Pew Center for Arts and Heritage

Get our monthly newsletter in your inbox for the latest on cultural events, ideas, conversations, and grantmaking news in Philadelphia and beyond.

The Dance Apocalypse

Gabrielle Revlock
A work-in-progress performance of The Dance Apocalypse at Scratch Night, March 2013. Pictured, from left: Gabrielle Revlock and Nicole Bindler. Photo by Kate Raines.
A work-in-progress performance of The Dance Apocalypse at Scratch Night, March 2013. Pictured, from left: Gabrielle Revlock and Nicole Bindler. Photo by Kate Raines.
A work-in-progress performance of The Dance Apocalypse at Scratch Night, March 2013. Pictured, from left: Gabrielle Revlock and Nicole Bindler. Photo by Kate Raines.
A work-in-progress performance of The Dance Apocalypse at Scratch Night, March 2013. Pictured, from left: Gabrielle Revlock and Nicole Bindler. Photo by Kate Raines.

Gabrielle Revlock developed a new dance-theater work with past collaborator Nicole Bindler. Their previous collaboration, I made this for you (2011), culminated in a circus of acrobats, tap artists, and break dancers. The duo responded to footage of that production in a live performance that explored the nature of creative collaboration, as well as themes of gender, competition, and spectacle. Jane Comfort, an award-winning choreographer known for combining language and movement, served as mentor. In addition, Barrymore Award winner Brett Cassidy coached the dancers in fight choreography, to physicalize the push and pull of the collaborative process. Revlock and Bindler offered free "dancercise" classes to the public, introducing local "dance enthusiasts" to the notion of dance as a performing art, and to include participants in a working "laboratory" where choreographic ideas and discoveries emerged during the development of The Dance Apocalypse. Revlock was a first-time Center grantee.

Recipient
Gabrielle Revlock

Gabrielle Revlock

A Philadelphia dancer/choreographer with a penchant for humor and surprise, Gabrielle Revlock is a former Jeanne Ruddy Dance company member. She has worked with numerous local and international choreographers including Isabelle Chaffaud and Jérôme Meyer (Netherlands), Sean Feldman (U.K.), Willi Dorner (Austria), and Katsura Kan (Japan), and her work has been shown across the country. Interested in performance as a social art form, she is also the creator of "Wear Your Wig to Work Day," an annual "holiday" that occurs the last Friday in January. Revlock holds a B.A. in art history from Vassar College.

More info
Explore Connections
Photography related to this content

Poet Ross Gay on Sport and the Act of Looking
Video Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Denice Frohman, 2022 Pew Fellow.
Denice Frohman
Pew Fellow Literature
Cesar Viveros and Ada Trillo

Fellow to Fellow: Artists Cesar Viveros and Ada Trillo on Art Created from Memory and Cultural Identity
Interview Social & Community-Based Practices
TOWN, 2022, Theatre Horizon, Norristown, PA. Photo by John C. Hawthorne.
Building a Sense of Belonging through Community-Centered Theater
Essay Social & Community-Based Practices
Paint Factory performed by Darin Atwater and his Soulful Symphony, 2019, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Baltimore, MD. Photo by Stephen Cherry.
Black Metropolis: Improvisations on Paint Factory
Project Grant Performance
Sabaah Folayan, 2022 Pew Fellow.
Sabaah Folayan
Pew Fellow Film & Media
The Crossing Choir in Montana. Photo by Kevin Vondrak. 
Farming
Project Grant Performance
Photography related to this content
William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision
Project Grant Exhibitions & Public Interpretation
Pig Iron Theatre Company, The Path of Pins or the Path of Needles, directed by Josephine Decker, 2022, Rigby Mansion, Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Johanna Austin. 
Director Josephine Decker on Translating the Experience of Pregnancy into Performance
Video Practice & Process