Philadelphia Dance Projects in partnership with American Opera Projects will present an “Informance” with Choreographer Christopher Williams and Composer Gregory Spears as the culmination of a creative artist residency to further develop their original dance opera, WOLF-IN-SKINS.
An “Informance” is a work-in-progress showing, where the artists are in conversation with the audience about the content of the work, their ideas and inspiration. Dancers, singers, and musicians, including New Vintage Baroque and special guest countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, will perform sections from the work.
Kings, foundlings, wolves, hounds, fay milkmaids and other mythical characters fill the dance opera that draws inspiration from a cycle of Welsh romance tales. Preserving pre-Celtic and pre-Christian elements, it views marginalized or outmoded cultural relics through a contemporary lens.
Christopher Williams, hailed as “one of the most exciting choreographic voices out there” in The New York Times and “the downtown prodigy” in The New Yorker, is a choreographer, dancer, and puppeteer who has been devoted to crafting and performing choreographic works in New York City and abroad since 1999, including recent collaborations choreographing operas directed by Peter Sellars and Michel Fau.
Gregory Spears writes instrumental and vocal music that blends together stylistic aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. The Chicago Tribune hailed the music of Spears’ “Fellow Travelers” (premiered in 2016) as one of the “most accomplished new American operas in recent years …his setting of words to music is masterly.”
This project is supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, the William Penn Foundation, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, a PA Partners in the Arts Project Stream Grant and Individual Donors.
In development in American Opera Projects' "First Change" and "Dance Opera Initiative" programs, supported by funding through the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and in partnership with Philadelphia Danve Projects, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, The William Penn Foundation and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
PHILADELPHIA DANCE PROJECTS
www.philadanceprojects.org