ELEVATE: A TRIPLE BILL OF FEMALE CHOREOGRAPHERS To Tour This Spring

In Elevate: A Triple Bill of Female Choreographers three seasoned choreographers from NYC, NJ/NYC, and Pittsburgh come together to explore female empowerment in a compelling evening-length triple bill performance presented as part of a 3-city tour. In this production, three distinct powerhouses, Heather Bryce (Bryce Dance Company, NYC), Erin Carlisle Norton (The Moving Architects, NJ/NYC), and Shana Simmons (Shana Simmons Dance, PA) elevate each other and their collective voices by bringing the strength, individuality, and power of the female voice into the spotlight.

This triple bill is a unique opportunity to see how three unique voices interpret fearless femininity. Performances are April 17-18, 2019 at Actors Fund Arts Center (Brooklyn), April 19-20, 2019 at The Dance Complex (Boston), and May 4, 2019 at Point Park University's George Rowland White Performance Center (Pittsburgh).

In the first half of the production, each choreographer presents existing repertory, revealing their distinctive movement signatures and choreographic stylings. Bryce Dance Company's Moving Memory is an excerpt of an evening length production that explores how identity, internal narrative, and relationships inevitably change as memory becomes fragmented, altered, or lost. Through intimate choreography, story fragments, and original music, the work evokes the inner turmoil, fear and confusion, as well as moments of deep connection and meaning that are inherently beautiful. The development of Moving Memory was supported in part by a residency at Mount Tremper Arts and a Gibney POP performance. The Moving Architects' work PLUCK is about Power who has it, what it looks like, how it feels, and why we live in reaction or agreement with its subliminal and prominent presence. Tenaciously performed by the all-female company, individual and complex relationships are constructed and fall apart with emotional and physical extremes, and finding a fair and balanced body amidst interruptions is taxing. Shana Simmons Dance brings Grounded in the Soil, which demonstrates powerful movement, upbeat sequencing, and expresses the emotion, play, and passion of soul music. Set to a montage of Otis Redding songs, the company taps into Redding's ability to play with the audience, express emotion, and physically interpret his impressive power as a powerhouse performer.

In the second act, Bryce, Carlisle Norton, and Simmons bring their voices and dancers together in order to create Elevate, a groundbreaking new work that they have collaboratively woven, intently investigating self-imposed boundaries, metaphorical walls they encounter as female artists, and personal experiences that have a collective and universal weight. This work began with each choreographer creating an individual dance around these themes and then considerately intertwining, intersecting, and layering together their individual voices into a powerful, thoughtful, multi-sensory, collaborative performance experience. Elevate shines a spotlight on the resilience and power of three distinct female voices speaking together through one work.

Says Bryce of the project: As we come together and empower each other we begin to elevate our collective voices and bring light to stories that have gone unheard or unseen. As movers we break down walls and bring our full selves to the table, providing opportunities for others to do the same. Through our vulnerability we share our strength. Through our choreography we lift each other up.

Elevate: A Triple Bill of Female Choreographers has performances April 17-18, 2019 at Actors Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY; April 19-20, 2019 at The Dance Complex in Cambridge, MA; and May 4, 2019 at Point Park University, George Rowland White Performance Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

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