FALL HARVEST CELEBRATION
TO FEATURE FIRE AND FLOW ARTS
Poet-tree En Motion’s Seasonal Arts Showcase is Free to the Community
Flames will rage once again – the flames of creative inspiration and fire performance – as Poet-tree En Motion exhibits its 10th annual fall arts showcase to celebrate the harvest season Wednesday, Oct. 5 at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia.
Poet-tree En Motion has gained a reputation in the city for highlighting some of the best and brightest established and up-and-coming regional artists in a variety of disciplines while also giving the community a chance to shine on the open mike and open stage.
Multi-award-winning artistic director Gabrielle de Burke weaves together performances by artists of many different styles to create a magical display of the arts that ends up flowing seamlessly.
“Poetry in motion is a lot of different things,” de Burke says. “It’s not just stuck on a page. It’s not just stuck on a stage. It’s moving in time. All of the artists are expressing poetry but just in different forms. I want the event to be an expression of the many different ways in which poetry is present in our lives whether it’s music, dance, art or visual performance.”
The “Fall Harvest Flow and Fire Festivities” event will kick off at 7 p.m. with spoken word and a yin-yang yoga flow and chi-kung workshop led by de Burke. The practice will be accompanied by live electronic ambient soundscapes and visual projections by artist Bruce Leitch.
Every fall Poet-tree En Motion event features a fire and flow arts troupe performance. This year three members of the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater, a troupe that’s been making waves since 2010, most notably in the Lehigh Valley, Pa. and at regional “burner” events, will show off their skills. The trio – Sarah Fulton, bellydancer Lorenda and Ashley Riccaboni – will give two performances. Their first piece will feature flow artistry involving hooping, silk veils, swords, Isis wings and LED lights. The last performance of the evening will be outside in front of the Rotunda with the trio dancing with a variety of exciting fire props.
In between Burning Hearts performances, legendary Philly DJ Jeff Omega will give a special tribal house set to get the audience grooving and moving.
“Community showcases like Poet-tree En Motion are fantastic platforms for burgeoning performers and creators and I'm excited to be invited to share my craft at this venue,” says Fulton, manager of the Burning Hearts. “It's a great way to meet other performers and support one another.”
Poet-tree En Motion’s “Fall Harvest Flow and Fire Festivities” is scheduled for 7-10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5 at the Rotunda, located at 4014 Walnut St., West Philadelphia. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5-$20 to support future performance projects by Plum Dragoness. There will also be a silent auction featuring gift certificates, artisan and antique vintage jewelry, accessories, handcrafted and wild-crafted pieces, art and more.
The next Poet-tree En Motion event is scheduled for March, and it will feature female artists for its annual Women’s History Month celebration.
For information about Poet-tree En Motion, email de Burke at plumdragoness@gmail.com, and visit www.facebook.com/groups/116980678334215 and https://www.facebook.com/events/1669793370010003/. For information about The Rotunda, log on to www.TheRotunda.org.
ABOUT POET-TREE EN MOTION: Poet-tree En Motion works to inspire both artist and audience to connect and work together toward cultivating the arts community in Philadelphia, welcoming artists of all kinds to experience performances local to the neighborhood, and offering the opportunity at each show for community participation to sign up in the all-genre open mike/stage and jam session component of the events.
ARTIST BIOS:
Gabrielle de Burke of Dragon Spirit Arts (aka The Plum Dragoness)
The Poet-tree En Motion resident performance artist and event organizer is a West Philadelphia native known for her unique style of spoken word, dance choreography, fire and flow artistry, and skilled work as a martial artist and healing arts instructor. De Burke has performed throughout Philadelphia and abroad over the past 15 years as a solo artist, and a founding member, core performer and assistant artistic director of Archedream for HumanKind. She has released two albums of original work with the project Plum Dragoness and the Elements, known for its fusion of multimedia, world beat music, spoken-word vocals and lyrical poetry. She has also helped bring together the all-female performance group trio The Femme-Mynistiques. She has been teaching in and around the Philadelphia area and abroad since 2000. DragonSpiritArts.com
facebook.com/dragonspiritarts
facebook.com/4plumdragoness
ThePlumDragoness.com
soundcloud.com/plum-dragoness
cdbaby.com/Artist/PlumDragonessandtheElements
http://www.tunecore.com/music/plumdragoness
Bellydance by Lorenda
Lorenda is a fusion-style belly dancer from Atlantic City who enchants audiences with fire, LED lights, swirling swords, ethereal wings and silk veils. Her repertoire includes a mix of American cabaret, Egyptian Oriental, tribal fusion and hip-hop. She has danced professionally for the past seven years as a solo artist, with the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater, the Daughters of Terpsichore, and internationally acclaimed Soraya’s Mid-East Dance and Music Productions. An eclectic performer, Lorenda is just as likely to bellydance to Arabic music as she is to trance or heavy metal. She is skilled in fire eating, head balancing with a candle tray and fire sword, and wields palm torches, fire fingers, fire fans and a fire belt. While acknowledging that bellydance is a form of entertainment, Lorenda always dances in the spirit of the many thousands of years of honoring and invoking the divine feminine. www.bellydancebylorenda.com
www.facebook.com/BellydancebyLorenda
www.instagram.com/BellydancebyLorenda
www.snapchat.com/add/firebellydancer
www.youtube.com/user/BellydancebyLorenda
https://twitter.com/BellydanceFire
Sarah Fulton and Ashley Riccaboni of the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater
Sarah Fulton has performed as a fire hooper and fan dancer with the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater since 2010 and is the current manager of the Lehigh Valley troupe. She is the co-founder of the Allentown Freak Out Fringe Festival and is a bellydancer.
Ashley Riccaboni is a fire dancer who has performed with the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater since 2010. She served as choreographer for the Burning Hearts’ performance of “Follow the Flame,” their 11th annual show at Joseph S. Daddonna Lake and Terrace in Allentown, Pa. Ashley performs with fire and LED hoops, and a fire parasol. She is skilled in fire fleshing and fire eating. She teaches Hoops and Hops on Mondays at the Allentown Brew Works, does kids parties and events as Hoop Hoop Hooray, and teaches Hoop Sweat at Sweat Like A Girl gym.
For a list of The Burning Hearts' upcoming fire or LED performances, visit www.theburninghearts.com.
https://www.facebook.com/theburninghearts
https://www.instagram.com/the_burning_hearts/
Burning Hearts Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFvzGUNK4Eo
Burning Hearts Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejz35Yf1rCU
DJ Jeff Omega
House music producer, turntablist and DJ, Jeff Omega has earned a reputation as one of the hottest electronic music makers in the Philadelphia scene. He has stayed busy planning events and releasing original music on multiple labels over the past few years. He is one of the few truly adaptable performers, capable of reading the crowd and tailoring his sets to fit the mood. When booking Jeff, you can expect clean mixing and excellent track selection to get the floor packed and dancing. His sound is varied and adaptable, covering various house categories including deep, techy, bassline and jackin’, while occasionally dipping into other genres like drum 'n' bass, twerk, hip-hop, and funk. Jeff says: “I play all types of house music, just depends on whose house I'm in."
https://soundcloud.com/jeffomega215
https://www.facebook.com/Jeff-Omega-102092803174525/
Bruce Leitch
Hopalong Horus Heisenberg is Bruce Leitch. He's been experimenting with electronic music since 2010. Before that he played bass and guitar in various bands. Most of his music is recorded with virtual instruments with iPad apps and occasional live guitar and bass. His music ranges from ambient and spacey to droning noise, and sometimes psychedelic or noise guitars.
https://www.facebook.com/Hopalong-horus-heisenberg-298548760197691
https://soundcloud.com/bruce-leitch
https://bruceleitch.bandcamp.com/
###
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Gabrielle de Burke (artist Plum Dragoness)
Founder/Event Organizer Poet-tree En Motion
484-557-9605
Gina Renzi
Director of The Rotunda
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
1:
Ashley Riccaboni spins fire hoops with the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater. She will be a featured fire and flow arts performer in the Poet-tree En Motion arts showcase Wednesday, Oct. 5 at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia.
2:
Lorenda is a bellydancer who will perform with fire, swirling swords, LED wings and silk veils during the Poet-tree En Motion arts showcase Wednesday, Oct. 5 at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia.
3:
Bruce Leitch (aka Hopalong Horus Heisenberg) is an electronic music producer who will play his surreal ambient soundscapes live and create visual projections while Gabrielle de Burke leads a yoga and chi-kung workshop during the Wednesday, Oct. 5 arts showcase at The Rotunda in West Philly.
4:
Gabrielle de Burke (aka Plum Dragoness) will give a spoken-word performance and lead a yin-yang yoga flow and chi-gung workshop set to live music during her seasonal artists showcase Poet-tree En Motion on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at The Rotunda in West Philly.
5:
Legendary Philly house music DJ Jeff Omega will deliver a special tribal house music set for the Wednesday, Oct. 5 Poet-tree En Motion event at The Rotunda in West Philly.
6:
Sarah Fulton, manager of the Burning Hearts Fire and Light Theater, will share her fire and flow arts talents at the Wednesday, Oct. 5 edition of Poet-tree En Motion at The Rotunda in West Philly.
FOR EVENT LISTINGS:
Poet-tree En Motion “Fall Harvest Flow and Fire Festivities” 7-10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5 at The Rotunda, located at 4014 Walnut St. in West Philadelphia. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The free event will feature spoken word, fire and flow performers, live and DJ’ed music, visual projections, bellydance, yoga, chi-gung an open mike and more. For information, email plumdragoness@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/groups/116980678334215.
