Metro Weekly

Jane Franklin Dance’s “About Time” is this weekend

Performance developed in response to Philip Livingston's art

Jane Franklin Dance: About Time
Jane Franklin Dance: About Time

Family, Ghosts and Other Strangers is an exhibition featuring paintings and wood drawings by Philip Livingston, who through his art aims “to evoke the experience of time.” In his artist statement for the exhibition, now on display online as well as in person at the Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria, Livingston writes that, “among the figures, chairs, paint swipes, drawing marks, empty spaces, rocks, and stenciled patterns, the question is not so much where as when.”

He adds that the works on display, all created within the past two years, “reflect some of the dramatic events we all have experienced. So here is solitude, sorrow, entanglement, rage, uncertainty; but also some hopeful gestures of light and color.”

All of that will find expression and reflection in new works of movement from the Arlington-based Jane Franklin Dance, developed in response to Livingston’s art as well as to his spoken-word descriptions revealing his process and the elements of change.

To be performed this Saturday, March 20, About Time offers a collection of dances in which “corresponding bodies work in harmony or dissonance [and] silhouettes emerge. Dancers in bold colors are playfully paired with projected family photographs, monochromes in B&W, images from childhood, and past generations that flutter and disappear [as] shadows hint at moments just missed.”

Company dancers Philip Baraoidan, Carly Johnson, Kelsey Rohr, Amy Scaringe, and Byrnna Wilder perform to music by Steven Rogers as well as to queer poet Christopher Thomas and the message of self-acceptance and hope conveyed in his work “No Cares.” The dancers will respond to the rhythms of Thomas’ voice as well as to his words. A Q&A will follow the performance.

Saturday, March 20, at 7:30 p.m. Registration required, with a suggested minimum donation of $10. Donations of $20 and above grant a VIP code for a Vimeo On Demand performance. Visit www.janefranklin.com.

Philip Livingston — Family, Ghosts, and Other Strangers runs to April 4 at the Athenaeum, 201 Prince St., in Alexandria, and open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Call 703-548-0035 or visit www.nvfaa.org.

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