Falling Up

Overview

A celebration of play, possibility, and the tenderness of being human. Six dance artists displace gravity to co-create new worlds with fantastical possibilities. Step into Falling Up and immerse yourself in the imaginative effort of turning the world anew, again and again and again.

In Falling Up, creators / performers Amalia Colón-Nava, Chloe Marie, Harlee Trautman, Katherine Kiefer Stark, Marcie Mamura, and Meredith Stapleton vision alternate realities and arrive at mutual agreements for existing inside of them. We disorient and reorient ourselves and the audience through a unique and shiftable set, costume changes and projection.

Watch us bound into the air, float and crash off a wall that has become the floor. Witness worlds melt as tender embraces and the weighted struggle of transposing gravity loop into joyful giggles of 6 bodies intertwined sinking up a wall.

These whimsical, beautiful, and bizarre illusions invite performers and audience alike to adjust what is possible and collectively imagine each new reality as it emerges.

Can we hold a different reality together?

Can we say ‘yes’ to impossible ideas and unknowable outcomes?

Can we take the time to try and fail and try and fail and try and fail?

Can the effort of change be as beautiful and joyful as it is challenging and overwhelming?

This work emerged through our practice of collective imagination – creating new realities that we can all inhabit, that offer each of us belonging, moving through discomfort, making mistakes, embracing effort.

The Falling Up Zine offers a deeper dive into our practice and the layers underneath the performance – available for purchase at thenakedstark.com.

About the Artist

The Naked Stark (TNS) is a West Philadelphia modern dance company guided by Artistic Director Katherine Kiefer Stark. The company’s collaborative structure engages multidisciplinary artists committed to the investigation of social consciousness and intergenerational connections. Katherine is a Rocky Award recipient for outstanding achievement in the greater Philadelphia dance community, and her work through TNS “challenges us to see the dynamics of power shaped by historic narrative, social conventions, and our own unselfconscious playfulness” as described by thINKingdance.

Since 2010, TNS’ programs have been presented along the East Coast and in Chicago by organizations including Mascher Space Cooperative, the Punxsutawney Chamber of Commerce, Vox Populi, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Capital Fringe, University City District, First Person Arts Festival, and FringeArts. TNS is fortunate to receive continued support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund since 2016. As a collective, TNS works toward a sustainable and accessible world of dance-making and art-engaging.

Credits