ZenRaga Repertory

photo by Bill Herbert

Be prepared to write, speak, fall, fly, crawl or glide. We will be creating a draft of 'because' , a new work by TaniaIsaacDance. Tracing the reasons why we move, think and reason the way that we do, the movement explores a full dynamic and physical range of the zenraga body -- quick and sharp, sinuous and suspended, always shifting, curving, moving smoothly in and out of the floor and carving our way through space and ideas. The work will be performed in the Festival Finale. All participants must be enrolled in Isaac's technique or a modern IV or V.

Tania Isaac is a Caribbean-American dancer/choreographer who fuses choreography with personal documentary and social commentary to grapples with identity, post-colonial issues, feminism and juxtapositions of European and African influences. She graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received her MFA in dance from Temple University in 2000. Also a scholar, she has penned several articles for publications such as Susanna Sloat’s anthology Making Caribbean Dance (University Press of Florida, 2010). Isaac is a former member of David Dorfman Dance, Urban Bush Women and Rennie Harris Puremovement. She has received grants from the Independence Foundation, Dance Advance, National Performance Network, Leeway Foundation, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work and is the recipient of a 2011 Pew Charitable Foundation Artists Fellowship. Her current work is a groundbreaking exploration of creative method she calls the “Open Notebook“ a way of turning a room into a laboratory of investigation and participatory dance. She developed this project during a 2006 Residency at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. Isaac has been faculty at Bates Dance Festival, Resident Artist at Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, and a US/JAPAN Exchange Artist through Philadelphia Dance Projects, Dance Theater Workshop and the Japan Foundation. She has also taught and performed across the U.S