’s arts organizations put together a field of art and culture to helped their audiences to read this difficult material.
A Human Being Died That Night by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, adaptation by Nicholas Wright, directed by Steven Wright.
Censored: “Master Harold”…and the Boys by Athol Fugard, directed by Lane Savadove