Events

December 2021-January 2022

MANA Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ

The Moving Architects receives a residency grant offered by SMUSH Gallery (a space for creative and community work in the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City), Monira Foundation, and Mana Contemporary. 

November 3-7, 2021 

TPAIRR, Rehoboth Beach, DE

A residency program open to artists of all mediums who would like the space to breathe, be with nature, and live in an uncommon setting, Erin Carlisle Norton was selected as one of the artist families with her project to create a new dance film in the Rehoboth Beach area setting

July 30, 2021 @ 7pm ET: In-Person Premiere
July 30-August 6: Virtual Event Available

Acadia Dance Festival: Online Dance Film Screening
by Nimbus Arts Center and Acadia Dance Festival

featuring: The Moving Architects’ short film “bubbling”

“bubbling”
Dancer/Choreographer/Video Editor: Erin Carlisle Norton
Inflatable Bubble: Visual Artist gwen Charles
Music: Michael Wall

For its 2021 season, the Acadia Dance Festival will curate a series of dance films that represent the diverse ways that dance moves through our communities and our lives. This temporary shift away from live, in-theater performances will allow the festival to reach a broader audience and provide safe ways to engage with contemporary dance this season. The festival will partner with the 1932 Criterion Theatre to present in-person and online screenings of the 2021 Dance Films.

In-Person Film Premiere Event

Friday, July 30th, 2021
7pm, Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor, Maine
Tickets $10: HERE

Online Screening Event

Audiences will receive a virtual access link to watch films from the comfort of home.
July 30th – August 6th 2021
Tickets $10: HERE

The Moving Architects: Audition for Female Dancers
Application Deadline: August 1, 2021 

The Moving Architects (TMA), led by Artistic Director Erin Carlisle Norton, is currently seeking 1-2 female dancers for September 2021-May 2022 who have a movement foundation grounded in modern dance forms.  Additional skills and interests: working intimately and collaboratively within a group; ease with improvisation, movement manipulation, and partner work; an affinity for weighted and strength-based movement; interest in integrating movement exploration with objects, props, and media; and readiness for an investigatory rehearsal process. TMA rehearsals are scheduled in 1-5 day residencies in NJ/NYC and regionally, and dancers are paid for performances and rehearsals on a project-by-project basis.  Dancers are independent contractors and work under a Letter of Agreement paid monthly.  Those invited to attend the audition must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.  Female dancers of color are encouraged to apply.

TO APPLY:

Fill out application form HERE that includes:

• Resume
• Headshot
• Video Weblink: informal video speaking up to 3 minutes answering the question “What place or places bring you endless inspiration?”
• Video Weblink: Movement Improvisation. Video can be up to 4 minutes (no music) and must include:
  • Sustained movement
  • Repeating movement that dynamically evolves over time
  • A surprise
  • Showing of strength (up for interpretation)

Note: Dance reels will NOT be accepted or links to websites as video submission.
Application deadline: August 1, 2021  

Up to 15 dancers will be asked to attend an audition on the afternoon of Saturday, August 28^th in Jersey City.  Invitations will be made by August 8, 2021.  Audition will include warm-up, phrase work, movement manipulation, and an interview.

Questions? info[at]themovingarchitects.org

The Moving Architects, under Artistic Director Erin Carlisle Norton, is a female-centric dance company that channels the authentic complexity of both the current and historically lived female experience into dance works edged with charged movement and feminine strength.  Formed in 2007 and based in NJ/NYC since 2013, TMA has performed and taught extensively throughout the NYC-area, East Coast, Midwest, and internationally in Central Asia, Guatemala, and Morocco. TMA hosts and produces the dance interview podcast Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast and heads the Community Movement Project, a pay-what-you-can movement program in Northern NJ.

June 3, 2021 @ 7.30pm EDT (virtual event)

LONELAND
an evening of dance cinema

Tickets: $20 Suggested Donation
Purchase: Eventbrite
View and Download: LONELAND Program

Join us for an evening of dance cinema expressing a myriad of dance and music genres, embracing the distinctive voices of the female dancers of The Moving Architects.  LONELAND features dances performed in site-specific locations throughout the NYC-area alongside company dance works translated to the screen and behind-the-scenes footage recorded in the virtual and bubble rehearsal process with TMA this last year.  Newly commissioned solo dance films offer striking and intimate portraits of the individual dancers.  Each solo was developed virtually under the direction of TMA director Erin Carlisle Norton and culminated within various outdoor spaces to reflect the dancer’s key concept, production following COVID-19 safety protocols.  The virtual event LONELAND rises out of a year of isolation with shuttered dance studios and venues, each dancer emerging to share her powerful voice.

Featuring: Artistic Director Erin Carlisle Norton and company dancers Aria Roach, Ashley Peters, Bethany Chang, Caitlin Bailey, Indigo Sparks, and Zoe Kaplan with guest artist and visual arts collaborator gwen charles.

May 15, 2021 @ 3pm ET (Rain Date May 16)

Outside the Lines, a site-specific dance series

TICKETS: Free outside event
Centenary University’s Seay Building, Front Lawn
400 Jefferson Street, Hackettstown, NJ

For more info:  Outside the Lines

10 professional companies and independent choreographers from NJ & NYC! The Moving Architects will perform excerpts of “Demure as Dynamite” with Caitlin Bailey and Bethany Chang.

April 30th @ 7.30pm EST

Capturing the Moment, A Showcase of New Jersey Choreographer Fellows

TICKETS: Free with Registration
Purchase Tickets: Sopacenow.org

Capturing the Moment is a virtual two-part showcase of seven dance choreographers, including The Moving Architects Artistic Director Erin Carlisle Norton, who have received the highest honor from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts – a Choreography Fellowship.

Each evening’s program will include performances as well as interviews with the choreographers by dance critic and a journalist Robert Johnson.

The Moving Architects will perform “Walled” featuring dancers Caitlin Bailey, Bethany Chang, and Aria Roach, and “COUP” featuring dancers Caitlin Bailey, Bethany Chang, Aria Roach, and Indigo Sparks.

January 21, 2021 @ 8pm on YouTube

Dance New Jersey presents Show Up & Dance: Celebrating the Dances of 2020

TICKETS: Suggested Donation: $10
Purchase Tickets: dancenj.org

The Moving Architects joins Dance New Jersey for an evening of virtual dance performances.  Showcasing an array of dance works made across the state in 2020, The Moving Architects shows an excerpted dance film version of “Event of a Thread”, presented by Imlay Gallery and 21C Museum Hotel in Lexington, KY in January 2020.  Work was a collaboration between Imlay Gallery, sculptor Crystal Gregory, visual artist gwen charles, and The Moving Architects with dancers Ashley Peters and Caitlin Bailey.

Due to the Governor’s recent announcement that nonessential travel across NJ, NY, and CT state lines be avoided, The Moving Architects will be canceling our Saturday performance of An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell at Van Vleck House & Gardens in Montclair, NJ. While the timing is disheartening, we want to abide by these requests and keep everyone healthy and safe. We look forward to bringing you more virtual and in-person performances in 2021.

October 24, 2020 @ 2pm, Live Music Begins at 1:45pm
(Rain Date, October 25 @ 2pm)

An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell

Van Vleck House & Gardens
21 Van Vleck Street
Montclair, New Jersey
Small Parking Lot and Free Street Parking Available

TICKETS:
General Admission: $20
Student (Under 18): $10
Child (under 5): Free
Note: Tickets must be purchased online, no tickets sold at the door. Chairs will be provided and tickets bought together will be placed together and socially distanced.  Masks are required. The grounds are available for all to peruse and enjoy.
Purchase Tickets: themovingarchitects.ticketleap.com

Celebrating The Year of the Woman in 2020 was overshadowed by the economic and social upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anti-Racism Movements, and political discord.  Instead of celebrating female achievements, 2020 has brought us face-to-face with deep emotions and great disappointments. The Moving Architects have chosen to channel these emotions into a narrative of empowerment, resiliency, grieving, and of finding meaning in the dissonance through the new collaborative work Jubilee & Knell. In the words of poet Emily Dickinson, both Jubilee (happiness) and Knell (sorrow) can be felt at the same time, as we do in this moment.

Join The Moving Architects for a live outdoor performance on October 24, 2020 at the beautiful grounds of Van Vleck Gardens in Montclair, NJ as we celebrate bringing the female representation to the forefront of dance for nearly 14 years. This event supports TMA’s mission of producing new works, offering community classes, and providing platforms for dialogue and collaboration. The company will perform new work created virtually during the pandemic, alongside adjusted repertory work that removes partnering and keeps the dancers socially distanced.

An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell / Work Descriptions

The Moving Architects, with Artistic Director Erin Carlislen Norton, visual artist collaborator gwen charles, and dancers Caitlin Bailey, Maggie Beutner, Ashley Peters, and Aria Roach, will perform three rigorous and powerful female-focused works.

Jubilee & Knell is a duet that pulls from the two memory states jubilee (happiness) and knell (sorrow) taken from the poet Emily Dickinson.  Exploring how these two memory states can be experienced simultaneously, Norton explores the exaggerated realities of the pandemic including isolation, social distancing, perceptions of time, connection, and forced self-reflection. Audience members will view performers dancing inside and outside giant milky blurred bubbles in moments of extreme physical exertion side-by-side with moments of intimacy and fragility, the bubbles visually representing how memory is accessed and experienced.  A work truly of our time, Jubilee & Knell has been created almost entirely in the virtual space.

Performed by 3 women, Walled is an aggressively physicalized, fervent, and intricate trio dance work that examines through risky movement, intense partnering, 10-feet of stretchy white fabric, and a driving sound score the societal and psychological barriers found in the company’s political and personal lives today.

The closing piece Together is an improvisationally-based dance work performed by the company with live music by Steven-Jon Billings and Tyler Gilmore of BlankFor.ms.  All of the performed works reveal Norton’s choreographic interests of transgressing borders between dance, art, sound, and design.