Merian Soto Presents Culmination of Branch Dance Series, 'SoMoS', 10/12

Related: Merian Soto, SoMoS, Branch Dance Series

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Renowned choreographer Merián Soto presents the culmination of her 7-year Branch Dance Series with the monumental SoMoS, bridging nature and the urban landscape, in the North Philadelphia barrio on October 12, 2012, as part of Taller Puertorriqueño's free performance series, Café Under the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio.

This large-scale work features three large geodesic tents and an outdoor performance area with simultaneous performances for audiences to move in and out of at will. In contrast to the urban landscape, the parking lot at 5th and Huntingdon Streets will be transformed into a quiet carnival of nature images, sounds, and movement invoking the four seasons.

The performance will take place on October 12, 2012, at 7:15 and 9pm by Merián Soto Performance Practice Performance in the Municipal Parking Lot at 2600-2624 North 5th Street at Huntington Street (future home of Taller Puertorriqueño), Philadelphia, 19133. It's free.

Created and Choreographed by Merián Soto Core Dancers and Co-Choreographers Olive Prince, Jumatatu Poe, Marion Ramírez, Beau Hancock, and Jung Woong Kim, the show is presented by Taller Puertorriqueño's Café Under the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio.

Merián Soto SoMoS will create a meditative nature carnival out of a concrete parking lot, with performance spaces and multi-media displays for winter, spring, summer and fall. Fifteen dancers are spread out throughout the performing areas in numerous combinations, including core dancers and co-choreographers Olive Prince, Jumatatu Poe, Marion Ramírez, Beau Hancock, and Jung Woong Kim.

The culmination of choreographer Merián Soto's Branch Dance Series, SoMoS is a large scale event, with three geodesic tents transformed into performance spaces. Seasonal video- and audio-scapes are projected on and about dancers performing the hypnotic, transfixing branch dances-an intensely intimate dance that follows the gravity and shifting balance of nature. Large shadows of the dancers are projected against the walls of the tents. Visible from the outside, these artful shadows create their own performance experience and yet another viewpoint for audiences. The fourth performance space will be the outdoors, with giant video projections of nature in extreme close-up upon the walls of adjoining buildings. This performance spectacle, a sensory enchantment under the night sky, promises to rekindle the audience's connection to nature.

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