Erin Carlisle Norton founded The Moving Architects on New Year’s Day, 2007. Growing up in the nooks and crannies of a Victorian house and the Neo-Gothic church outside of Pittsburgh, PA where her father was pastor, she developed a heightened awareness of her experience of physical spaces long-steeped in the passage of time. Adding to this her vigilance in exploring and promoting the female voice and form, The Moving Architects is now a female-centric dance company known for creating highly visual and innovative dance works.

The company regularly collaborates with artists working in other artistic mediums in order to add multiple approaches, texture, imagery, depth, and nuance to the dance-based projects. Norton’s work is grounded in her physical research of improvisation practices, modern and postmodern dance studies, and Laban Movement Analysis. Since its inception, The Moving Architects has engaged with audiences and communities regionally, nationally, and internationally through performance, teaching, and podcasting projects. 

 

Company tours have included a teaching and performance tour of Central Asia sponsored by The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Embassies. The company also had a short residency in Guatemala City, and Norton was invited to teach and perform throughout Morocco with Association D’Fleur with sponsorship by the U.S. Embassy.  Other TMA highlights include a 3-city tour of Elevate: A Triple Bill of Female Choreographers in NYC, Boston, and Pittsburgh; collaborative projects at NYC’s The Tank and Jersey City Theatre Center with visual artist gwen charles; the collaborative project Event of a Thread with Imlay Gallery and visual artist Crystal Gregory at 21C Museum Hotel in Lexington, KY and Spring Break Art Fair NYC; and yearly creative residencies since the company’s inception at Wilson College.

TMA produces the lauded dance interview podcast “Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast” led by Norton that features the choreographers, dancers, educators, media artists, administrators, collaborators, and other “shapers” of the dance field. Designed as a community-based movement outreach program, TMA also leads Community Movement Project, a pay-what-you-can movement program in Northern NJ in partnership with Central Presbyterian Church of Montclair.

 

As The Moving Architects celebrates over a decade of dance-making and teaching, the company under Norton’s direction continues to grow and research new projects, partnerships, and collaborations, exploring fresh creative and conceptual tools with each new venture.