Question 1

Switchback Swan Song : Saskia Globig

Accepted Answer

This is a series of rebounds: coming together and apart and pushing to support, in play, anger, and affection. Witnessing and feeling seen are magnified through mediation. Watch what happens when the up-close and intimate gets big.

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Saskia Globig and Michael Ipsen perform together for live audiences and for film. They have collaborated on installations, publication design, and curation for projects at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Icebox, AUTOMAT Gallery, and HOT BED Micro Gallery in Philadelphia, as well as at Artspace New Haven. Globig has learned movement from Peggy Peloquin, Leslie Partridge-Sachs, Kathy Wildberger, and members of the Graham and Batsheva dance companies. In Philadelphia, she was in residence at Headlong Performance Institute in 2019 and has taught and performed at MAAS, Fidget Space, the Bok Building, and the Washington Avenue Pier. She continues to explore a multidisciplinary practice of site-specific movement, video, and print design as an MFA candidate at the Yale School of Art. Ipsen’s background is in theater and documentary filmmaking. He has performed at the Glove in Brooklyn and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and currently works as a photographer at the Yale Center for British Art. Together, their work plays at the crossroads of poetry, sensory experience, and broadcast media.

Full Credits:
Saskia Globig, choreographer, dancer, videographer, and video editor
Michael Ipsen, dancer and videographer
Kevin Frech of Logical Chaos, external videographer

Question 2

The Road is Long : Ella-Gabe Mason

Accepted Answer

The Road is Long:
Six dancers explore the slipperiness of connection, to themselves and to each other, shifting and snapping between locations.

The Road is Long 
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Ella-Gabe Mason:
An artmaker, educator and bodyworker, they combine rigorous academic research with lived experience, words with dance, brain with body, living in the tension between ways of knowing and methods of being. They have been granted residencies in Pittsburgh at Future Tenant and Pearlarts Studios and in Connecticut at the Dragon’s Egg. Their work has been presented in Pittsburgh at the New Hazlett Theater, Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, and Carnegie Stage; in NYC at WOW! Cafe Theater, BAAD!, and wild project; in Philadelphia at vox populi and the Cannonball Festival. Mason has received grants from the Heinz Endowments, PA Council on the Arts, and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. As an MFA candidate at Temple University they received the competitive Thesis Completion Grant, the Vice Provost Student Research & Creativity Grant, the Dance Department Film Award, and the Sarah Hilsendager Innovation in Dance Education Award. Mason is currently an instructor at Temple University where they teach composition, improvisation, dance science and somatics, and research methods. In addition to their work as a creator and performer, Mason is a licensed massage therapist specializing in myofascial and trauma-sensitive bodywork.

Full Credits:
Ella-Gabriel Mason - Director, Choreographer, Assistant Editing 
Nathaniel Lamont Gibson - Assistant Director, Editor, Sound Design, Camera 
Eva Steinmetz - Assistant Director, Camera, Drone
Abby Waters - Camera 
Babe Baldonado - Performer 
Yuying Chen - Performer
Connor Cook - Performer
Malcolm Ellis - Performer
Emma Sue Ewing - Performer
Curtis Whitmire - Performer

Question 3

And Eat It Too (I always do the dishes right on time) : Julia Bryck, Kayla Bobalek, & Maddie Hopfield

Accepted Answer

And Eat It Too (I always do the dishes right on time):
The last time Bobalek, Bryck, and Hopfield were all in the studio together was in February 2020. They throught their rehearsals would be on pause for a couple of week. Instead, they grieved and waited. When they finally returned to the studio in August, it was like being let our for recess. They arrived with costumes and makeup, and just played. Seriously, collaboratively, continuously. And eat it too (I always do the dishes right on time) shares their joy in movement and togetherness.

And Eat It Too (I always do the dishes right on time)
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Full Credits:
Kayla Bobalek
Julia Bryck
Maddie Hopfield

Kayla Bobalek, Julia Bryck, and Maddie Hopfield met in 2013 while studying dance at Bard College. They have collaborated on and off for many years, performing work in Philadelphia and New York. Kayla Bobalek graduated from Bard College in 2017 with a degree in Dance Composition. Post- college she moved to Philadelphia where she has held numerous positions including: barista, Teaching Artist in a Philadelphia public school, After School Director with After School Philly, and currently, Assistant Director of Urban Movement Arts. She has performed with Vince Johnson’s project Philly Kerplop, as well as co- choreographed and performed in 2 duets with Maddie Hopfield via a residency at Urban Movement Arts and as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2019. Maddie Hopfield is a New York City-based dancer, performer, and taiko drummer. She has collaborated with Kayla Bobalek and Julia Bryck, and makes work with Marin Day under the name PEPTALK. She has performed with Barnett Cohen, Amelia Heintzelman, Paris Cullen & Sarah Zucchero, Lindsey Jennings, Maya Lee-Parritz, Amalia Colón-Nava, Leah Stein Dance Company, Philly Kerplop (Vince Johnson), Jillian Jeatton, Amalia Raye Wiatr Lewis, Lily Kind, Lillian Ransijn, and Concept Kinetics ("Cricket" / James Colter). Julia Bryck (she/her) is a performer, dancetheater maker, dramaturge, and chronic sentimentalist. After graduating from Bard College, she returned to Philadelphia in 2018 to attend Headlong Performance Institute and has lived in south philly ever since. Julia was one of the 2021-2022 GWYN (Get What You Need) performance support residency artists and is currently an artist in residence at Mascher Space Cooperative.

Question 4

Office Best Practices  : Rose Luardo and Emmett Wilson

Accepted Answer

Office Best Practices:
The hinges are off the office the door. The ham is on the face. The donut has been dipped in the coffee, and the dildo dipped in the donut. Somewhere between a dance video and an industrial film, Office Best Practices is a work out, and an absurd study of deviant work-craft.

Office Best Practices
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Circuitous Situationship was born when the inimitable performer, Crackhead Barney, thought Emmett was Rose’s husband at a show in which Rose shared her persona, Shelly Nut, and Emmett shared their persona, Yung&Bizzy. The two mingle their multitudes in this project for fun, for freaks, for family, forever.

Full Credits:
Rose Luardo, director/performer + Emmett 
Wilson, choreographer/performer
Dancers:
Kim Barbetta
Desire Dabice
Camera:
Dan Angelucci
Geoffrey Nichols
Music:
Wolfgang Hanulec

Question 5

S'kin to SKIN : Meredith Rainey

Accepted Answer

"S'KIN to SKIN" was conceived of as a video response/continuation of S'KIN a site-specific work that premiered In Kent, CT at the Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts. In S'KIN I/we were playing with the idea of brothers of different races being family and how they need or don't need each other. In S'kin to SKIN we wanted to take some of the movement vocabulary, motifs and intention and put them outside - figuratively and literally.

S'kin to SKIN 
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Meredith Rainey began dancing at 15 in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale. In 1985, he became the first African American dancer of the Milwaukee Ballet. In 1987, he joined the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet, when the collaboration ended, he remained with the Pennsylvania Ballet for 17 years—much of that time as a soloist—until his retirement in 2006. Rainey has been the recipient of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship (1995 & 2002), Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist as Catalyst Grant (2001), Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts (2002), a finalist for the Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2003), and a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage Grant (2010). He has been commissioned by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, BalletX, Delaware Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, National Ballet De Cali, Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble, and The University of the Arts, Drexel University, Stockton University, Georgian Court University, Goucher College, Swarthmore College, and Bryn Mawr College. In 2009, Rainey founded and directed Carbon Dance Theatre, a contemporary ballet company in Philadelphia. In 2014 he closed the company and now remains a sought-after independent choreographer, teacher, and mentor. In the fall of 2019, Rainey graduated with top honors as a member of the first cohort of candidates for the Master of Fine Arts in Dance from The University of the Arts.

Full Credits:
Alexander Diaz - cinematographer/editor
Daniel Moore - dancer
Jesse Obremski - dancer

Question 6

Switch Signal : Propelled Animals

Accepted Answer

Commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater, SWITCH SIGNAL is a site-responsive film rooted in the technologies of imagination and mindfulness taught by Pittsburgh’s beloved Mister Rogers. The film was shot on location at Kelly Strayhorn Theater and throughout Pittsburgh with moments in The Hill District and at Carrie Furnace in June 2021.  Conjuring the absent presence of community during the global pandemic, this work is about listening and includes movement, marches, choreographies, music, and rites as a love letter to Pittsburgh.  Through performance we simultaneously mourn what we lose in our quest for growth, while embodying hope for the future. The viewer travels with us through city streets and Frick Park where we honor the earth by laboring with her. In the end, the camera rests on candles memorializing the Jewish lives lost at the Tree of Life synagogue. We pay our respects to Pittsburgh by heeding Mister Roger’s call for us to slow down and direct our attention.  This project is made possible with support from The MAP Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Performance Network’s Artist Engagement Fund, and the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.

SWITCH SIGNAL
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Propelled Animals are: Esther Baker-Tarpaga (Philadelphia), Barber (Chicago), Heidi Wiren Bartlett (Pittsburgh), Raquel Monroe (Austin), Doc Courtney Jones (Boca Raton), Papa Djiga (Ouagadougou). Founded in 2014, Propelled Animals is a group of artists, dancers, scholars, musicians, and designers who embed innovative and provocative art in unconventional spaces. We are committed to creating work that interrogates, challenges, and ultimately attempts to dismantle the systemic "isms" of oppression. We adapt our projects and processes to address the specific needs of the communities we engage. Our performances encourage efficacy of the body, resilience, and radical tenderness as strategies for self-empowerment.   Our work is centered on art as social action and ritual as performance.  The Propelled Animals have presented work nationally and internationally including site-specific performances at: University of Iowa and Englert Theater (Iowa City, IA);

Full Credits:
PROPELLED ANIMALS 
Performers:
Barber  Esther Baker-Tarpaga 
Heidi Wiren 
Bartlett Courtney 
“Doc” Jones 
Raquel Monroe

Editors:
Barber Heidi 
Wiren Bartlett

Shooting:
Trey Duplain
Stefano Ceccarelli

Sound Recordist: Ricardo iamuuri Robinson

Sound Engineer: Cody Walat

Light Design: Scott Weston

This project was made possible by generous support from Kelly Strayhorn Theater, MAP Fund Grant, NPN Artist Engagement Fund, NPN Storytelling Fund, Rivers of Steel Frick Park Hill District Community, Headlong Dance Theater

April 21st

FILM WORKS

suggested donation: $5 - $50
pay at door : cash or Paypal - no one turned away for lack of funds.

Accessibility:

Please wear a mask!

The Art Room Studio is in a building with a 4-step stoop.

The basement is down 3 small flights of stairs with a total of 20 steps.

There is no elevator.

There is a single stall gender neutral bathroom in the basement of the building.

If you are taking public transportation, the studio is close to the 57 bus route, and about a 20 minute walk from the BSL Snyder stop.

April 21st

May 11th

May 18th

April 21st

FILM WORKS

suggested donation: $5 - $50 pay at door : cash or Paypal - no one turned away for lack of funds.

Accessibility:

Please wear a mask!

The Art Room Studio is in a building with a 4-step stoop.

The basement is down 3 small flights of stairs with a total of 20 steps.

There is no elevator.

There is a single stall gender neutral bathroom in the basement of the building.

If you are taking public transportation, the studio is close to the 57 bus route, and about a 20 minute walk from the BSL Snyder stop.

April 21st

May 11th

May 18th

suggested donation: $5 - $50
pay at door : cash or Paypal - no one turned away for lack of funds.