Dance in Sketch: Koresh Artists’ Showcase November Series

I had the chance to see Koresh Artists’ Showcase: November Series with Annielille Gavino Kollmon. There were many kinds of performances and one after another dancers shared their art with us. Koresh Artists’ Showcase happens once every season and speaking to a father of one of the dancers made me appreciate this event. This is a great place for them to experiment or share their work-in-progress.

The scene alternates every 10-15 minutes, and for each act I had to learn new faces and new personalities. There was enough time for each dancer to make an impression, and I sketched their movement. Interpreting dance requires us to place the body in a wholly linguistic act. Drawing dance is a challenge. It is difficult to capture gesture, for example, because it is always changing. Modern dance provides a new means to an abstracted form of story telling. Each performance left me with a different feeling: bizarre, savage, sweet and tender, sensual, and empowering.

ersatzliodiacapopStarting with the strange Ersatzliodiacapop, by Frabley/Kanslite, was an animated wilderness. (Choreography by Avi Wolf Borouchoff; performers: Avi Wold Borouchoff, Brianna Borouchoff, Lucas Mikan, Tyra Byra; music: Adir Adirim, Balkan Beat Box.)

splintered_truth

Splintered Truth choreographed by Adrianna Poindexter, who came all the way from Detroit, shows us another dance that transforms space by using the human body. There were solo artists that did well to show all kinds of dance. The intimacy of dance where two dancers work with one another is reflexive. With others the lighting and movement acted together to create an atmosphere that was thoughtful and sensitive to the music by Jon Hopkins.

prisoners_cinemaI felt the dancers were trapped as I watched the Prisoner’s Cinema, by IIIsquared performed with a large group of dancers (Stephanie Bernal, Sydney Donovan, Brandon Graf, Vanessa Erin Gross, Moises Josue Michel, Rose Prendergast. Music byThe Growing/ The Haxan Cloak.)

madreAnnielille Gavino Kollman performed Madre with three other female dancers where a child comes out of the darkness, her spirit in another realm is calling for her mother, and she is born when her spirit reaches this world. A reworking of a layered theme in the realm of motherhood, it highlighted the surreal nature of the entire event as if it were epic theater.

Madre is performed with Keila Perez-Vega and Evaline Carbonell who at one point lay on the ground as a child rolls on top of them. This fluid action is a birthing scene and leads to a rhythmic dance to show the strength of women.

tsop

Take It Away Dance by TSOP was choreographed by Pamela Hetherington with performers Rosie Marinelli, Robin Passmore, and Pamela Hetherington.

Together, the collective of artists at the Koresh Artists’ Showcase gives the art community something to discuss and enjoy. Be it tap dance or solo flute, it is on the same level as Curtis’s free recitals and is worth checking out in Rittenhouse.

 

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