Philadelphia Fringe: Dancing with Sculpture

A young group of dancers has taken on the challenge of collaboration with a professional sculptor to create a new dance work based on light and movement for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

August 27, 2004 -- Sculpture, while inherently stationary, can create its own movement. Use of light, contrast, shadows, color and depth all interact to generate a kinetic energy and movement.

While a somewhat sophisticated concept, a group of young dancers have taken on the challenge of interpreting this kinetic energy in a new dance work entitled Illuminescence. In collaboration with local sculptor Robert Woodward, the dancers of Music & Motion draw their inspiration from a light sculpture he has created for their premiere at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

The sculpture itself is an intricate and ambitious piece consisting of seven-foot triangular columns filled with color liquid which bends and reflects light. In addition, there are metallic panels holding sandblasted glass pieces, which illuminate their own energy. A triangular center of panels on wheels moves, lending itself to inclusion in the dance.

Andrea Piovane [Philadelphia, 16 years old], one of the company dancers, was given the task of choreographing the opening number with Woodwards sculpture. At first I was not really sure how to incorporate a sculpture into dance, and then I realized that sculptors have been capturing the human form since the beginning of time. Even more interesting was the fact as dancers; we could also mimic sculpture, literally creating new elements and structures with our own bodies. Blending those two key elements in the dance is what became the challenge.

A challenge it seems that this young group of performers has embraced. By bringing sculpture into the dance work, the group has offered themselves the opportunity not only to express their own creativity and retrospect, but also to expand a whole new vision of artistic display. In capturing the spirit of the sculpture, they have created their own unique medium in the visual arts world.

Artist-sculptor-painter,Robert Woodward is also known as Peanutbutter. He and his eponymous troupe of artists have decorated faces all over the world. He was an Artist-in-Residence as a Cultural Ambassador to Syria for the U.S. Embassy. He has performed face and body painting in Bali, Tokyo, Brazil, India, Puerto Rico, and France, as well as nationally at venues like the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC and Universal Studios in Los Angeles. A featured guest on Martha Stewart's television program, this recipient of a Philadelphia 1% for Art Commission, has exhibited his sculpture at the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. His paintings and photographs were featured in a major exhibit at the Kavehaz Gallery in SoHo. This valedictorian, hand-ball aficionado, francophile, costume designer and sui generis bon vivant uses materials in innovative ways to render the visual arts as a free-wheeling, physical sensation.

You can catch the Music & Motion Production of Illuminescence on September 7th, 8th and 14th at the International House, 3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $15 with a discount for students and seniors. For tickets and information about the Philadelphia Fringe Festival call 215-413-1318 or visit their web site at www.pafringe.org To learn more about Music & Motion Dance Productions and their upcoming performance, go to www.music-and-motion.com