PS #14: Lost in Translation?

A number of recent Philly performances have brought up questions about what happens when you take a dance form originally seen on the street, in a cafe or in the fields onto a proscenium stage.  “Staged spectacles” of indigenous dance forms have been on the scene for ages now but we still might long for the “real thing.” Similarly, when a piece was site specific and is staged in a different space, how much gets lost? What have you seen that falls in one of these categories and how did you feel about the “translation”?

Share this article

PARTNER CONTENT

Keep Reading

  • .

Donald Byrd’s Five Alarm Dance

Brendan McCall

Donald Byrd sounds the alarm in his latest work connecting 9/11 to the crises of our current moment.

Six young dancers stand in profile, all facing right, under bloodred stagelights. They balance on their right foot, while holding their bent left leg with their left hand behind them. Their right arms are extended in front of them, their palms flexed, as if threy are saying "stop."
Photo: Steven Pisano
  • Reviews

Bodies Exposed Under Hard Light: Encountering Fables

Yuying Chen

Virginie Brunelle's Fables reveals how bodies resist and transform.

The vast white skirt of a female dancer spreads out across the center of the stage, drawn and lifted by dancers concealed beneath it, resembling a giant wave. The dancers are constantly struggling to crawl out from within this undulating mass of soft fabric. With their upper bodies bare, they curl up on the ground, suspended in a state between weightlessness and struggle. The spotlight focuses on the white fabric and the figures at the center, plunging the surrounding space into darkness.
Photo: David Wong