The Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Studio 34 present:
Line///////Movements
by _mixlit (Philadelphia)
One Show:
FRI SEPT 27, 7:30 PM
Runtime: 90 minutes
Click here for tickets!
About the show:
Line///////Movements is a showcase of six original works that emphasize storytelling through a combination of movement and text. These pieces are the result of collaborations between Philadelphia writers, dancers and choreographers, often incorporating music, projection and other multimedia elements. Together, they form a tapestry of the possibilities inherent in combining words and wordlessness.
See the love story of the moon and a river told through poetry and duet, a contemporary dance piece based on audio interviews with sexual assault survivors, and other acts that explore the relationship between bodies and narrative. Longmire and Caiola hope Line///////Movements will inspire movers and writers alike to add new dimensions to their works, enhancing their creative processes and exploring the spaces between each moment, beat, stanza and step.
About the artist:
Performance poet Warren C. Longmire and dancer/choreographer Sammy Caiola conceived Line///////Movements after nearly two years of experimenting with their own collaborative poetic movement works.
After years as a slam poetry performer, Longmire wondered what it might be like to invite a dancer to interpret an existing poem from his first published book, “Open Source”. Caiola took on the task with gusto, having long wanted to combine her love of movement with her love of words. They performed their first piece together, “Strange Place for Snow”,in the fall of 2022 at PhilaMOCA and the winter of 2023 at Urban Movement Arts.
For much of the next year, Longmire and Caiola developed a shared dance language inspired by contact improvisation, hip-hop, funk and ballroom. In 2024 Longmire composed an original poem, based on Frank Ocean’s “Moon River,” which served as the basis for a co-choreographed piece they performed at the Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden.
Simultaneously, Longmire began exploring computational poetics and the use of mixed media, including electronic music and projection, under poetry while touring his book, Bird/Diz [an erased history of bebop] (bunny presse 2022). Meanwhile, Caiola was working to turn found audio from a 2021 podcast about sexual violence into her dance work After the Assult, recruiting poet Alison Lubar to bookend the piece
Since 2023, _mixlit has strived to create forward thinking, boundary-pushing mixed media performances. Operating as both a press and a performance series, it strives to be a connection point for writers, poets, musicians and performers who sit at the intersection of media. It has featured both local and traveling artists including J*Johnson, William Hazard, Betty’s Eyes, Heather Bowlan and Mathew Klane. _mixlit is currently in the process of publishing its second publication, May All Be Happy by Massimo Elijah.
About Philly Fringe:
The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, presented by FringeArts, is an annual citywide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance. Each September, the Festival explodes into every nook and cranny of Philadelphia with more than 1,000 artistically daring performances and events by local, national, and international artists.