2016-17 Performing Arts Series Events

Philadanco
Philadanco

Fri | Sept. 23, 2016  | 8 PM | McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall

The virtuosic, miraculously versatile and blazingly energetic dancers of Philadanco return to Bryn Mawr for a program that includes Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s infectiously rhythmic Hands Singing Song and the company’s most beloved work, Enemy Behind the Gates, by Christopher Huggins. A Philadelphia cultural treasure for more than 46 years, Philadanco is celebrated for its continued innovation, creativity, and fierce advocacy of African-American dance.

Ms. Lisa Fischer and Grand Baton
Ms. Lisa Fischer and Grand Baton

Sat | Dec 3, 2016 | 8 PM | McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall

A part of rock-n-roll history for her legendary live duets with Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter,” Lisa Fischer was featured in the Oscar® Award-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, showcasing her superstar talent as backup singer extraordinaire for Tina Turner, Sting, Chaka Kahn and many others. Now the two-time GRAMMY® Award winner takes center-stage with her band, Grand Baton. With her astonishing range and powerhouse vocals, Fischer makes her own definitive versions of classic rock, pop and jazz songs.

WintryMix/Performance Festival
Wintry Mix Performance Festival

Fri-Sat | Jan 27-28, 2017 | 8 p.m. | Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall

The first time was such a blast we’re doing a new Wintry Mix—and upping the fun factor. This sampler of what’s new in performance offers two different nights of 12-minutes-max showings: expect a wild bevy of work that crosses boundaries between theater, dance, video and music. Smaller scale, scruffier and more adventurous than the usual Series headliners, each show includes free snacks and drink, and ends with an extended musical set for everyone to groove to.

David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group: I Understand Everything Better
David Neumann

Thu-Sun | Feb 23-25, 2017 | 8 PM | Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall

Bessie-Award winning choreographer/performer David Neumann explores our impulse to report on calamity. A multidisciplinary dance-based performance inspired by the death of his father, I Understand Everything Better is a deeply felt and moving work that intersperses elements of Noh theater, video, music and text and blurs the lines between truth and fiction. Topics merge—the private and public, internal and external, the known and unknown—resulting in a mysteriously beautiful mix of indelible images that dance upon the contradictions of human life.

The presentation of David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group—I Understand Everything Better is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Additional Events with David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group:

  • Visual Culture Colloquium with David Neumann, Founder and Artistic Director, Advanced Beginner Group
    Plays and Performance: Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Theatre Making
    Wed | Feb 22 | 2017 | 12:30-1:30 PM | Thomas Library 224 
    Free and open to the public. 
     
  • Performance Workshop with David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group
    Sat | Feb 25 | 2017 | 10 AM-1 PM | McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
    A free workshop for student and professional theater makers and dancers engaging practices central to the creation of Neumann’s own hybrid performance pieces. Participants will work together to create short pieces as a way to investigate multi-disciplinary work. No one needs expertise in any of the forms mentioned, just healthy doses of curiosity and courage.​
     
  • Roundtable with David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group
    Sun | Feb 26 | 2017 | 11 AM-12 PM | Dorothy Vernon Room, New Dorm
    This open roundtable will engage David Neumann / Advanced Beginner Group and participants in questions related to contemporary arts practice.

​​Dolce Suono Ensemble with Sarah Shafer, soprano
Dolce Suono Ensemble with Soprano Sarah Shafer

Fri | Mar 17, 2017 | 8 PM | College Great Hall

From Bach’s magnificent cantatas to songs by Debussy, this special program takes in a wide range of classical repertoire for voice and chamber ensemble. Selections from operas and fantasies by Donizetti, Bizet/Borne, and Delibes, and commissioned arrangements of Mozart songs complete the evening. Dolce Suono is Mimi Stillman, flute, Gabriel Cabezas, cello, and Charles Abramovic, piano, here joined by soprano Sarah Shafer, whose “beautiful crystalline sound and glowing warmth” has been hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer.