Tangle Movement Arts Tackles Romance, Conflict, Urban Space and Recycling in The Girl’s Guide to Neighborly Conduct
Think kinetic cityscapes, suspended ropes, trapeze duets, climbing silk curtains to clean cobwebs and an all-female ensemble of gender-bending, non-conforming performers. That is what you will get with Tangle Movement Arts new work “The Girl’s Guide to Neighborly Conduct” premiering on September 10, 2015 at the Philadelphia Soundstages in Northern Liberties.
Tangle Movement Arts is known for its edgy performances, sparking discussion around gender roles and challenging societal rules and expectations around love, relationships and identity. The company’s new work “The Girl’s Guide to Neighborly Conduct” will not disappoint and as a bonus, patrons will walk away with a little lesson on recycling, too. Can you recycle a used pizza box? The answer is not as obvious as it may seem. The show will tackle being environmentally responsible by offering the audience snippets of not so well known facts about daily recycling while staying true to the company’s art form of feminist circus art.
Feminist circus art is about lifting oneself and lifting other bodies. “We see in circus arts a really strong potential to question what bodies usually look like, what bodies can normally do, how people should relate to one another. We think of circus art as a form that prioritizes strength and emphasizes what bodies can do rather than what they might like as the primary aesthetic, we think that’s really powerful and exciting. As an art form it’s so much about lifting oneself and lifting other bodies,” says Tangle Movement Arts’ founder and performer, Lauren Rile Smith. Smith founded the company 6 years ago with the intention of literalizing metaphors about life and putting people’s bodies in situations audiences do not usually encounter, whilst representing a variety of gender presentations in each new performance.
“The Girl’s Guide to Neighborly Conduct” will center on the relationship between six longtime roommates in which conflict sparks when a new neighbor moves into the row home next door. This allows the performance the latitude to delve into the politics of negotiating space, confronting domestic arrangements and sharing the urban space of a block. The content is particularly relevant as Philadelphia moves through new growth and development in the midst of changing neighbors and new faces on city blocks in which long-time homeowners are unfamiliar. There is something in this show for everyone.
On Thursday, September 10 (8pm), Friday, September 11 (8pm), and Saturday, September 12 (3pm and 8pm), Tangle Movement Arts will bring this innovative new performance to Philadelphia Soundstages in Northern Liberties. Tickets are $15-20, and there are discounts for artists, students and groups. For more information, click here.
