The Times Online: Scott Tady: Blackhawk grad featured in empowering dance show

By Scott Tady

28 April 2019

Dancers will celebrate fearless femininity Saturday in a touring show that brings a 1998 Blackhawk High grad back to her old stomping grounds.

“Elevate: A Triple Bill of Female Choreographers” features dance companies from New York, Pittsburgh and New Jersey, the latter one run by Erin Carlisle Norton who grew up in Patterson Heights.

Each dance company will perform a signature piece Saturday at Point Park University’s George Rowland White Performance Center in downtown Pittsburgh.

Norton’s all-female dance group, the Moving Architects, call their work “COUP,” and say it’s about power: Who has it, what it looks like, how it feels and why we live in reaction or agreement with its subliminal and prominent presence.

Norton elaborates in an email: “The dancers reveal themselves as incredible performers, showcasing their physical strength through intense movement and partnering, as well as through their vulnerability and compassion.”

They depict power via choreographed military formations, leadership roles, gossip and cliques.

“Tension heightens throughout the work with the use of a 6-foot banging wooden stick and a driving digital sound score, culminating in a fight scene to decide who ultimately has the power,” Norton said.

Sounds powerful indeed.

Read the full article in the Times Online.