OYWPP is awarded a ROCKY!!!

Dance USA Philadelphia and the Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival hosted the annual ROCKY Awards last Monday Sept 1, at the new Festival Bar. What a fun evening! Megan Mazarick and Jamil Kosoko kept us laughing all the while moving the show along.

Silvana Cardell, creative artist extraordinaire, presented a ROCKY to me for the One Year Wissahickon Park Project!!!!!! I am grateful and honored to receive this important recognition from my peers.

The text of Silvana's short speech follows:

Forests, tress, branches, skin, bones and muscles changing shapes
the human body
adapting to the environment,
blending into the landscape
landscapes
changing very slowly

following time
accepting time

making me stop my mind clutter
and my body
to feel
to smell
to remain
to be part of the environment created
in order to contemplate our forever-changing physical form

Those were my impressions as an audience of The Wissahickon Park Project

I want to pass along my Rocky award to the one of the most generous, risk taking and committed choreographers that I know: Merián Soto. Rain or shine - at every designated performance date- Merián and her committed dancers performed, transforming the landscape of the Wissahickon Park.

Thank you for your contributions as an artist to our Philadelphia Dance Community.

Thank YOU, Silvana, and everyone else involved for the recognition. It means a lot! Thanks especially to the artists who joined me in this endeavor: Shavon Norris, Jumatatu Poe, Olive Prince, Noemí Segarra and Toshi Makihara. The honor is shared with them.