Philadelphia-based dance artist, Mijkalena Smith, joins Malcolm Shute (Human Landscape Dance) and Jessica Warchal-King (JCWK Dance Lab) to bring audiences a summer afternoon of dance. Both Mijkalena Smith and Malcolm Shute premiere new pieces: “Inhabit” and “Rain on Window” respectively. Join the artists for a talkback at the end of the event to learn more about their work and process.
Mijkalena Smith will premiere “Inhabit,” a re-imagining of her high school senior solo, “Enough.” Choreographed when she was 18, “Enough” chronicled Mijka’s relationship with her body, focusing specifically on her time recovering from an eating disorder. Choreographed now at age 23, “Inhabit” offers a new perspective from a body that is 5 years older, centering sensation, patience, and compassion as driving forces of movement.
Human Landscape Dance will premiere “Rain on Window,” which evokes times in our lives when we hit a wall and cannot press through. Three dancers spatter like rain against a wall, then drizzle down, puddling at the base. They press up, swelling against the cold surface, then slip down each other’s bodies, leaving trails in the skin. “Rain on Window” expresses confronting our own limitations, and how we may support each other even as our ships crash against rocky shores. They will also bring “Fiddleheads,” a meditation on growth in the rainforest, stalks unfurling in every direction to cast spores. Katie Sopoci Drake uncoils, raising the canopy of Malcolm Shute’s body, stretching up and back, until they compress together in reverse. The dance evokes a sacred space, harmony achieved in spite of hard labor. Last, Human Landscape Dance offers “Sunset,” a dance between the setting sun and the night sky. Carrie Monger rises over Alexander Short, covering him with orange, only to slip behind, hidden by dark cloth.
Jessica Warchal-King will premier “Variations on Regeneration” two duets inspired by environmental research in Warchal-King’s hometown of Berks County. Arielle Ridley and Cady Monasmith undulate and lengthen into suspended moments of isolation that snap into punctuated articulation. Sarena Gable rocks Warchal-King like a mother soothing her child. Their arms ripple and intertwine, interconnecting in beauty and tangled interaction. In JCWK Dance Lab’s third piece, the ensemble weaves and lifts each other, seeking connection and answers just beyond reach in an expiration of celestial bodies and earthly bodies.