Spending the Summer Preparing for the Philly Fringe
Once again the heat index is in the nineties in Philadelphia. Armed with huge buckets of Gatorade, water, ice and a few portable fans, a group of twelve youth dancers prepare for what is to be one of many rehearsals held each week throughout the summer. The cast of Music & Motion Dance is preparing to showcase their talents in September at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe.
(PRWEB) August 7, 2006 -- Once again the heat index is in the nineties in Philadelphia. Armed with huge buckets of Gatorade, water, ice and a few portable fans, a group of twelve youth dancers prepare for what is to be one of many rehearsals held each week throughout the summer. The cast of Music & Motion Dance is preparing to showcase their talents in September at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe.
This will be the third year that this group has participated in the Philly Fringe. They are amongst the youngest of the performance groups, with ages ranging from sixteen to nineteen years old. The teens are from a community of over four regional counties, Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia, often traveling up to an hour on the road each way to attend rehearsals. They come together from various backgrounds out of a love of dance and a desire to express themselves through performance. Together, with the assistance of Artistic Director Steven Weisz, they have formed this non-profit company and contributed in every aspect of its operation - from marketing to production and from dance concept to choreography.
Their weekly rehearsals in rented dance studios throughout the region consist of loosely structured "movement play" sessions. They review music, discuss ideas about what the music means and the feelings it conveys to them. They then begin to introduce random movements, interpreting what they hear and feel. Eventually, these snippets are then pieced together and worked through by the entire group until a piece evolves.
This process is very different from traditional development of a dance piece, which is usually the vision of a single choreographer who then imparts his/her vision to the dancers for execution. The dancers of Music & Motion take great pride in what they have created together as a group. As one of their senior dancers, Noelle Tolbert stated, "we may not always be technically perfect, but we know as a group that we have created something special when we complete a dance piece. It is not any one person's piece but ours ... and that means so much more."
Known for visually arresting creations, their new dance work, To A Different Beat, will premier at the Philly Fringe on Saturday, September 16th. This new work explores a cultural fusion of expressive rhythm and dance set to modern global music. Blending individual creativity, these youth dancers entice with their own rhythms of the heart, intense imagery, boldness and pure energy.
Consisting of seventeen new pieces, this is by far the most challenging program the group has undertaken to date. The music itself, which is predominantly from the Asian and African continents, has been infused with electronica and sophisticated rhythms, which pose unique challenges to choreography. The intricate and continually changing rhythms make the pieces both interesting and challenging.
With Fringe soon approaching, one of the newest cast members, Alex Rauch, expresses her excitement - "Since this is my first time at Fringe I am really excited to see how it all comes together. I feel it is a privilege to be apart of Fringe and I'm am really looking forward to dancing in the shows!"
Catch Music & Motion Dance on September 16th at the Philadelphia Cathedral, 3723 Chestnut Street. There will be three performances at 2:00PM, 4:00PM, and 7:30PM. Advanced tickets may be purchased on line at www.music-and-motion.com or by calling 610-394-9182.
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See the original story at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/08/prweb420815.htm
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