Event Description
Drexel Dance Ensemble and FreshDance present:
Dance Film Concert
a film screening of nine unique and inventive dance works. The choreographers include Philadelphia dance artists, Drexel Faculty and two alumni, with films created by internationally- known video artists.
The collection of films will be available for online viewing on the Department of Performing Arts website after June 3. The films will premiere on Drexel University’s campus during the outdoor spring performance, “Sites of Dance” on June 3-6, 2021 at 8:30pm ET (performance begins at 6:30pm ET). Tickets will be available here soon. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Drexel Dance Ensemble and FreshDance companies transitioned to create work through film as performances in the Mandell Theater were no longer possible. The priority remained to make compelling dance to keep dancers dancing and artists creating. With a collective of 87 dancers, artists, and production and administrative staff spread across the country, choreographers and dancers created works through a two-dimensional lens over Zoom, a challenging task for any dance artist who is used to a physical practice and making dances with bodies in spaces.
Dance Film Concert includes works choreographed by Albert Quesada, Ali Willingham, Drexel dance faculty Miriam Giguere, Valerie Ifill, Caroline O’Brien, and Sandra Parks, and company alumni Alexandra Lodise and Kathryn Schweingruber, who remounted previously staged works from 2019 for the screen. Also featured is choreographer Gabrielle Revlock, 2020 Ellen Forman Memorial Award winner. The Ellen Forman Memorial Award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Foundation.
Each choreographer collaborated with one of three film artists—Jorge Cousineau, Tori Lawrence, and Brittany Fishel—to explore the possibilities among the limitations and bring together their artistic visions. |
