Created for a light filled former art room on the second floor of a historic elementary school in South Philly, Interior is a new duet from Leah Stein Dance Company in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
Dancer/choreographer Leah Stein and violinist/composer Diane Monroe invite audiences to join them in an intimate, nuanced, and surprising duet. How do bodies and voices respond to events close and far, embody absence and presence, and activate the immediate moment?
About LSDC:
Leah Stein Dance Company connects people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, age groups, and communities through the creation of site-specific dance that enlivens a sense of place. LSDC integrates improvisational methods and invites audiences to be part of the performance space; this shared experience among performers and audience is at the heart of LSDC dances. The company actively investigates the interrelationships between body, sound and site, and develops and maintains strong collaborations with musicians, singers, visual artists and local communities.
About the Artists:
Leah Stein is the award-winning artistic director and founder of the Leah Stein Dance Company, now in its 15th Anniversary Season. Originally from the Hudson Valley New York, Leah Stein studied with influential artists Kei Takei, Diane McIntyre, Eiko and Koma, Simone Forti and Deborah Hay in her formative years as a choreographer. Improvisation is at the heart of her practice. Stein has collaborated with composers Byron Au Yong (TURBINE), David Lang (battle hymns), Pauline Oliveros (Urban ECHO), Dave Burrell (Brush Mind),Germaine Ingram (The Break, Other People’s Children), and Diane Monroe (Bellows Falls, Adjacent Spaces) and poet Josey Foo (Imprint and A Lily Lilies). LSDC collaborated with Alan Harler and the Mendelssohn Club Chorus creating five major productions between 2006 - 2015. Stein received a 2010 Independence Foundation Fellowship, three Pennsylvania of the Arts Fellowships for Choreography, and a Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she was a 2013 finalist for a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Through study and research with composer Pauline Oliveros and the Deep Listening Institute, Stein is a Certificate Holder in Deep Listening. She has taught extensively at Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, and Drexel University and teaches children, young adults, seniors and professional artists.
Diane Monroe, violinist/composer, was born in Philadelphia. She has performed with world-renowned musicians from Yo-Yo Ma to Max Roach. Her solo performances have been heard in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Switzerland’s Tonhalle. As a composer, she has written incidental music for two plays by Tap-it/New Works Ensemble. She was concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra and has performed with Zero Moving Company, Karen Bamonte, and the Mark Morris Dance Company. She has collaborated with choreographers Lisa Kraus, Germaine Ingram, and Leah Stein. Presently, Monroe performs with her jazz quartet/quintet and her duo with vibraphonist Tony Miceli. Monroe’s visibility in the jazz world began with her long tenure as first violinist of the Uptown String Quartet and the Max Roach Double Quartet. Diane Monroe is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and University of the Arts. She teaches at Swarthmore College and Temple University