All Articles

Four women stand in a group with their arms upraised and their heads in profile. They are wearing long-sleeved shirts in yellow, red, navy blue, and black.
Photo: Alan Simpson
  • Reviews

the power of community

desire amaiya

a caring, authentic ensemble that allowed me to bask in the community of movement.

In a vast black expanse with a dark brown floor, two Gogglers in warm colored shirts, leather aprons, and steampunk goggles hold up a square of red thread around Temple, a Black girl in a bright green sweatshirt. She's pointing at the viewer as her brother, Arturo, looks on in interest while sitting on the ground.
Photo: Courtesy of Pig Iron
  • Reviews

Franklin’s Key: A Fun Romp Through Fiction

Madeline Shuron

Pig Iron’s latest adventure amuses.

One dancer stands tall, snapping the Shuka with fierce precision to carve rhythm into silence, while the other kneels in exaltation, their body echoing Horton hinges and Graham’s sculptural forms—an image of power, reverence, and kinetic devotion.
Photo: Carlos Avendaño
  • Reviews

Noise See: Weaving Masking, Memory, and Maasai Legacy

Lauren Berlin

Fernandes threads a performance of Self

a dancer presses against the bare ground on all fours while another dancer stands barefoot on top of their back with the support of two others who hold her arms. They are wearing long-sleeved clothing in shades of grey, black and red. They are surrounded by trees and foliage. There are audience members in the foreground watching.
Photo: Michelle F Smith
  • Reviews

Embodying Human-Nature Interdependence

Caitlin Green

Dancers create a shelter that shape-shifts into tableaus of home.

Caught in mid flight against a blurred background of golds, oranges, and blues, a Warbler arches its head up and pushes its wings down together in a lifting stroke. It has a golden brown head with a white throat under its small pointed beak. There is a small gold patch above its tail feathers and its wing and tail feathers are shades of black, grey, brown, and white.
Photo: Christine Cieslak
  • Interviews

Neighbor Watching

Emilee Lord

Dance and science create space for learning and hope.

Dancer Merián Soto kneels with one knee slightly higher than the other. Her body faces the camera but her eyes are downcast. Her medium length gray hair falls towards her face. She is wearing a flowy rust-colored top and loose khaki-colored pants. In her outstretched hands she holds two curved branches. The branch in her left hand is nearly bent in half and almost touches the floor. The branch in her right hand extends in a graceful arc above her head, mirroring the casual grace in Soto’s pose.
Photo: Bill Hebert
  • Interviews

I am the Archive

Ellen Miller

Still dancing, Merián Soto reflects on her storied career.

Shavon Norris stands on stage in black clothing with her eyes closed and mouth open as if shouting in discomfort, with her hands covering part of her face. There is a person playing the upright bass in the background, and a sliver of blue and yellow lighting behind Norris.
Photo: Johanna Austin
  • Reviews

Shavon Norris’ CRONING (solo.duet 48:25) at The Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival

Caitlin Green

A work that makes space for the constant tug of death

ight slanted grass supports two performers escaping from a fleshtight yellow and bark-brown garment, a “bodysuit.” One performer lies on the ground, horizontal to the left of the standing figure, with an arm extending upwards.
Photo: Naomieh Jovin, courtesy of BlackStar Projects
  • Reviews

Venus Flytrap: A goddess bound to this earth

Noel Price-Bracey

Spring has arrived, and the earth is enlivened.

a book with a black cover and and the words Defending Rumba in Havana; The Sacred and Black Corporeal Undercommons written in blue, green, organge, yellow and pink.
Photo: des amaiya
  • Reviews

“Yo te salvo a ti; tú me salvas a mí”

desire amaiya

Berry documents how rumba counters predetermined sanctions and barriers imposed by a money hungry and stratifying regime.

A person wearing a leather skirt and thick black beads around their neck like a warrior stares intently at the camera, one arm extended towards us with the palm out. An upturned golden urn is behind them.
Photo: Steven Pisano
  • Reviews

Ankita Sharma’s dhoka/Betrayal/: Militarization and Myth-Making

Brendan McCall

Ankita Sharma's intimate dance interrogates their relationship with India.