Crossing Paths Movement Collective
Crossing Paths Movement Collective features contemporary dance by Sarah Carlson, Nick Daniels, Malcolm Shute, and Jessica Warchal-King. These artists have been curating showcases since the COVID recovery, highlighting varied styles and backgrounds, including release technique, butoh, and contact improvisation. The group seeks to rekindle enthusiasm for live dance by offering a diverse experience. Each artist's work is different, but all share a vision of excellence and collaboration.
The evening includes works by four choreographers:
Sarah Carlson will present excerpts from "ASCENT," which originally premiered at the IceHouse in 2013. Set to selections from Meredith Monk's Songs of Ascension, Carlson craftily interprets Monk's alternately tender, quirky, and haunting tone. In "Fractured," a manic trio vies for power & position, bumping up against a soloist trapped in their game. In "Convergence," a solo lurking in the shadows morphs into an interlocking group of bodies, pressed together as if by a larger force.
"Folkdances of a Nucleic Village" is a collaborative effort of the DANA Movement Ensemble creative team, led by founder/Artistic Director Nick M. Daniels. Dancers enter 5 minutes before a disaster, then explore the aftermath by transforming their movement vocabulary. Lauren McKee loses the ability to kick high, and performs sweeping movements on the floor, rolling and extending from her core. Elanore Ferrara loses the capacity to play; her work becoming gritty and grounded, with harsh, stamping feet, and flicking knees.
"Dark Adaptation" is a cosmic collaboration between choreographer Jessica Warchal-King and composer Stephen Grieco. Dance artists Cady Monasmith, Arielle Ridley and Warchal-King dive and spiral, expand and contract, reflecting movement of celestial bodies. Embodying astronomical mythology, Demeter mourns her lost daughter to Grieco's vibrational soundscape.
"Swaddling" is Shute's homage to motherhood. Philadelphia dancer Grace Stern, who will be seven months pregnant at this performance, stretches and strains against a stage-wide white fabric, moving through the pleasures and pains of giving birth. Shute's "Drive," performed by Allentown-based Sarah Carlson and Karen Fox, reflects on the fading glory of road trips before there were devices for entertainment. Carlson and Fox clamber over, roll down, and slide across the front seat of a car, representing the shared intimacy of hours spent in close proximity as miles drift by in the rearview mirror.
Crossing Paths Movement Collective takes place at IceHouse Tonight. Set in the unique, rustic space that is the historic Charles A. Brown Ice House on the banks of Bethlehem's Lehigh River, the IceHouse Tonight performing arts series presents a steady stream of diverse performances and events for every season. Now in its ninth year, the series was established to serve and share the arts of the local culture-think of your favorite artists and performers right here in the Lehigh Valley. IceHouse Tonight believes that this city is our stage, our canvas, our place to make.
Tickets are available online.