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photo by Chris Otto

"Disarray"

photo by Matthew Wright

"Disarray" is a poetic foray into chaos theory. I've beent thinking about chaos in regards to society – how we as humans evolve, have evolved, how we’ve developed our civilizations. Patterns, form, conform. Where’s the chaos? In the rebellion, the intuition, the radical thinkers, the expressers, the artists??? And what about the chaos due to the sheer mass of us? Is 'pattern' about organizing? How do we organize for what we want? Or what we don’t want, like a war in Iraq?

What is it about pattern that is so attractive to some? Why are others more comfortable in chaos?



photo by Matthew Wright

Kristin Hapke/tindance from New York city will be opening our show. She will be presenting "Cinder," an evocative solo that charts memory through a surreal landscape. Kristin's work investigates the dynamic performance potential of the body within the genres of dance theater, visceral physicality and improvisation. Hapke’s work has been produced in New York at The Joyce Soho, Dancespace, Dance New Amsterdam and Movement Research; in Seattle at On the Boards and Velocity’s Mainstage; in Portland and Eugene, OR, as well as internationally in Vancouver, Amsterdam and Poland.

Kristin rocks – you'll be happy you caught her.


photo by Steve Scheider

The Ring Crew

photos by Matthew Wright

Ring Dance Theater
In this new project, "Disarray", I am working with these three lovely ladies: Erin Foreman-Murray, Lindsay Browning and Karin Bookbinder. They are immensely talented and quite patient with my exploratory process.

The performance takes place September 5th & 6th, 2007 at 6:00pm. We are performing at Tower Gallery in Northern Liberties,
969 N. 2nd Street, just north of Standard Tap.

Joining us for the concert is NYC artist, Kristin Hapke. She'll be performing a solo entitled "Cinder."

photo by Matthew Wright


Time-based art
bodies moving moments around in space
practicing presence
being present
for the beautiful-ugly-weird-poignant-ridiculous-joyous
whims of the choreographer
who sees this madness?

I’ve been trying to deepen my practice of ‘being present’ lately, mostly through meditation. This seems to be bleeding over into how I think about dance-making. I’m trying to follow a very intuitive, instinctual process, listening to the body, allowing physical impulses to guide me. I'm turning away from my previous work which was content driven, narratively oriented, and am begining to think of myself as a formalist. Not completely sure about that, but that's what I think today.

In this over stimulated, highly mediated culture, I like to think that I (and choreographers as a whole) am reminding viewers to be in their bodies, to move it, to investigate the mind-body connection. I know this is entirely too hopeful and a little naive, but I hold onto the idea none the less.

Michelle Stortz/Ring Dance Theater

photo by Wolfgang Bellwinkel

I've just created this performance company, Ring Dance Theater. I'm using the word 'ring' because I like the image of the circle especially when it applies to a group of people coming together for a common purpose like making dance and theater art. Ring also refers to sound and sound waves rippling out into the world. I like to think that what we create in the studio and on the stage sends out positive, inspirational, groovy, thought-provoking, sexy and robust ripples into the cosmos.

Our premier performance, 'Dissaray', will be in this year's Philly Fringe. We'll be at the Tower Gallery in Northern Liberties, on September 5th and 6th, 6pm. Dancers include: Karin Bookbinder, Lindsay Browning and Erin Foreman-Murray. We're sharing the bill with NYC's Tindance, directed by Kristin Hapke. More info soon.