The naked STark
Dance Up Close
Photo: JH Kertis, featuring Chloe Marie, Sean Thomas Boyt, Marisa
Illingworth, Brionna Williams, Melissa Chisena in Visible Structures
Who we are
Founded in 2009, The Naked Stark is a West Philly modern dance company rooted in an intergenerational community. Guided by artistic director Katherine Kiefer Stark, The Naked Stark brings together Philadelphia movement artists and musicians to collaborate on live dance projects. Our collaborative process engages artists committed to the investigation of social consciousness through movement and sound.
Our work is made possible by funds from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and donations of money and time from individuals.
The Naked Stark is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization.
Our Mission
The Naked Stark creates modern dance works, facilitates workshops, and engages in weekly movement practices that ask complex questions and spark imagination and discussion. Socially conscious, socially engaged, and socially critical, we strive to center how movement, community, and change are intimately interconnected. Our work is honest, human, and vulnerable; it engages folks through participation, physicality, and design.
Our Values and Our process
Center our work in movement, community, and change
Anti-Oppressive Framework
Self-care & Community Care
Continually Evolving Collaborative Structures
Financial Transparency
Learn More HERE
Current collaborators
Happening(s)
Join us for our annual community gathering and fundraiser!
Meet the naked stark
October 26, 4-6 PM
Painted Bride Art Center
5212 Market Street
Join us in the studio!
Creative Movement Workshop
A dance class for all ages, folks with and without disabilities, and any amount of dance experience. Dance teaching artists Katherine Kiefer Stark and Aubrey Donisch invite you to practice play through guided improvisation and movement games. Learn from each other as we build something new each class!
Falling into Here
A release-based movement practice for folks 14 and up, best suited for dancers with ‘intermediate’ to ‘advanced’ movement experience. Dance teaching artist Katherine Kiefer Stark invites you into an energetic exploration of movement from the inside out. We’ll move with and through momentum, spirals, and circles to arrive at predetermined and surprising destinations.
Our current project is falling up
The cover of the Falling Up Zine. A collage The six collaborators in various states of falling up—balloons, a ladder, a wood wall, a checkerboard floor, and a tube man all feature.
The Falling Up zine (mini-DIY magazine) offers a deeper dive into the layers underneath our new performance work, more opportunities to imagine with us, and seeds for where we might take this work next.
Available for purchase now!
About Release-based Movement PRactice
with Katherine Kiefer Stark
Photo: Sean Thomas Boyt, Movement Practice at Mascher Space Cooperative 2017
PRACTICE
Blending Kline Technique, Safety Release Technique, and release technique, my class is an energetic exploration of movement from the inside out. Emphasis is placed on the initiation of the movement and the path the various body parts take in space to discover how one's own body moves with/in the movement. We embrace the space through phrases that move in and out of the floor and carry us in and out of balance. I bring all of these ideas together through material that is infused with what I am researching, passionate about, and is foundational to the aesthetics I love. Class begins quietly and gradually builds in complexity, culminating in a dynamic phrase. Sleeves and knee-pads or long pants are recommended.
PHILOSOPHY AND ROOTS
Movement practice is a space for taking risks, making mistakes, and honing craft. My teaching approaches aim to create a holistic study of release-based techniques that explores movement as culturally informed, politically charged, and aesthetically particular. This philosophy is deeply informed by theories from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Dr. Ann Dils, and Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild. My physicality is strongly influenced by the studio practices of BJ Sullivan and Jeremy Nelson.
Among the movement/dance techniques I have studied, release techniques and Safety Release Technique fit best with how I like to move and with my values. These techniques appreciate and make space for the uniqueness of each mover’s body. Movement is learned through understanding the initiation of the movement, the path the various body parts take in space, and in discovering how one’s own body moves with/in the movement. This approach to movement values, develops, and supports self-awareness. My language around movement is continuously evolving as I search for words and imagery that resonate with the folks who are in the room.
In semester long courses, I explore postmodern movement aesthetics in relationship to the principles of Africanist aesthetic - Polycentrism/Polyrhythm, Embracing the Conflict, High-Affect Juxtaposition - and European aesthetic - Monocentrism, Resolving the Conflict, Arch Between Ideas - as outlined by Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild, as well the qualities - indirect/direct, heavy/light, quick/sustained, bound/unbound - from Laban. I weave these in more sporadically during weekly drop-in movement practice.
Donate
We do this together!
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Your Contribution is Tax Deductible!
The Naked Stark is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of The Naked Stark must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Prefer the postal service? Send a donation via Mail. Please make checks payable to Fractured Atlas and write The Naked Stark on the memo line and mail them to:
The Naked Stark
P.O. Box 30794
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Not interested in a tax deduction? Please makes checks payable to The Naked Stark
