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A show poster with mostly purple tones and a purple banner below that reads RWP Fringe Knowledge 2025 Season TIMESTAMP by Karen Cecilia and Emilee Lord Dovecot Studios. Above is an image of two middle aged women in black tank tops, the one on the left with short curly red hair looking straight into the camera, the one on the right with long curly hairs looking up into the distance, Behind them is mirrored a reflected image of this same pose.
Photo: Emilee Lord
  • thINKpieces

Fringe Didn’t Kill Me!

Emilee Lord

A Guide to Not Losing Your Shit

An overhead shot of performers on a massive white stage or field holding up giant, elongated banners. The banners feature large red text outlined in white against a blue background, spelling out excerpts like "HAPPINESS" and "LIFE, LIBERTY". The performers wear numbered red vests over casual clothes and hold their arms high to display the fabric. Photo credit: Balich Wonder Studio.
Photo credit: Balich Wonder Studio.
  • thINKpieces

Heavy Canvas and the Performance of Patriotism

Lauren Berlin

Performing at the FIFA World Cup on July 4th in the City of Brotherly Love

In rehearsal with Sean Aaron Carmon, the Resident Choreographer at Banyan Dance Festival’s Inaugural week, dancers practice phrasework close to a light grey marley floor. In the foreground, a young white woman with loose brown hair in navy basketball shorts, black kneepads and black socks hinges backward. Carmon, a young black man with curly hair and a red bandana demonstrates floorwork in the background of the photo. Other dancers are busy at work in the rest of the photo. Some are part way out of frame.
Photo: Anthony Bethel
  • Reviews

Banyan Dance Festival: I Am Because We Are

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell

"We must remember on whose shoulders we stand.”

Several lines of students are mid bounce/step, focused on executing the choreography. All face front toward a wall lined with mirrors. The instructor stands in the middle of the front row of dancers. Participants wear a variety of athletic wear–workout sweats, tanks, shorts, long-sleeve zip ups–and most dance in sneakers.
Photo: Kirwei Lo
  • Reviews

Variety and Conformity in Community Work

Zoe Farnsworth

The enthusiasm and community were vibrant, but the choreography left me wanting more at Philly Dance Day's 2026 Showcase

Nia Love, Vincent Thomas, Miko Doi-Smith, Paloma McGregor, Will Bond, Leah Cox, Elisa García Radcliffe, and Ruby Morales in Wicked Bodies at Arizona State University, Gammage (2022). Organized in three staggered lines atop individual black stools, (three dancers, two dancers, three dancers), the performers each assume a “superman” position on their stomachs, back muscles taught as arms and legs lift off. The dancers wear an array of costumes (billowing pants, structured blazer, expansive gauzy skirt, a polka dot jumper) in shades of black, white, fuchsia, and red. Collectively, they cast their gaze stage left, the direction of their “flight” as haze descends over the top ⅔ of the stage height.
Photo: Tim Trumble
  • Book Reviews, thINKpieces

A witch, some kitsch, and a theory walk into a book

Jennifer Passios

On Liz Lerman’s "Shape and Momentum"

Around 20 workshop participants pose in front of an abstract oil painting in a bright gallery. They are all in different positions inspired by the artwork. Many stretch their arms out and up as if reaching. Some arch their backs or bend forward.
Photo: Chika Kobari, courtesy of KinoSaito
  • Reviews

The Four Mothers of Miki Orihara, or Learning Dalcroze’s 20 Gestures with my Daughter

Caedra Scott-Flaherty

Miki Orihara explores early modern dance and mothers in her newest work.

At the RISE 2025 Summit held at the New York Library for the Performing Arts, panelists for a discussion entitled “Data is Revolutionary” gather in black office chairs with silver legs in front of a large projector screen that reads “Dance Data Project, Harriet Tubman Effect Institute, & Women Count” in a pastel blue above the title “Data is Revolutionary” in a light yellow. Six circles containing the headshots of the panelists dot the rest of the projection. Amidst the other seated speakers, Nancy Owen stands holding a microphone in her right hand. She leans forward toward the audience, eyes alight, mouth open in speech that slips through an excited smile. In the lower left corner of the frame, a bald man in a crisp blue suit brings the crook of his thumb and second finger to his chin at stage right. He looks out toward the audience with his chair angled away from the six panelists.
Photo: Victoria Detres
  • Interviews

Dance Leadership by the Numbers

Jennifer Passios

A Conversation with Elizabeth “Liza” Yntema of Dance Data Project®

Andrew Skeels, a White man with buzzed hair, wearing a black T-shirt, stands against a black background. He is turned to the side but looks directly out with a soft smile.
Photo: Damian Siqueiros
  • Interviews

Meanwhile, in an Indoor Meadow: An Interview with Andrew Skeels

Caedra Scott-Flaherty

A new dance and exhibition explore growth and change in an intimate setting.

Eight dancers, all wearing loose white fabric, lean into one another and stare directly at the camera. Some rest their heads on one another’s shoulders; all lean inward toward the middle dancer, who sits in a casual seated position.
Photo: Artur Gevorgyan
  • Reviews

Sips of Stories: A Testament to (Short) Time

Megan Mizanty

Three Years, Boundless Connections

Awash in a red light, three femme presenting performers dressed in black hold a boat constructed out of tape and twigs. They are putting two halves of it together: one looks like several apartment buildings all together and the bottom is a clearer boat shape. An oversized coat hangs in the background, along with many different puppets from previous moments scattered along the back of the stage.
Photo: REC Philly
  • Write Back Atchas

The Stories We Steal and the Stories We Make

Zoe Farnsworth

A rich performance of Kea Tawana’s life and how constructing reality can be both advantageous and destructive.