Jenni Cockrell (Photo by Justine Elbertson)
Fringe Nights Celebrates Provocative Performance
While the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival is still several months away on January 26–29, a special four-month series of midweek showcases, titled Fringe Nights, will help us celebrate all things fringe in the meantime.
Fringe Nights, which began in May, brings us the same artistic experimentation and outside-of-the-box performances that we’ve come to love from the annual festival. The final two events will take place at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27 and August 24, at The Crow & Quill, 106 N. Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville.
“We saw this series as an opportunity to celebrate Fringe in a lovely setting and remind artists and the community at large of the opening of our call for artists to begin thinking about what work they would like to bring to the Fringe this January,” says Jim Julien, codirector of the Festival with Jocelyn Reese.
On July 27, featured performers Jenni Cockrell, of Strange Daughters Butoh, and Julie Becton Gillum, of Legacy Butoh, will explore the butoh dance form that originated in Japan in the 1950s as a reaction to the westernization of Japanese culture after WWII. Within the dance, there are often fragmentary and dreamlike moments shrouded in satire, metaphor, and mystery. Julie will perform “Hanetsuki” with Sara Baird, with music by Elisa Faires. Julie says it is based on early photographs of Geishas playing Japanese badminton.
There is a $5 suggested donation at the door. For more information on the event, visit ashevillefringe.org.
