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Francesca
Harper has been on Broadway since 2000 and has worked with Susan
Stroman, Ann Reinking, Donald Byrd, Debbie Allen, Stephen Sondheim,
Gary Griffin, Christopher Ashley, and many others. She has been
featured in Fosse, House of Flowers, Beehive, The Producers, The
Frogs, All Shook Up, and The Color Purple. She was responsible
for originating the role of Sally in Debbie Allen's Production
of Beehive. She is currently an understudy for Shug Avery and
Squeak in The Color Purple. |
"Swan
Lake...Another Point Of View" is a Digital Ballet conceptualized,
choreographed and filmed by Francesca Harper. The film takes the
concept of Swan Lake, and, through the lens of Modern Dance,
abstractly analyzes the traditional role of the man, woman, White
Swan and Black Swan from the original story. In the original Swan
Lake the White Swan represents purity, truth and the Black Swan
represents evil and temptation. In "Swan Lake...Another Point
Of View", the roles of the swans are reversed and deconstructed.
The White Swan seems tormented and angry while the Black Swan
dances poetically. Somehow through music and images they are linked
and are both fighting against the notion of having to epitomize
traditional female roles and racial stereotypes. Each expresses
their struggle through movement. Each expresses feelings of being
confined by society´s rigid expectations. They strive for
new identity and new meaning, but each character ends up somewhere
in between. The White and Black Swan end up dancing together in
the gray zone. |
| FRAGILE STONE THEORY The Fragile Stone Theory, through a symbiotic blend of choreographed dances, staged songs, narration, and video, confronts and expresses "the stone" in one's heart. "Fragile Stone is something I discovered in a discussion one day. Someone asked me to describe my emotional discomfort. I described it as a stone in my heart. It was a very vulnerable private discovery. The stone was something from my childhood that evoked profound emotions. I wanted to also explore the fragility of these emotions when in conflict. The Fragile Stones are the issues we work through as human beings that shed enlightenment at times and pain and power at others. As performers, we spend so many years having to execute the ideas of others. I felt it was really important to be able to express who I really was individually. In Fragile Stone, I journey through the life of a performer who sings, dances and searches for spiritual enlightenment by battling her demons with courage." - Francesca Harper The Fragile Stone Theory, an evening-length solo show has been presented at the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival and the Black Arts Festival in Altlanta. Excerpts have also been performed at the TAT Theatre in Frankfurt, Germany. |
| MODO FUSION Conceived, choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper, MODO FUSION is an evening-length, visionary blend of original dance, music, film and narration, exploring the world of beauty pageants; a world that provides opportunities to young aspirants; a world that exploits women. Dancers and musicians unveil short, comedic theatrical movements, or vignettes, that draw upon both Harper’s own experience as an African American woman and performer, as well as an in-depth documentarian look at the history and evolution of beauty pageants over the years. “I examined many issues that I felt as a performer. I delved into the frustration, beauty and humor of it all and imagined what a modern day pageant thrust into the contemporary art world would be like. And, like many comedic pieces, there is a fine line between humor and tragedy. I expressed frustrations that I experience as a black woman and a performer who is constantly under the scrutiny of the public, and the more I was honest about my rage, the more hilarious the piece would become. In the end, we ended up with a perfect combination of humor laced with profundity.” – Francesca Harper The costumes, designed by Gabi Mai, were inspired by Gauthier’s costumes in the film Fifth Element, giving the contestants a futuristic look. Segments from Harper’s film, Another Point of View, the winner of the 2004 Black International Cinema in Berlin, is projected full-screen and played methodically throughout the work, displaying recurring images and sounds of past pageants, upon which Harper and dancers, the modern day contestants, respond and reflect. The music is an R&B, soul, classical and electronicainspired mélange of Harper’s original songs, sung live by Harper and the cast, as well as tracks by her frequent collaborators Daniel Bernard Roumain and DJ Spooky, and popular songs. The movements are seamlessly interwoven together by two pageant “hosts” played by Harper herself and a male counterpart. “I thought it would be interesting to sing some of my own songs as one of the pageant hosts because of the existing formula of the televised pageants. How many years did we hear Bert Parks sing, “Miss America?” - Francesca Harper |
