Valerie Green/Dance Entropy Performs at KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival

Valerie Green/Dance Entropy will perform at the 2020 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival, Tuesday, Sept. 15 - Saturday, Sept. 26 via rochesterfringe.com.

What does Utopia mean to you? Is it a physical, external place-or, might it reside internally?

Choreographed by Valerie Green and in collaboration with visual artist Keren Anavy with original music by Mark Katsaounis, VG/DE's newest evening length work, Utopia, explores the idea of a perfect place through dance and visual art. The work questions whether Utopia might be an internal place, investigated through personal and intimate moments and alongside the community.

Anavy has turned her large-scale paintings into 10-foot cylindrical pillars to be used throughout the piece. The pillars act as an extension of the internal world, constantly forming barriers, spaces, and other environments for the dancers to both react to and orchestrate. The notion of what it means to be safe persists inside a dynamic art installation is in perpetual motion, being constantly built and dismantled. Acting as both props and set, Anavy's painted pillars contribute to Utopia's striking energy and challenge the viewer's conception of how art, dance, and design interact with and influence one another. An original sound score created by Mark Katsaounis combines electronic sounds with acoustic percussion to make textures and moods that are as varied as the human experience.

Utopia will be performed by Emily Elizabeth Aiken, Daan Bootsma, Caitlyn Casson, Hana Ginsburg Tirosh, Erin Giordano, Kristin Licata and Richard Scandola. In addition to choreography by Valerie Green and visual art by Keren Anavy, the piece features music by Mark Katsaounis, lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann, and costumes by Deborah Erenburg.

Tickets are free at rochesterfringe.com, where more information is also available.