Uwishunu.com

Tired of heading to Old City on a First Friday and just looking at art? I mean, how much art can you really see? The galleries typically close before 9 p.m. and by that time you’ve just started to get your boxed wine and warm cheese buzz. If you’re not a total art-belongs-on-walls nerd and are looking for something a little more entertaining, Headlong Dance Theater offers monthly First Friday performances to showcase experiments, new and old works, improvisations, guest artists, interactions and pretty much every other theater-based-dance-performance-art-open-studio-rehearsal-showcase type of thing you can think of. Sounds great, right? Here’s the down side: this Friday is the last time they’ll be hosting an open studio until they can find a new location for this wonderful series. Subsequently, if you’re already a Headlong fan, then you won’t want to miss this retrospective revival from the vintage vault of the Headlong repertoire.

Headlong has hosted this event for the past three years at Spirit Wind martial arts studio, which will soon turn into an art gallery. These performances actually started in 1995, when Headlong founders Andrew Simonet, Amy Smith and David Brick were living together in Old City. By pushing their couch out of the way, they turned their apartment into a performance space for all to watch. Since then, the innovative collective has pioneered a trend of open-studio/work-in-progress events for public viewing. “It is intrinsic to our mission and we really enjoy getting early feedback about the work and exposing new people to dance,” said Headlong’s Managing Director Anna Drozdowski.

Headlong’s mission is quite unique. It’s a collective effort to create and perform new and visionary works of dance-theater that “use the entire body including the voice, the face, and the mind; to create accessible dances that are relevant beyond traditional dance audiences.” Visible in these First Friday events, Headlong is capable of bringing “new audiences closer to dance by performing informally, in non-traditional venues, and for free.” The ideas of Andrew, Amy, and David have inspired collaboration with some of Philadelphia’s brightest modern dancers and performers including Heather Murphy, Nichole Canuso, Niki Cousineau, Kate Watson-Wallace, Jaamil Kosoko, Devynn Emory, Christina Zani, Christy Lee, Olase Freeman, and Jeb Kreager…

More after the jump!

Though this will be their last performance at Spirit Wind, Headlong has a bright year ahead, pursuing another aspect of the Headlong mission statement: “to provide mentoring and leadership in the local and national arts communities.” This is apparent in the Headlong Performance Institute , a semester of liberal arts — as opposed to conservatory — style classes (credit offered through Bryn Mawr College) geared towards actors, dancers, directors, designers, choreographers, performance artists, physical theater creators and any artist interested in live performance. The classes will start in the fall of 2008. The goal of the Institute seems to be less about a passing grade and much more about familiarity with the Philly’s “arts ecosystem” or to “test-drive the life of an artist.” HPI will accept 16 to 18 students, and assist them with finding appropriate short-term housing in Philadelphia. In addition an intense curriculum of movement and mind-bending, students will be expected to regularly attend live performances in the city throughout the 14-week program.

If you want to get hip to what a First Friday can really offer, stop by the studio this Friday, December 7th for either or both of the two showings (8 and 9 p.m.) and enjoy what will be the last of its kind for a while. Let’s hope something bigger and better presents itself for Headlong soon.

Headlong @ Spirit Wind Studio
FIRST FRIDAY SERIES – December 7th, 8PM – 9PM, FREE
213 New Street (Behind the Painted Bride), Philadelphia, PA

Headlong Performance Institute
1170 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146
info@headlongperformanceinstitute.org
(215) 545-9195
www.headlong.org