creating worlds where imagination
form intersect. architecture www.torilawrenceco.com facebook.com/torilawrenceco torilawrenceco@gmail.com
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mission
awakened ruins
tori lawrence
source
pamela vail
the endless round
christopher landy vicki brown ashley lippolis lora allen christopher brooks patrick fink emily herchenroether christina knipp craig harris
MISSION: Inspired by the forgotten, antiquated, deteriorating, grand, and common, Tori Lawrence + Company creates innovative site-specific dance projects and dance films that investigate the relationship between movement and place. The Company is a group of movement artists, musicians, and designers who embed intelligent art into historic buildings and landscapes, creating worlds where imagination, architecture, and form intersect. The live performances invite diverse audiences to appreciate and explore, with active senses, the connection between people and place. Tori Lawrence + Co. is currenlty in residence at Mascher Space Cooperative (Philadelphia).
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AWAKENED RUINS site-specific dance & music installation, choreographed by Tori Lawrence
Performance Engagements: Philly Fringe Festival | Founder’s Hall at Girard College, Philadelphia | Sept. 2011 New Voices in Live Performance | Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn, NY | May 2012 Lecture-Demonstration at Franklin & Marshall College | Lancaster, PA | Oct. 2011 Mascher Space Cooperative’s Artist-in-Residence Show | The Performance Garage, Philadelphia | Oct. 2011 Cultivate Dance Festival | White Mountain School, Bethlehem, NH | August 2011 Collage Arts Festival | Underground Arts, Philadelphia | May 2010
Length: original version (45 minutes); stage-adapted version (15 minutes) Dancers: Emily Herchenroether, Christina Knipp, Tori Lawrence, Ashley Lippolis, Pamela Vail Musicians: Christopher Brooks (violin), Patrick Fink (piano), Vicki Brown Costume: Virginia West, Tori Lawrence Photography: Craig Harris
Chosen as one of Uwishunu.com’s “top picks for performances at unusual locations”
REVIEW: AWAKENED RUINS by Lisa Kraus, for The Philadelphia Inquirer published Sept. 12, 2011
"Founder's Hall at Girard College is one of those Philadelphia
carefully placed tableaux, often resembles a slow-moving
treasures you might never know about were it not for artists in
sculpture as much as a dance. With its peeling layers of paint
search of great spaces. Tori Lawrence + Co. has staged a
revealing layers of history, the stabilized ruin is traversed
haunting Fringe event, ‘Awakened Ruins’, to animate this
gradually by unison choruses sliding or pressing their way
majestic 1847 National Historic Landmark. The piece begins
forward, duos lifting or lying with each other, and dynamic
with the sound of Christopher Brooks's violin spectacularly
solos. One breakout moment recalls The Rite of Spring, both
reverberating off the domed ceilings. Making use of long views
in pianist Patrick Fink's rhythms and in the hunkered-down
from one space to another, five women dancers caked in white
group stomps. In a recurring image one dancer seems to
clay and wearing corseted muslin bodices progress through
recall actions of classical ballet repeatedly testing the turnout
the three adjoining rotundas that were Girard College's first
of her leg, or her ability to unfold into a grand extension.
classrooms. Tori Lawrence's choreography, replete with fine
Memory, decay, and slow-moving time are rich elements of
articulations and
‘Awakened Ruins’."
AWAKENED RUINS, A NEW DANCE INSTALLTION IN FOUNDER’S HALL by Gabrielle Bonghi, for Phrequency published July 14, 2011 "Tori Lawrence’s upcoming work for the Philly Fringe Festival is a beautiful dance installation titled ‘Awakened Ruins’. It will premiere in Founder's Hall on Girard College Campus. The building is a historic piece of architecture but exemplifies the urban decay that seems to invade the city of Philadelphia. The space is grand and beautiful but reveals vulnerability with deep wounds of corrosion. This piece embodies this architecture through live music, thoughtful choreography, talented dancers and striking but crumbling costumes that hint at the structures journey itself."
DANCING AMONG RUINS: FOR UP-AND-COMING CHOREOGRAPHER TORI LAWRENCE, ALL THE WORLD TRULY IS A STAGE interview by CRED Magazine published January 2012
"Tori Lawrence is quickly becoming known in Philly's dance scene for her site-specific installations that explore connections between architecture and choreography. For a few magical summer evenings, the 23-year old choreographer transformed Girard College's Founder's Hall, a historic landmark otherwise unseen by Philadelphia's residents, into a grand performance space for her newest piece, ‘Awakened Ruins’. 'The first time I saw Founder's Hall at Girard College I thought it was the most beautiful building I'd ever laid eyes on,' said Tori. 'It looked like it belonged in Greece! I thought, I would love to dance in there.' After an impromptu visit to the site, Tori met with Paul Eaton, the Chair of Girard College’s Fine Arts Department, who invited Tori to use the space as a venue for her new work. In exchange, she became an artist-in-residence at the school. Twice a week, Tori and fellow dancer Ashley Lippolis instructed Girard College's young dance students in an innovative curriculum that focused on creativity, improvisation, and choreography. Their non-traditional approach taught the children how to choreograph and perform works of their own. Meanwhile, Tori Lawrence + Company rehearsed for a performance that would leave every member of its audience with goose bumps [...]"
Wish You Were Here: “Fresh Juice” Serves Up Age Old Questions In A New Vessel by R. Eric Thomas, for Thinking Dance published October 2011
“Tori Lawrence’s ‘Awakened Ruins’, a site-specific dance created for Girard College and modified for the stage, was a lovely meditation on the disconnect between intention and action. Two, then three, dancers, caked with chalky power and leaving plumes of white dust in their wakes, trudged laboriously around the space in distinct sets. The dancers traversed the stage parallel to each other and later in unison. Their movements doubled and deflated, frustrating their progress. They were beckoned, it seemed, by violinist Christopher Brooks’ urgent composition. The music, vibrant and hopeful, was a marked contrast to lethargic movement phrases. As Brooks’ playing grew more frantic, suggesting drama, the dancers—Emily Herchenroeher, Ashley Lippolis, Pamela Vail—continued their slow journey with heavy limbs and sluggish feet. It is only when Lippolis’ stone creature broke free, stumbling and sliding around the space, that music and intention combined in service of a narrative. Lippolis tottered wildly like a newborn calf, then whirled, gasped and finally wandered off-stage toward the exit as the music grew reedy and high in a surprisingly tender development.”
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: AWAKENED RUINS
A
nother hair-standing-on-the-back-of-my-neck performance. How different was the grandeur of last night's performance, amidst
the peeling paint and crumbling plaster of the time-worn upper levels of the latter building. Your performance makes an incred ibly powerful statement. Not only did the dancers awaken those ruins; they adorned them. Thank you. --J. Cunningham, Sept. 11, 2011
T
his was an amazing experience--I'm so glad I was there. I had goosebumps--wonderful production! --S. Fink, Sept. 11, 2011
SOURCE site-specific dance, choreographed by Tori Lawrence Performance Engagements: Philly Fringe Festival | Power Plant Productions, Philadelphia | Sept. 2010 Eastern Market, Lancaster | April 2010 The Art of Public Memory Conference | University of North Carolina Greensboro | April 2011
Length: original (50 minutes); stage-adapted version (13 minutes) Performers: Emily Herchenroether, Tori Lawrence, Jaclyn Malat, Aly Massof Costume: Holly Andrew, Virginia West, Tori Lawrence Music: Bing & Ruth Photography: Peter Cutler, Craig Harris Video Installation: Tori Lawrence, Hang Pham
Chosen as one of philly.com's "Faves of the 2010 Philly Fringe"
REVIEW: SOURCE by MJ Fine, for the Philadelphia City Paper AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
published Sept. 2010
"Down in the windowless basement of an outmoded power
"Awesome performance. The most moving dance piece I
plant, choreographer Tori Lawrence leads a four-woman
have witnessed. The venue, lighting, music and dancing all
troupe through the vast, watery darkness. Their dresses
melded together to create a mesmerizing yet life-fulfilling
soaked, their hair casting arcs of droplets, the dancers
emotion. Look forward to more from this company."
careen about the space with little regard for the bewildered
--C. Angelini, Sept. 13, 2010
audience. They slip and slide, they grab and lift and drop one another, staring straight ahead all the while. That's not a
"It was a beautiful, haunting performance, brilliantly inhabit-
blanket of blankness in their expressions, but of disbelief,
ing this fascinating space and moving among and even with
terror, resignation, rue. A short film projected atop their
the audience. An inspiring first for this new dance company!
bodies and an eerie score by Bing & Ruth only add to the
Can't wait for more."
flow. "
--Lynn M. Brooks, Sept. 13, 2010
THE ENDLESS ROUND dance on film, directed by Tori Lawrence
Performance Engagements: Philly Fringe Festival | Power Plant Productions, Philadelphia | Sept. 2010 Eastern Market, Lancaster | April 2010 The Art of Public Memory Conference | University of North Carolina Greensboro | April 2011 Tucson’s Synergistic Water Film Festival | The Loft Cinema, Tucson, AZ | March 2011 Franklin & Marshall College Film Festival | Lancaster, PA | May 2010
Length: 5 minutes Dancers: Emily Herchenroether, Jaclyn Malat, Aly Massof Music: Bing & Ruth Costume: Virginia West Camera: Tori Lawrence, Hang Pham Editing: Tori Lawrence
TORI LAWRENCE DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER Tori Lawrence, originally from Atlanta, is the choreographer/director of Philadelphia-based Tori Lawrence + Company. She collaborates with a group of musicians and dancers on multidisciplinary site-specific installations, dance films, and work for the stage. Known for exploring the connection between architecture and choreography, Lawrence has created work in historic landmarks such as Founder's Hall at Girard College (1857), Lancaster's Eastern Market (1883), and Philadelphia's Wilbur Chocolate Factory (1887). Her works have been performed in the Philly Fringe, American College Dance Festival, Mascher Space Co-op's Fresh Juice, COLLAGE Festival, Franklin & Marshall College, University of North Carolina Greensboro, New Hampshire, Lancaster, Tucson, and throughout the PA area. She has taught Master Classes at Franklin & Marshall College and was an artist-in-residence at Girard College, where she taught improvisation and composition. She graduated with honors from Franklin & Marshall College and holds a B.A. in both dance and public health.
PAMELA VAIL DANCER Pamela Vail is a choreographer, performer, improviser, and teacher. She is a co-founding member of the Architects, a performance improvisation ensemble, with whom Vail teaches, creates, and performs both choreographed and improvised work. She is a founding member of critically acclaimed New York City-based Yanira Castro | a canary torsi, with whom she has performed extensively since 1995. Vail has also had the pleasure of working with choreographers Terry Creach, Heidi Henderson, Peter Schmitz, and Tori Lawrence, among others. She teaches master classes and performs her own choreography nationally and internationally, and is currently Assistant Professor of Dance at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. Vail holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. in dance from Smith College, and has been dancing since she was six years old.
ASHLEY LIPPOLIS DANCER Hailing from upstate NY, Ashley Lippolis is a young artist living in Philadelphia with a versatile background in dance, theater, and film. She earned a BA in dance and psychology from Franklin & Marshall College, where she spent much of her energy on modern dance, flamenco, musical theater, site-specific art, and dance for film. Ashley learned from a number of wonderful artists at the College, including Pamela Vail, Lynn Brooks, Elba Hevia y Vaca, Lori Belilove, Jennifer Conley, and Lorry May. While in school, she discovered Philadelphia's vibrant dance community as an intern for Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre at nEW Festival, and has been hooked ever since. Soon after, she began putting her writing skills to use for Dadadance Project's Eun Jung Choi and Guillermo Ortega Tanus, whose artistry she greatly admires. Ashley is currently coordinating a public art outreach program for the Fairmount Park Art Association, an organization that commissions, interprets, and preserves public art in Philadelphia.
EMILY HERCHENROETHER DANCER Emily Herchenroether, originally from Pittsburgh, graduated in 2010 from Franklin & Marshall College, where she double majored in dance and government. During her senior year, she earned the M. Munson Award in Dance and graduated with honors for her research project, A Creative Legacy. She has performed in three American College Dance Festivals, 2010 Philly Fringe Festival, COLLAGE Festival, separate site-specific productions by choreographers Tori Lawrence and Ashley Lippolis, and work by choreographer Kate Speer. She has studied improvisation with the Architects at the Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation (MICI) and has also participated at The Bates Dance Festival.
CHRISTOPHER BROOKS VIOLINIST/COMPOSER
Christopher Brooks (violinist) was born and raised in Brooklyn. In high school, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Department and during the summer he trained at the arcadian Kinhaven Music School. Attending the New School of Music in Philadelphia (a conservatory founded by members of the Curtis Quartet), he studied violin with Jascha Brodsky and Geoffrey Michaels. He has played chamber music and been a member of numerous orchestras in the US and Europe, including Orquesta Bética Filarmónica de Sevilla (concertmaster), the Frysk Orkest in the Netherlands, and the Reading, York, and Harrisburg Symphonies (concertmaster). Throughout his performing career he has continued to teach privately. His current musical focus is on jazz and free improvisation. In 1988, he embarked on a successful career as an architectural acoustics consultant and works as a Senior Consultant for the architectural acoustics consulting firm, Acoustic Dimensions. He has published numerous articles and a book, Architectural Acoustics (McFarland 2002), a series of informal essays on architectural acoustics and related subjects. He also contributed to the Integrative Design Guide to Green Building (Wiley Publishing, 2009) by a team who began in green design back when it was a fringe pursuit among architects.He currently lives in Lancaster, PA with his wife, Lynn Brooks, professor of Dance at Franklin & Marshall College.
VICKI BROWN VIOLINIST/COMPOSER Vicki Brown works with musicians and bands, dancers, painters, writers, actors and film makers in the US and abroad. She has recorded two albums, Winter Garden and Seas & Trees, music from which appears in the Oscar-nominated, Emmy award-winning film, Gasland (Josh Fox) and in Tori Lawrence + Company's “Awakened Ruins” which premiered at the 2011 Philly Fringe Festival. Vicki was born and raised in southern Wisconsin and began playing violin at age 9. She has since lived in Brazil and Germany, studied spider monkeys in Costa Rica, and received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Arizona. She currently works and lives in Tucson.
PATRICK FINK PIANIST/COMPOSER Patrick Fink (pianist) was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He started studying classical piano at the age of five. Eventually he made the switch to jazz and came to Philadelphia to study at Temple University. Patrick had the opportunity there to learn from great jazz musicians such as Bruce Barth, Terell Stafford, Joanna Pascale, and others. As the piano player for the Temple University Big Band, he has had the opportunity to perform with Nicholas Payton, Benny Golson, and Karrin Allyson at venues such as Dizzy's in Lincoln Center, the 2008 Hague Jazz Festival, the Kimmel Center, and the 2009 Detroit Jazz Festival. In addition, Patrick regularly performs all over the Philadelphia area as a leader or sideman in various jazz settings.
LORA ALLEN DANCER Lora Allen joined Tori Lawrence + Co. as a dancer in 2012. She is a creator, educator, and arts advocator. She graduated from DeSales University in 2010. Her choreography has been presented at the Philly Fringe, the American College Dance Festival as well as other theatres and collectives throughout Pennsylvania. Lora is the choreographer and artistic director of allendance. As an educator, she is currently the assistant director of Sanford Elite Performing Arts Academy in Somerdale NJ. Lora has previously performed works choreographed by Kate Jewett of Shen Wei Dance Arts, Timothy Cowart, Twyla Tharp's "The One Hundreds", Isabel Gotkowsky, Alwin Nikolais's "Tensile Involvement", Cleo Mack, Kristen Fieseler, Darcy Lyons, and Loren Groenendaal. Lora and allendance is currently an artist in residence at the mascher space co-op in Philadelphia.
CHRISTINA KNIPP DANCER Christina Knipp, from Baltimore, MD, graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 2009 with a major in Economics and a double minor in Italian and Dance. She has studied various styles of dance, such as ballet, modern, jazz, tap and hip hop. Dance has always played a significant role in her life. She was a member of the Franklin and Marshall College Dance Company for four years. She has performed in various venues, including Franklin & Marshall College, Towson University, Temple University, American College Dance Festival, and in various site-specific dance works. During her senior year, she performed in Lawrence's Ajar: Through the Mind's Eye. She also choreographed in collaboration with Ashley Lippolis for F&M College's Spring Dance Concert. Christina continues to study dance in Washington, D.C., where she currently lives and works
CHRISTOPHER LANDY CINEMATOGRAPHER With more than 20 years behind the lens, award-winning cinematographer Christopher Landy creates imagery that is inspiring, insightful and thought-provoking. His work has taken him around the globe - from the teeming avenues of New York, to the small dirt tracks of China and Africa, and all points in between. Christopher has done work for clients such as HBO, NFL Films, Frontline, The BBC, The History Channel and Discovery.
CRAIG HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHER Craig Harris is based in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 2009. He originally began taking photographs for the Franklin & Marshall College Dance Company, where he first met Tori Lawrence. He has been taking photos of Lawrence's work since 2009.