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PHILADELPHIA, PA: "Fruit of Her Lips," a Live Dance & Poetry Premiere @ Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2023

Company:
Evalina “Wally” Carbonell

Fruit of Her Lips

Live Dance & Poetry Premiere

Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2023

 

Philadelphia, PA- FRUIT OF HER LIPS will take place in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, with four performances from September 7th through September 9th (7PM show on Thursday, 4pm show on Friday, and 7:30pm shows on Friday and Saturday).

Fruit of Her Lips is a new dance and poetry work created and produced by choreographer and dance artist, Evalina “Wally” Carbonell. In this intimate live performance, the choreographer is joined by fellow dancers Weiwei Ma and Sophie Malin, dancer/actor Steve Believe, and her own daughter, six-year-old performer, Lina Carbonell.

Fruit of Her Lips is an interplay between the mysteries of the feminine triune across the ages and the epic apple which sates our collective hunger. At the heart of this group work, sit three solos dealing with femininity and hunger for connection, all originally created and performed by the work’s creator, now redistributed, one to each of the three women in this new work, to represent different stages of life. Connecting these images, visually arresting images which harken to classic artwork and mythology, are brought together by the small group of performers through dance and speech. Drawing from choreographic seeds planted over the past ten years and then built out to include freshly whipped up dance and physical theatre, Fruit of Her Lips also incorporates the choreographer's own poetic voice, as well as poetry by Mary Oliver.

In this just under one-hour performance, audiences will be seated outside, looking into an antique Mt. Airy carriage house which will become a world of its own, a world where generations connect across time and space, hunger grows and is quelled, and poetry comes to life. Typically, a home for movement artists, practicing spirals and spinal undulations in the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM, ® under the guidance of Evalina Carbonell, the space also serves to nurture dancers in their dance practice atop the newly sprung floor and bounding up toward the rustic vaulted ceiling. Highlighted by lights and set pieces installed for the occasion, this unique venue will bring color and context to Fruit of Her Lips for the Fringe Festival this season.

While dancers, Weiwei, Evalina, and Sophie often work together under the umbrella of Philly-based, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (KYL/D), their dancing roots are quite varied. Weiwei received her early training at the Beijing Academy of Dance, Evalina started her career in Classical Ballet and was drawn to Contemporary Dance through the lens of the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM, and Sophie’s roots are in Horton Technique and Ballet. Performer, Steve Believe is a break-dancer and co-founder of Hip Hop Fundamentals. The youngest addition, “Lina” Carbonell, is a student entering the first grade at Waldorf School of Philadelphia and self-trained dancer and performer. Fruit of Her Lips highlights each of these incredible artists in a program full of daring physicality and expressive poignance.

Creating a bridge between the choreographer’s own experiences and the inherited stories of those before her, the cast joins the work's creator in reflecting multiple sides of womanhood, mother, maiden, crone, masculine, feminine, and the innocence of youth. Fruit of Her Lips offers many ways to look at how we nurture or neglect our own appetites for love, fruit, movement, and engagement with those for whom we share our lives. We see the apple, a symbol of wisdom, destruction, sweetness, gravity, risk, and indulgence and its relationship to our humanity. From 9/7-9/9, for four shows, Fruit of Her Lips serves up fresh art.

 

Ticket Information:

https://phillyfringe.org/events/fruit-of-her-lips/

Price: $20 General Admission

 

FRUIT OF HER LIPS

September 7th @ 7PM September 8th @ 7:30PM

September 9th @ 4PM and 7:30PM

 

118 W Phil Ellena Street Philadelphia, PA 19119

 

Artist Bios:

Evalina “Wally” Carbonell is an independent creator and Dance Artist with Philadelphia’s own, Kun-Yang Lin/ Dancers (KYL/D). Originally from Maryland, she received her early training at the National Ballet School in the Cechetti method and went on to earn a BFA in Dance from Florida State University. Upon graduation, Evalina joined Roxey Ballet Company where she danced as a principal artist for six years.

Since joining KYL/D in 2012, Evalina has also been building her own body of choreographic work, receiving the Ellen Forman Award for choreography in 2017 and funding from Small but Mighty Arts in 2018. In 2019, she became KYL/D's Inhale Performance Series Curator, and has been commissioned by the company to create and share her choreography for their 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023 home seasons and touring programs. Evalina is currently deep in creative process as a co-choreographer with Kun-Yang Lin and Weiwei Ma for KYL/D’s spring 2024 spring home season. She is active as a free-lance choreographer, nationally and locally, as well as a teacher of dance, GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC. ® Continually inspired by nature, the divine feminine, spirals, and her two young children, Lina (6) and Cain (4), Evalina has been producing her own works for the Philadelphia Fringe festival since 2015 and is thrilled to share, Fruit of Her Lips with Philly audiences this September.

 

“Lina” Maria Carbonell is a child artist and performer based in Philadelphia, PA. As a dance artist, she has performed in works by Pamela Moore, Anito Gavino and Evalina “Wally” Carbonell, as well as opening for Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers at the Main Line Arts Center and assisting Sophie Malin in CHI Awareness Technique outreach performances. Currently a student at the Waldorf School of Philadelphia, Lina also enjoys other artistic outlets in the form of practicing visual art, singing, and engaging in an ongoing multi-faceted creative process with her brother, Cain Carbonell.

 

Steve Believe graduated from Temple University with a Psychology Major and is a certified Teaching Artist through Columbia University Teachers college. A skilled dancer, lecturer, educator, and event organizer, Steve is passionate about empowering youth and the Hip Hop community using the arts. He co-founded Hip Hop Fundamentals in 2012 with his business partner Mark Wong and since that time they have reached 10's of thousands of students with their message of peace, love, unity and having fun.

 

Weiwei Ma is a Chinese dancer, teacher, and choreographer who started professional Chinese dance training at age eleven. She studied choreography at The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Arts where she graduated with a BFA degree. Before coming to Philadelphia, Weiwei taught Chinese classical dance and choreography at Beijing Contemporary Music Academy. Weiwei graduated with her MFA degree from Temple University in 2016. Weiwei’s work has been presented at the 2016 ACDFA conference in Brockport, NY and at KYL/D’s Fall Season. Recently, Weiwei was selected as the 2022-2023 DanceVisions Residence Artist by the Performance Garage. Weiwei joined KYL/D as a dance artist in 2013. She is the lead Chinese dancer for KYL/D’s cultural programs and is a commissioned choreographer for KYL/D’s 22-23 season.

 

Sophie Malin grew up in Boston, MA and Mason, OH. Sophie trained extensively in Ballet & Modern dance at Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet under the direction of Oliver Arana (Cincinnati Ballet) and Susanne Payne (Dayton Contemporary). After relocating to Philadelphia, Sophie danced professionally with Alchemy Dance Company, SHARP Dance Company, and Klassic Contemporary Ballet Company. She also worked as a freelance artist for Blythe Smith, Evalina (Wally) Carbonell, Asya Zlatina and several others. Sophie has attended intensives at BalletX, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Joffrey School of Ballet, Northwest Dance Project and Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet. Sophie has a deep passion for teaching, including working as the Assistant Director/Artist in Residency at Wilmington Ballet in Delaware. Sophie joined Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers as an apprentice in 2019 and was a teaching artist in the CHI Dance program. In 2020, Sophie was promoted as a dance artist and as KYL/D’s Education Coordinator.