about
us
The Moving Architects, under the direction of Erin Carlisle Norton, construct expert, articulate contemporary dance in which spaces advise the work from development to performance. Public discourse is at the heart of the company. To further this goal, The Moving Architects also provide quality movement classes, workshops, and residencies.
The Story of The Moving Architects
On New Year's Day 2007, Erin Carlisle Norton made a resolution: to start a dance company. A native of the Pittsburgh area, Erin had come to Chicago in 2003, quickly becoming involved in the city's performance community. With experience as a guest dancer for Felix Ruckhart and Jennifer Monson/BirdBrain Dance among others, Erin knew that while dancing the works of others is fulfilling, she would rather be leading her own work. Having started choreographing while pursuing a BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University, and with experience from an earlier dance collective, she was ready to begin. Growing up inhabiting the various nooks and crannies of a Victorian house and the Neo-Gothic church where her father was pastor, Carlisle Norton intended to set choreography on her new company that would find meaning through the history and experience of spaces. Researching places, structures and their histories, therefore, is central to the work of The Moving Architects.
Drawing from her training in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals, Erin Carlisle Norton's choreography, as set on The Moving Architects, creates connections between bodies in motion, location as well as historical and physical experience. Movement itself becomes architectural, with freedom of movement being created through the organization of the body within structures. Utilizing a highly visual approach to choreography, Carlisle Norton assesses movement phrases based on their visual as well as thematic appeal, creating beautiful and technically challenging new dance works.
Recruiting dancers from the Chicago community, and receiving a Dancebridge residency from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Carlisle Norton started working, setting new evening length works on The Moving Architects in 2007 and 2008, performing throughout the midwest, and collaborating with composers from Accessible Contemporary Music on 1001 Afternoons in Chicago. Combining movement, costuming and live music to evoke Ben Hecht's stories of 1920's Chicago, every detail of this evening-length work demonstrates The Moving Architects' commitment to creating resonances with time and place. 2008 marked the beginning of a new collaborative relationship for the company with Brass Figures featuring music by composer and accompanist Ian Hatcher, who has collaborated on two performances with The Moving Architects, including 2009's Stops on the Line, focusing on Chicago's Union Station as both historical landmark and transient space. With a commitment to the investigation of place and history through movement and in collaboration with other artists, The Moving Architects aim to continue offering high quality training to dancers as well as to present new and innovative dance works.
Photo by Peter McCullough
