The Performance Garage Announces New Residency Program And Inaugural Awardee

The Performance Garage announces its new residency program, the Dr. RJ Wallner DanceVisions Residency, and its inaugural awardee, Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet. The program was designed by Executive Director Jeanne Ruddy in order to support a Philadelphia dance artist who exhibits exceptional talent. It provides the selected artist with rehearsal space, technical and marketing support, professional mentorship, and a performance venue in order to create and premiere new works. The inaugural year is supported by a generous gift from Dr. RJ Wallner.

"We're looking forward to Nora's creation during her residency," said The Performance Garage Executive Director Jeanne Ruddy. "She's been able to explore her vision of merging ballet with a contemporary modern style that results in work that is structured, ethereal, and abstract."

This year, the residency has been awarded to Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet. Gibson was selected for her ability to thoroughly immerse her audiences in her work through her meticulous choreography, careful lighting design, and use of original music scores.

"Nora Gibson's innovative choreography marries futuristic concepts to the classical ballet idiom, drawing on careful lighting design and original music scores to create work that fully immerses her audiences," said Ruddy. " The Performance Garage is proud to support Gibson's innovative work."

Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet is committed to presenting ballet that is both beautiful and intellectually bold. Central to the company's mission is the pursuit of the question, "What is ballet in the 21st Century?" Nora Gibson preserves the idiom of classical ballet, while at the same time placing it within contemporary contexts through non-traditional composition, subject matter, contextual elements, and collaborations across disciplines. She is inspired by the natural world, mathematics and science, and philosophical concepts.

Gibson earned her BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to having performed in the genres of ballet and contemporary dance in Maryland, Washington D.C., and New York, Gibson was selected to work from 2010-2013 with Lucinda Childs to perform various iconic 70's works as part of the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage's Virtual Reconstruction project. She has been invited as a resident artist in the US and abroad, including the PHL/Poland Artist Exchange Residency (2012), the Choreographers on Campus Residency, funded through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2014), Diepenheim Werkplaats (2016), and Kaatsbaan (2017). Gibson's choreography has been presented by New Dance Alliance at Joyce SOHO, at Dance Place in Washington DC, Philadelphia Dance Projects, and The Williams Center for the Arts. Her choreography was featured in Transfixion Films' Dark White and presented at the 2015 Triskellion Dance Film Lab in Brooklyn, NY. Gibson's work has been commissioned regularly by universities such as Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, Georgian Court University, and University of the Arts. She has taught ballet and composition nationally and internationally, at Temple University, University of the Arts, the Zawirowania Festival, and many other institutions. Gibson's work has received consistent critical acclaim, heralded by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "the most authoritative work in Philadelphia."

"The DanceVisions Residency provided me with crucial resources in order to realize new work," said Gibson. "The Performance Garage is truly addressing a need in the Philadelphia dance scene for independent choreographers."

The residency will kick-off this weekend with Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet premiering a new work, HUMAN. This evening length ballet will run for three performances at The Performance Garage (1515 Brandywine St.) on Friday, April 20, 2018 at 8:00 PM, Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, April 22, 2018 at 3:00 PM (Artist Q & A to follow this performance).

HUMAN is a post-human ballet that uses form and context to consider otherness and objectivity. This anti-story imagines an AI (Artificial Intelligence) being who moves in and outside of human patterned constructs, forests, and time. HUMAN is a ballet that uses a traditional idiom to consider future sensibility. The work is choreographed by Nora Gibson, with an original music score by noted ambient electronic composer Michael McDermott (AKA Mikronesia). This evening-length ballet features a cast of five outstanding dancers, Marria Cosentino-Chapin, Brian Cordova, Sean Thomas Boyt, Katharine Nace, and Hallie Lahm.

Tickets for HUMAN are on sale now for $18 for general admission and $15 for students/dance professionals at www.pgdancevisions.eventbrite.com, or by visiting www.performancegarage.com. HUMAN runs for forty minutes, with no intermission or late seating. Please note that haze will be used during the performance.
For more information about The Performance Garage, please visit http://www.performancegarage.org/ or call (215) 569-4060.

Founded in 2002 by Jeanne Ruddy and Victor Keen, the Performance Garage is a non-profit dance service organization located in the Spring Garden area of Philadelphia. The Performance Garage builds community through dance by showcasing world-class and innovative performance, and by providing dance education and community outreach programs that further the art form's development and build affinity between diverse groups of people.

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