VanDance Inc. presents “The Carrying Place: An Afternoon of Women’s Voices in Dance and Theatre”

In this dance performance, during the 2024 Central PA Theatre & Dance Fest, VanDance presents the voices of women choreographers, dancers, and writers about their issues and perspectives in today’s world. We bring the space alive with deeply moving experiences of love, loss, fortitude, and resilience.

The choreographers whose work is included are VanDance artistic director, Ann Van Kuren, Beth Corning of CorningWorks in Pittsburgh, and Spence Ford. The program takes place in the cozy and inviting setting of Tempest Studios in downtown State College, close to shops and restaurants.

Van Kuren, together with her dancers, Tina Konrath and Aurora White, and writer/dramatist/festival director Cynthia Mazzant explores loss and the grieving process in poetry, text, and movement imagery. Ms. Ford has been considering how, “throughout our lives, women struggle to live up to our own and society’s expectations. The struggle to believe in oneself doesn’t get easier with age. This piece explores the journey of a woman recovering from a late-life accident, forcing her to learn to walk again. And dance?”   Corning’s “The Laden Skirt,” is a solo section excerpted from a CORNINGWORKS original full evening-length work entitled “Six A Breast,” which explores the absurd life of women, originally premiered in 2018 Pittsburgh. “It encapsulates the absurdity of all our lives, no matter what the gender, but women … we got the ‘mother lode’… backwards and in heels.”