New Work by Gabrielle Revlock to Premiere at Annenberg Center, 1/24-25

A dynamic series of interwoven duets represents the first evening-length work by this Philly native. January 24-25, 2014, 8pm. Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 3680 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Selecting a dance partner is an important decision. Philadelphia dancer-choreographer Gabrielle Revlock has chosen nearly a dozen of them for her new work, Confetti, which makes its world premiere at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on January 24th and 25th. The piece is an exploration of "two-ness", in which Revlock brings her quirky, gestural style of contemporary dance to a collection of overlapping duets with a dizzying array of partners.

"I wanted to do this piece because I have all these dance crushes," Revlock says. "I love having just one other person in the studio to focus on, and noticing how they change me. I also wanted to challenge myself to dance with everyone in a single performance- it's like a danced obstacle course."

Her collaborators range in age, style, and background. One, Mark McCloughan, is an actor currently performing in Pig Iron Theatre's Twelfth Night. Another, Shaily Dadiala, is an expert in the classical Indian dance form Bharatanatyam. Also in the mix are an eight year old student of ballet at the prestigious Rock School and even Revlock's mother, Beverly Agard. Agard has no dance training, but Revlock says "She's very game to do what I ask of her and is completely uninhibited. That makes her a really strong performer."

Revlock grew up in Philadelphia's Powelton neighborhood and attended Masterman High School. After receiving her BA in Art History from Vassar College, she returned to Philadelphia, where she has been dancing and choreographing for over a decade. Her work has been presented across the country, and has earned her a finalist prize in the 2011, A.W.A.R.D. Show, and a 2010 Rocky Award from Philly choreographer Nicole Canuso. She first began developing the duets of Confetti as a 2012-2013 LAB Fellow with FringeArts.

Confetti is one of several projects on tap for Revlock this season. She is one of five artists selected from a national pool for the current Fresh Tracks residency at New York Live Arts, and she is working with Nicole Bindler on The Dance Apocalypse, for which she has received funding from the highly competitive Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. The Dance Apocalypse will be performed in April at the new FringeArts theater.

Revlock and Bindler will also be teaching a series of free classes called CardioCreativity. The classes will be open to all ability levels, and are described as "a place where you can get to know dance from the inside." Revlock says she would love for more people to take an interest in contemporary dance, and she recently and she recently created a video primer for would-be dance goers, commissioned by thINKingDance and supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

"I like to think of my work as populist," she says, "It's multilayered with multiple entry points. And it has a sense of humor."