A special message from our partner, FringeArts:
By: Claire Shoyer
Photo credit: Ian Douglas
The 2018 Fringe Festival is in full swing! With 180+ curated and independent shows across 17 days and 8 neighborhoods of Philadelphia, it’s the perfect time to join in this celebration of contemporary performance. Here are 3 don’t-miss performances happening this weekend:
Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other works by John Bernd
Until his death from AIDS in 1988, multidisciplinary choreographer John Bernd stood at the forefront of New York’s experimental dance scene. Bernd’s onetime friend and collaborator Ishmael Houston-Jones and choreographer Miguel Gutierrez have mashed up Bernd’s work into a wholly new piece which explores the question: What would contemporary dance be like if the gay/dance communities hadn’t lost a whole generation of creators to the epidemic?
Variations on Themes is accompanied by a visual exhibit in the Christ Church Neighborhood
house lobby focusing on the AIDS crisis in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia chapter of ACT UP,
and local initiatives like Shut Up and Dance.
Sept 14 at 8pm, Sept 15 at 8pm, Sept 16 at 2pm
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American Street
Caen Amour
Choreographer Trajal Harrell uses the origins of modern dance to create an entirely new performance piece informed by the ritualized moves of dance-floor voguing and the Japanese dance-theater tradition of butoh.
Led by a cast of (mostly) male dancers performing as women, Caen Amour explores the line between artistic and erotic dance of the past, and imagines how erotic dancing of previous eras would look like today, exoticism and spectacle remaining intact.
Sept 13-14 at 7pm and 9pm, Sept 15 at 5pm and 7pm
FringeArts
140 N. Columbus Boulevard
The undergird
Choreographer Meg Foley’s seven-year development of improvisational performance practice culminates in a viscerally affecting new work about death and grief as bodily experiences. The undergird is a rhythmic and persistent celebration of where memory and imagination live inside the body and how they are remade real through moving ritual. The performance builds an intimate, highly physical space that undoes our understanding of time and loss and proposes that together we can bear almost anything.
Sept 13 at 8 pm, Sept 14 at 6 pm, Sept 14 at 9 pm, Sept 15 at 3:30 pm, Sept 15 at 6 pm, Sept 16 at 3:30 pm
Icebox Project Space
1400 N. American Street
If you need another reason to join in the fun, all Festival shows with prices higher than $10 will be offering student discounts! You can download the FringeArts app (available on the App Store and Google Play) to build your Festival schedule, see a map of all the performance venues, and take a look at our recommended partners. The Fringe Festival is an incredible opportunity to engage with Philadelphia’s performing arts scene, with such a wide range of financially and geographically accessible performances across the city and online! See the full line-up of shows here.
