JCWK Dance Lab

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sarah Carlson

Founder/Artistic Director, DanceLink

610-653-4182

Lehigh Valley performance premiere

“Rising Tide” testifies to the power, experience and perspectives of women.

Allentown, Pa. (Sept 10, 2019) — The IceHouse Tonight presents “Rising Tide: a dance showcase featuring feminist perspectives”, which brings together five regional companies to the Bethlehem Ice House on Friday, October 4 at 8pm and Saturday, October 5^that 3pm & 8pm. Continuum Dance Theater, DanceEthos, DanceLink, JCWK Dance Lab and Olive Prince Dance present works that testify to the power, experience and perspectives of women. Tickets are $20/$15 student/senior. Tickets available at: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/18836

“Riffing on the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats, we titled the program “Rising Tide” to suggest that by focusing on women, all are enriched,” states Sarah Carlson who is producing the event. The program features five regional dance companies, all directed by women.

Continuum Dance Theater, led by Founder and Artistic Director Sarah Parker, brings a new world premier work to the Ice House for Rising Tide. Inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsukuroi (the mending of broken pottery using lacquer resin laced with gold), POWER|FULL examines the ways in which women’s struggles become part of their whole story and a source of their power rather than a cause of their imperfection, weakness or deterioration. Like Kinstukuroi’s philosophy of bringing beauty to the process of repair, the cast of POWER/FULL creates a narrative of empowerment…a story held together with golden seams.

In “Absence,” danceETHOS explores the social pressures assigned to female identity and community and the subsequent assumption that when a woman chooses not to adhere to those expectations that there is something lacking in her world. Choreographed by Artistic Director Alexandra Pobiedzinski, the piece ebbs and flows between control and release, dependence and rejection, to offer an abstract glimpse into the strength, vulnerability and intimacy that females experience as they navigate the complex realm of womanhood.

DanceLink premieres a new work “UpLift” which chronicles the journey of four women as they navigate the perils of oppression. Choreographed by Founder/Artistic Director, Sarah Carlson, the dance looks at the complexity of identity in community. At once acknowledging struggle and celebrating strength, the piece weaves a moving tapestry of communal connection in the midst of trial.

JCWK Dance Lab, an intergenerational, all-female contemporary company, presents excerpts of HOMEbody – a piece reflecting feminine experiences of home: home as structure, home as physical body, home as geographical place from which we leave and return, and home as states of rejection and acceptance. Composer and Muhlenberg College musician Paul Fejko created original music for HOMEbody.

Based in Philadelphia, Olive Prince Dance presents “She persisted”, an excerpt of a full evening length work based on the concept of the “invincible” body as a fairy tale of our own making. Floating, temporary, rising from the muddy ground is contrasted with images of an echoing of emptiness, falling hard to a stand still and discovering the symmetry in our experiences. The body becomes a conduit for both the vulnerability and indestructibility necessary to prevail.

A Q&A will be held after the Saturday matinee performance to allow the artists to share more about their creative process. Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Rising Tide has received support from the Pennsylvania Partners for the Arts administered by the Lehigh Valley Arts Council.

About the Artists:

Sarah Carlson(producing director) is the Founder & Artistic Director of DanceLink which seeks to bridge people, ideas & and understanding through the power of movement. Sarah danced professionally for 10 years in NYC with companies including Alexandra Beller/Dances, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Clare Byrne Dance, Paul Mosley Dance and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. As an independent choreographer, her own work has been presented throughout the US at venues such as the Joyce Soho in NYC, On the Boards in Seattle, and The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard as well as in Benin, Africa. Sarah is a co-director of the Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange & the editor of the Lehigh Valley Dance in Review. Sarah has been on the dance faculty at Muhlenberg College, DeSales University, Cedar Crest College, Lehigh University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Sarah received a BA in French and European Studies from Connecticut College and an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington.

About the series:

The IceHouse Tonight, a response to a growing night-life scene in downtown Bethlehem, targets the potential college-age and the “restaurant row” audiences in the center city. The performance series is designed to mirror the charm, independence and sense of contemporary urban life represented by the current trends in downtown Bethlehem. The IceHouse Tonight will produce a performance schedule that nurtures the production of new artistic works and the development of new regional arts organizations. Additionally, The IceHouse Tonight will provide a stage for collaborative and innovative programming from well-established regional arts organizations.