January 15, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
Visceral, sensuous Philadanco, the Philadelphia Dance Company, to perform at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Philadanco
- Exuberant dance company now in its fourth decade
- Joan Myers Brown, Artistic Director and Founder
- Saturday, February 23 / 8 pm
- Sunday, February 24 / 7 pm
- UCSB Campbell Hall
- General: $25/$22, UCSB students: $19/$16
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Praised by Dance Magazine for having “built its reputation on the ability to do everything,” Philadanco (The Philadelphia Dance Company) will perform on Saturday, February 23 at 8 pm and Sunday, February 24 at 7 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. For over thirty years, this predominantly African American company has presented a varied array of work by Black choreographers with unparalleled energy and superior technical skill. The troupe has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, collaborating with many esteemed organizations and celebrities including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Lou Rawls and Teddy Pendergrass. According to The New York Times, Philandanco has become “a venerable institution that has not lost its youthful verve or the freshness of its strong technical grounding.”
Highlights of the company’s program will be “My Science” and “Hand Singing Song,” two dances from Messages from the Heart, an evening length presentation that integrates modern dance and folk traditions in order to explore issues of class, gender, race and spirit. Choreographer Bebe Miller created “My Science” expressly for Philadanco. The piece examines how the imagination and science act as catalysts for each other. Inspired by the biography of physicist Richard Feynman, the funky, unpredictable choreography explores kinetics to music by La Voix Bulgare and Led Zeppelin. Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (whose troupe Urban Bush Women appeared at UCSB Campbell Hall on February 5 & 6) created “Hand Singing Song,” a dance that begins with the “dap,” the hand-to-fist greeting the Black Panther Movement used to express solidarity, and delves into how hand gestures are imbued with cultural symbolism, specifically for African Americans.
Other pieces on the program are “Labess II” and “Exotica.” “Labess” is a Tunisian expression meaning, “It’s all right...I’m okay,” and the dance is drawn from a joyous place of self-acceptance. It is set to captivating music by Zap Mama, the acclaimed Afro-Euro a cappella women’s vocal ensemble. “Exotica,” choreographed by Ronald K. Brown, is an excerpt from the full evening work Lessons. This eclectic dance features thrilling sections of gospel and drum-powered African-inflected movement.
The company’s founder and artistic director, Joan Myers Brown, recently received the Dance Women/Living Legends award from New York area presenters. In 1988 she organized the first historic International Conference on Black Dance Companies at which more than 78 representatives from around the world participated; ten years later the conference had grown to attract more than 400 attendees. In addition to her work as visionary and leader for Philadanco, Brown is a distinguished visiting professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a member of the dance faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Brown was appointed to the choreographers’ panel of the Rockefeller Foundation Arts & Humanities Program and was a facilitator of the Smithsonian Institute’s Conference on Black Dance.
Members of the company will teach a dance class on Sunday, February 24 from 1:30–3:30 pm at the Carrillo Recreation Center. This class, sponsored by the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance, costs $15 for dancers, and $5 for observers. To register phone 966-6950.
Members of Philadanco will hold a Meet-the-Artists discussion after both performances. Arts & Lectures previously presented Philadanco on February 16 & 17, 1999. These 2002 performances are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by KEYT News Radio 1250. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency. It is also funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Tickets are $25 and $22 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.