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

Serious Play

Brendan McCall

Cathy Weis prioritizes experimentation over commercialism in her “Sundays on Broadway” series.

Dancer KJ Holmes, leans onto her left hip, legs folded behind her, and both hands planted on the hard wood floor. She wears a blue t-shirt, white pants, and her grey hair is pulled back from her face. Newspapers are scattered about the floor around her, and she watches the pieces she has just thrown at the camera as they fly away from her. They are blurred by their motion and closeness to the camera.
Photo: Rachel Keane

Dancing Across the Bridge from Epstein: A Beautiful Place of Horrors

Lauren Berlin

A reckoning with girlhood, dance, memory, and power in Palm Beach County

Historic postcard image from the 1930s–1940s showing the Flagler Memorial Bridge illuminated at night, spanning the water between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, Florida.
Photo: courtesy of the Tichnor Brothers Collection, Florida Postcards Series