Basking in the Glory of a Dream Come True

It is with great joy, gratitude, excitement, and pride, that I announce... our recent performances of UPSTREAM were a HUGE success!!

We had over 100 total audience members. We had amazing, picturesque weather for all 4 shows. Each audience was filled with appreciative, grateful, adoring, enthusiastic, and encouraging fans, many people who I already adore and some of whom I barely know. Each performance was beautiful and powerful in its own way with its own emotional journey. Really, things could not have gone better!! One of my mentors came. Two potential outdoor dance presenters attended (though ironically both watched from the "wrong" side of the creek). We even made MONEY! I asked for what I felt the show was really worth and for the first time ever, I got to pay myself and my dancers!!

YEE-HAW!!!

It is amazing when one can envision and imagine something grand and then will and work and coax and love it into being! I marvel that I imagined this beautiful project, brought it to life through love, sweat and tears, and it turned out just as beautifully as in my wildest dreams! (At least the wildest ones I dared to hope could come true...)

Now perhaps I will dare to dream of even wilder successes! Thus, I hope that soon there will be more wild dreams to report coming true. For now, please bask in the glory of this success with me..... with these lovely photos!

Dancers: Jenny Sawyer & Sinead O'Neill
Photos: Krista McKinnon

Live Outdoor Performances this Sept 15/16 & 22/23

Announcing a truly unique, evocative and strikingly beautiful site-specific duet IN the Wissahickon Creek. Please come to witness and be a part of this one-of-a-kind dance experience, surrounded and enveloped by the beauty of nature.

UPSTREAM

September 15th & 16th and September 22nd & 23rd @ 2pm
Outdoors IN the Wissahickon Creek (near Valley Green Inn)

Suggested Donation $15

Choreographed by Jenny Sawyer

Featuring Sinead O'Neill, Marina Libel and Jenny Sawyer

 

this dance is about humans

this dance is about nature
no music. no lights. no stage. no social accoutrements.
just two beings. stripped down to the bare essentials of their human-ness.
muscles. bodies. water. breath. air. rock. and bone.
existing as one. together. in joy and sorrow. 
in search of a place, of a world, where they can continue their deeply vital and connected existence.

This stunning and powerful dance piece by Philadelphia based choreographer Jenny Sawyer is a call for you to remember your own intrinsic connection with nature. This evocative duet is taking the traditional, sanitized dance performance and literally putting it into the river. This will be unlike anything you have seen before.

UPSTREAM is a radical plea for us to heal our ailing world by fully acknowledging that humans are part of nature and not separate from it.... a plea for a paradigm shift of cultural proportions.

Make your reservations now for this beautiful and remarkable dance!

To make your reservation please email jroesawyer@gmail.com and you will receive a confirmation email containing all the audience information you will need. Audience seating is somewhat limited, so reserve your spot now!

Watch UPSTREAM on YouTube

Now you can watch the first version of my outdoor dance project UPSTREAM on YouTube!!
This is an unfinished, yet strikingly beautiful and evocative piece which I am currently gearing up to keep working on this summer.

UPSTREAM - first version October 2011 - 20 min
http://youtu.be/roWXVjRsIKM

"An outdoor dance work-in-progress, exploring the human relationship to nature and the constant, eternal and ever-changing processes of life."

Comments and observations welcome.

UPSTREAM - Call for Dancers!

I am looking for dancers to join me in my river dance project "Upstream" this summer!  Would YOU like to be part of this beautiful outdoor investigation?

Last summer, I had a vision:

"A beautiful, haunting, meditative, and meaningful dance staged in the Wissahickon Creek, with the dancers continuously moving upstream over the course of the piece."

Last fall, two dancers joined me to create Upstream, a strangely beautiful and evocative duet in the Creek. In 6 to 8 rehearsals, we created an amazing rough draft.

You can view the full 20min piece here on YouTube: http://youtu.be/roWXVjRsIKM

This summer I want to expand the piece and perform a more finished version during the Philly Fringe Festival in September.

Would YOU like to join me?

More details about the piece:
Most of the river is very shallow so much of the dance will entail mostly wading and moving over rocks. Some sections will involve moving in pools or areas of deeper water, up to the knees, thighs, and possibly up to the waist. The dance may involve climbing over a small wall with a waterfall. You don't have to be a champion swimmer (you will never be in water over your head) but you need to feel comfortable floating, diving, splashing and submerging your whole body for a few moments.

In rehearsals we do a lot of experimenting with improvisational movement structures as research for the piece. In the end some sections of the piece will remain structured improvisational scores and some sections will be more highly structured or choreographed for effect.

What I am looking for in my dancers:I am looking for dancers who are very comfortable and creative within improvisation, in rehearsal and performance, and enjoy creating their own movements, who are interested in water, dirt, being outside, connecting to nature, getting wet, etc., and who are willing to experiment with using their voices, as I intend to use vocalized sound in the piece (no text). You don't have to have a good singing voice, just a willingness to explore using your voice loudly outdoors.

Intentions for the piece:

I intend to hold rehearsals regularly over the course of the summer, beginning the 2nd week of June until the performances at the end of September. I am looking for people who are free to rehearse during the day on a weekday preferably, but the exact rehearsal schedule is yet to be determined.  Each rehearsal block will take 4 to 5 hours since the site itself is about 40min away. For example: Leave the city at 12noon. Get to site and  rehearse from 1-4pm with a snack break. Leave and get home at 5pm.

I intend to perform it for a live audience on Saturday and Sunday Sept 15th/16th and/or Sept 22nd/23rd in the late morning or early afternoon.

I would like to hold an initial meeting/rehearsal with dancers who are interested in joining the project during the week of June 10-16th.
Please let me know If you are interested in joining me for this project or learning more information.

Thank you for your time and interest!

I am REALLY excited about this project and I hope it excites you too.

Please forward this to other dancers you know (who are not on this email) who you think would fit & enjoy the project.

Sincerely,
Jenny