The Gate Reopend at the Live Arts Festival

Preview by Debra Miller, Stage Magazine:

When writer Henry James visited the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice and saw the dark and visionary painting cycle that Tintoretto created from 1564-88 to decorate its interior, he commented, “We shall scarcely find four walls elsewhere that enclose within a like area an equal quantity of genius. The air is thick with it . . . and difficult to breathe.” That’s precisely how I felt when I saw DANCING DEAD, last year’s site-specific Fringe Festival show by Brian Sanders’ JUNK, staged in the sub-basement of 444 Lofts. I went back three times, and viewed it from a different side each time; my only regret was that I couldn’t be there for every single performance. It was pure, transcendent, breath-taking genius.

This year, Sanders and his extraordinary dance troupe have been selected for the Live Arts Festival to remount THE GATE, their smash hit of 2003, and one of the most popular shows in the Festival’s history. THE GATE REOPENED will be re-imagined in Pier 9’s huge-scale municipal warehouse on the Delaware River, employing a team of eight dancers (Jerrica Blankenship, Gunnar Clark, Teddy Fatscher, Tamar Gutherz, John Luna, Billy Robinson, Tommy Schimmel, and Connor Senning), seating in-the-round, and a 20-foot-high octagonal jungle-gym construction (designed by Conrad Bender), with zigzagging and spinning ladders, moving fences, and a surprise rush of water.

Above all, THE GATE REOPENED will feature the brilliant vision and virtuoso choreography of Brian Sanders. Expect an unequalled aerial spectacle filled with beauty, danger, and inconceivable movement, as his astonishing dancers ascend, hover, bounce, and free-fall through space, while defying not just gravity, but all preconceived notions about the limitations of the human body. For Brian Sanders’ JUNK, there are none.

I’ve said it before, and I say it again: any show by Brian Sanders has my vote for the top ticket in Philadelphia, so be sure to get yours before THE GATE REOPENED is closed.For information and tickets, visit http://livearts-fringe.ticketleap.com/the-gate-reopened/ or call the Box Office at 215.413.1318. You’ll be glad that you did.

GET TICKETS

THE GATE REOPENED at the Live Arts Festival

Choreography by Brian Sanders
Brian Sanders’ JUNK

September 14-22, 2012

Pier 9
121 N. Columbus Blvd.

Philadelphia, PA 19106

Illustration by Niki Schifferdecker

Dancing Dead

Philadelphia Fringe Festival

September 2-17, 2011

"...breathtakingly dangerous and hauntingly beautiful."  Debra Miller, STAGE Magazine 9/2/2011

At this year's Philly Fringe festival, JUNK goes underground... literally, to the sub-basement at 444 Lofts, 444 North 4th Street, Philadelphia. Sander's latest site-specific creation will take place deep in the bowels of this trendy warehouse turned loft in Northern Liberties.  Below Philadelphia’s natural water table is a long unoccupied sub-basement chamber which Sanders, famous for turning unlikely spaces into site-specific challenging alternative venues, is turning into a staging ground for Dancing Dead.

Click on the following to read some of our reviews!

The Philadelphia Inquirer

STAGE Magazine

Brian Sanders' JUNK dancers, defying gravity at Arts Bank

Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly.com

The Arts

Posted on Sat, Jan. 22, 2011

Pilobolus, Momix, even Cirque du Soleil visit Philadelphia regularly, and loyal fans flock to their accessible, humorous, gravity‐defying performances.

But Philadelphia has its own company in this realm, Brian Sanders' Junk, which has performed here regularly, mostly at Live Arts/Fringe, since 1992. I'm always surprised Junk doesn't have more of a following and perform more frequently.

Urban Scuba

Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly.com

The Arts

Posted on Thu, Sep. 3, 2009

Urban Scuba Who doesn't love the smell aquatic? You get plenty of it in the long-unused, now-funky pool at the Gershman Y with dancer/choreographer/wild man Brian Sanders.