POWER
Reggie Wilson with the Fist and Heel Performance Group
September 20-22, 2024
Award-winning choreographer Reggie Wilson offers up a whirling, rhythmic, exalted expression of Black Shaker worship through music and movement.
Did you know there was a Shaker community led by a free Black woman in Philadelphia in 1859? Folding his research of Shakers into this history, Wilson gives his perspective on what the community of Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson may have looked like.
Throughout his career, Wilson has sought out the varied histories and spiritual practices of Africa and its diaspora to develop his own personal movement style, which he sometimes calls “post-African/Neo-HooDoo modern dance.”
Returning to FringeArts, Wilson and the Fist and Heel Performance Group offer audiences a simple gift: a powerful reflection on Black Shakers’ practices.
“Wilson’s poetic work often has historical resonance.” — The New York Times
Performance Information
September 20–22, 2024
September 20 at 7pm
September 21 at 7pm
September 22 at 2pm
Pricing
$35 Standard
$15 Students & 25-and-Unders
$2 FringeACCESS
FringeArts Member discounts & benefits available
Venue
FringeArts
140 N. Columbus Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
About the Artists
Reggie Wilson + Fist & Heel Performance Group
The Company’s name, Fist and Heel, is derived from enslaved Africans in the Americas who reinvented their spiritual traditions as a soulful art form that white and black authorities dismissed as merely ‘fist and heel worshipping’.
Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group is a Brooklyn-based dance company whose mission is to create, research, develop, and present new performance work that investigates the intersections of culture and movement practices. The Company’s body-of-works draw from the spiritual and mundane traditions of Africa and its Diaspora; Fist and Heel believes in the potential of the body as a valid means for knowing.
The choreography of Reggie Wilson displays rigor, structure and craft in a postmodern dance vernacular. His choreography expands the limitations of textbook definitions of ‘black dance’ and range from strict dance pieces to full, all-inclusive performance art pieces with arranged vocalizations, text, and inclusion of other media. Fist and Heel’s performance works strive for authenticity and respect of Reggie Wilson’s creative vision.
Creative Team
Reggie Wilson Choreographer/Performer
Naoko Nagata Costume Designer
Enver Chakartash Costume Designer
Jonathan Belcher Lighting Designer
Photo (c) Christopher Duggan
Supporters
Lead support is provided by the William Penn Foundation.
Festival Producers
Chris Deephouse and Donna Hunt
Festival Co-Producers
Lynne Y. Strieb and Bert Strieb
Judith Tannenbaum
Accessibility
Wheelchair/Limited Mobility Seating and Assistive Listening Devices.
Content Considerations
This performance is open to kids younger than 7 at the discretion of parents/guardians.
Please note that the performers can be seen by the audience when they are doing costumes changes. There is no nudity, but there is skin/flesh revealed. Personal discretion advised.
Health & Safety
Masks are optional, vaccines are not required. More information about FringeArts COVID policies can be found here.
Philly Fringe 2024
This event is presented by FringeArts as part of the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. To browse programming curated by FringeArts, click here.
The 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival runs from September 5–29, and features more than 300 participating artists and companies in venues across the city. Join us all month long for audacious, adventurous, astonishing art.
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