About

idiosynCrazy productions is an organization dedicated to organizing the performance, education, and community work of Jumatatu Poe and Shannon Murphy.

The mission of  idiosynCrazy productions is to:

• push dance and performance work to imaginative edges through involved collaborations among performers and with artists of varying mediums (video, textiles, costume, music, sound)
• create educational initiatives for humans of all ages, abilities, and experiences that connect art with living histories and contemporary social phenomena
• develop national and international relationships with other artists, producers, and organizations interested in creating art and socially motivated artistry
• present performance works, and ways of creating work, that prioritize racial, social, and international justice
• utilize various forms of dissemination of dance and performance work (live performance, documented performance, filmmaking, online blogging/vlogging, performance activism, etc.)

idiosynCrazy productions has no formal audition process. We encourage those interested in performing with idiosynCrazy productions to attend an idioSomatics class, or one of our occasionally offered workshops. Please take a look at our The Physical Laboratory calendar to see when our classes and workshops are happening.

 Jumatatu Poe – I currently work with Merián Soto and Leah Stein, in addition to my involvements with idiosynCrazy productions.  I am also currently engaged with a collaborative multi-tiered performance practice with NYC-based dance artist Jesse Zaritt.  Previously, I have danced with Marianela Boán, Tania Isaac, Charles. O. Anderson/Dance Theatre X, Keith Thompson, and Kate Watson-Wallace.  My own choreographic work has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Susan Hess Modern Dance Choreographers’ Project, the Community Education Center, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Dance New Amsterdam, and New York Live Arts. This work has often been performed in Philadelphia, and has also toured to Seattle, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and New York.  In 2008, I founded idiosynCrazy productions, and currently serve as one of its directors, with Shannon Murphy and Shavon Norris.  In 2012, I received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

 

Contact Jumatatu Poe: jumatatu [at] idiosyncrazy [dot] com and visit  his website.

 Shannon Murphy is a dancer, choreographer and teaching artist. She has a BA from Point Park University in Pittsburgh and is one of the first Franklin Method Educators to graduate in the United States. Her choreography has been shown throughout Philadelphia, at various festivals in the United States and in Paris, France. She was 2010′s New Edge Resident in Dance and is currently a Live Arts Brewery fellow in Philadelphia. As a freelance dancer, she has danced with Dance Theater X, Group Motion Dance Company, Kosoko Performance Group, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, SCRAP Performance Group, and with choreographers Peggy Baker, Robert Battle, Wally Cardona, and Jumatatu Poe. Before moving to Philadelphia, she was on faculty at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Point Park University. Since 2007 she has been teaching young dancers at Koresh School of Dance, has been guest teaching at Drexel University, Swarthmore College, Temple University, Villanova University, and is currently a faculty member at Bryn Mawr College and University of the Arts. Shannon is also teaching artist for PARD and provides Franklin Method classes and private sessions to the local professional dance community.

 

Contact Shannon: shannon [at] idiosyncrazy [dot] com  and visit her website.