tinycircus at Go West! / West Philly Local, Sept. 30 2012. Tangle Movement Arts was back with their “tinycircus” at the Go West! Craft Fest yesterday at The Woodlands Cemetery. This saucy performance on the silks was a particular hit with the kids in attendance. ♦ article and photos
Critical Mass: You Don’t Say / Samantha Melamed for Philadelphia City Paper, Sept. 15, 2012. If Hazel should invite you to her next dinner party, you may want to pass. There’s a lot of tension, ex-girlfriend drama and hurt feelings — plus everyone else will be way better than you at aerial acrobatics. Tangle cleverly interweaves this silent drama with feats of flexibility, strength and skill performed on trapeze, rope, aerial silk and other props. Aside from the sheer terror/awe of watching the pregnant Deena Weisberg take gracefully to the trapeze and self-mocking girls-at-a-dinner-party sound pieces, the fun is watching relationships resolve (and then dissolve) as the women swing through the air and then, often as not, leave one another hanging. ♦ article
“You Don’t Say!”: Rile Smith ’08 Takes Circus Arts to Philly Fringe / Cecilia Paasche for the Swarthmore Daily Gazette, Sept. 13, 2012. Tangle’s innovative approach allows eight women, each with her own unique background, shape, size, and personality to perform a narrative with movement, dance, and aerial acrobatics that are as raw as they are beautiful. Part circus, part dance, and part theatrics, the company blurs the lines dividing traditional performance genres to create an interdisciplinary hybrid with its own movement vocabulary. ♦ article and interview
Five Live Arts-Fringe Shows That Will Move You / Bonnie MacAllister for Flying Kite Media, Sept. 5, 2012. Surrealism is on the menu as seven women gather for a dinner party through aerial acrobatics, unique since one of the acrobats is seven months pregnant. Chairs and tables become animated in the air through an elevated dialogue of flirting and friendly angst. … This company tells a story in silks and syllables, giving new meaning to rising action. ♦ article
LGBT artists and themes abound in Philly Fringe / Larry Nichols for the Philadelphia Gay News, Sept. 6, 2012. “We started out knowing that we wanted this to be about a network of human relationships, and that we wanted to do aerial choreography that included a lot of duet and partner work and weight-sharing, exploring the intimacy and trust of getting into somebody else’s hands and allowing them to suspend you in the air,” Smith said. ♦ article
Tangle’s You Don’t Say brings vertical dance and drama to 2012 Fringe Festival / Steven Weisz for Philadelphia danceJournal, Aug. 4, 2012. “We’re really proud of You Don’t Say’s innovative mix of dance, theater, and aerial acrobatics– a contemporary circus style that’s perfect for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival,” says Tangle founder Lauren Rile Smith. “Our show is about the energy and connections between a group of female friends. It’s exciting to showcase female strength and relationships with the literal, physical support we provide one another as aerial acrobats.” ♦ article
You Don’t Say was also a Philly Fringe Pick for The Philadelphia Inquirer, uwishunu, and The Phoenix.
Art sustains an Elkins Park jewel / Karen Rile for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jul. 22, 2012. Tangle’s new work has been influenced by the estate’s architectural and domestic setting. During the demo, Sarah Nicolazzo dances midair on a trapeze with a wooden dining room chair. A humble coffee table becomes a vehicle for handstands in an ensemble segment. In an acrobatic routine using aerial rope, Sarah ascends toward the ceiling fresco, twists, and is suddenly upside down. Then she drops precipitously, only to be caught midair by the rope. A toddler in the audience roars in astonished joy, and the audience bursts into applause. ♦ article
Tangle’s circus-theater meets science fiction in Half-life / Steven Weisz for Philadelphia danceJournal, May 15, 2012. “We are motivated to push the boundaries of what you expect to see in a circus show,” says Tangle founder Lauren Rile Smith. “We named this new work Half-life in reference to the decay of radioactive matter. We wanted to explore what happens when established structures—buildings, mechanical bodies, even a network of friendships among people—break down over time, and what new life can emerge from the ruins. In this show, we travel into the apocalypse—and survive!” ♦ article
TinyCircus not a sign of the forthcoming clownpocalypse / Leah Etling for RentCafe Philadelphia, April 2012. Tangle Movement Arts provides the talent— they do lots of cool Cirque du Soleil kinda stuff and they do it very well. … It’s fun, informal, hip, and you get to look at young, attractive, exceptionally flexible people doing their things. ♦ article
The Critical Circus / Karen Rile for the Penn Gazette, Jan./Feb. 2012. It’s an anti-striptease, a circus act that subverts the visual tradition of women’s bodies in burlesque. … “Acrobatics is a radical way to feel free and strong in your own body; we want everyone to know they have that chance,” says Smith, whose goal is to entertain and educate. ♦ article
An “Open House” for Up-and-Comers / Peter Price for thINKingDANCE, Jan. 17, 2012. The show ended with Tangle Movement Arts’ crowd pleasing Half-life, a display of aerial skills created collaboratively by Tangle’s cast of eight. ♦ article
Woodshop Films produced a brief documentary about our 2011 Philadelphia Fringe Festival show, Ampersand, as part of their Art Phag (Art in Philadelphia) series:
Tangle acrobats mix realism and whimsy with “Ampersand” / Lewis Whittington for EDGE Philadelphia, September 2011. Tangle explores role diversity and gender identity as part of their choreographic template. … The troupe also uses humor, live music, and text to make it more than feats of daring. ♦ article
ON THE FRINGE: Ampersand / Meg Augustin for Philadelphia City Paper, September 2011. Tangle’s Ampersand is more than just a trapeze act. … There is a wisdom and elegance here, showing us that circus arts are much more than girls on ponies. ♦ article
Ampersand blends circus with story / Amanda Rossetti for The Temple News, September 2011. Ampersand weaves traditional circus moves with a strong narrative. … “For me, aerials are about strangeness and impossibility,” said Sarah Nicolazzo, a Tangle founding member. “I think there’s something really utopian about an art that’s all about pushing the boundaries of what bodies naturally do, how they move, how they relate to gravity and each other.” ♦ article
Ampersand swings at Philly Fringe / Nathan Lerner for Montgomery News, September 2011. Tangle’s innovative piece involves an amalgam of traditional circus arts, such as trapeze, acrobatics and aerial rope, with narrative concerning the themes of memory and belonging in an urban milieu. … Smith recalled, “I chose the name ‘Tangle’ for our acrobatic performance company because we are all about the possibilities that arise when things get complicated.” ♦ article
One ring and a tree: The tiny circus at Clark Park / West Philly Local, August 2011. The tiny circus came to Clark Park this morning. Performers from the movement arts group Tangle strung a trapeze, hoop and long pieces of fabric called “silks” from a large tree between the bowl and playground and entertained dozens of people young and old. ♦ article