Temple’s dance department has a mix of graduate students working towards an MA, MFA, or PhD.  The MA’s and MFA’s take many classes together.  One of the courses that is a core course for MFA’s and an elective for MA’s is “Choreographing Philadelphia” a site-specific course often taught by the professor Jillian Harris (link: https://www.temple.edu/boyer/about/people/jillianharris.asp )

One of the first assignments for this class is to take a walk and explore an area Philadelphia that is new to us.  Here is a video that current MA student Kalila Kingsford Smith created along the water front in Philadelphia (Penn’s Landing and the Piers).  Enjoy her exploration of this dynamic city, her dancing, and her contemplation of our dance lineage through her references to Leah Stein, an accomplished Philadelphia site-specific dance artist.

“As I walk I notice I’m drawn to patterns, lines, frames, stones. I’m also drawn to circles, pathways coming to a point.”

“I think about Leah Stein walking similar paths.

She would notice her body, the concrete, the weeds poking through, the water”

— Alissa Elegant, MFA Student