Francesca Harper coming to Harlem Stage

Presented by Harlem Stage’s annual E-Moves program, the evening-length MODO FUSION: Truth For Sale makes its U.S. premiere featuring The Francesca Harper Project led by singer/dancer/choreographer Francesca Harper.  By fusing original music, choreography, dance, and video, MODO FUSION: Truth For Sale explores the internal struggles that performers face including personal rage, social consciousness, and the line between commercial art and true artistic expression.

With several Broadway productions under her belt, critically acclaimed choreographic works to her credit, a stunning album of original songs, and her own production company, Harper wanted her latest installment of MODO FUSION to serve as an opportunity to share her “ideas of truth with the world.”  Harper explains, that “by exposing the true artistic process of choreography and the artist’s incessant search for acceptance, I hope to bring the behind-the-scenes life of an artist to the forefront.”  Joined on stage by five dancers and composer/pianist Wynne Bennett, Harper performs a ground-breaking, provocative work that oscillates from theater to a rock concert and contemporary dance performance.  MODO FUSION: Truth For Sale recently received much praise at its world premiere at the 2007 Holland Dance Festival. On E-Moves, MODO FUSION is presented in a double-bill with Tamango and Charlie Hunter.

As a dancer, Harper trained in ballet and modern dance, and has performed with the Dance Theater of Harlem as well as William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt as a Principal Dancer. Since returning to the U.S. in 2000, Francesca has performed in several Broadway productions: a featured performer in Fosse; a tour with The Producers and performed in another Susan Stroman project, The Frogs, as part of Lincoln Center Summer Festival; she was also in The Producers: The Movie Musical and the award-winning musical The Color Purple; and recently completed a national tour of Sweet Charity performing opposite Molly Ringwald in the role of Helene. As a singer and lyricist, Harper recently released her debut solo album MODO FUSION with 10 original tracks of soul-inspired R&B and rhythmic electronica. 

Harper’s original work, blending dance, music and video, was first seen at the Cherry Lane Theatre, as part of 50 minutes with Harriet and Phillis, a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margo Jefferson and Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky.  In 2004, she formed The Francesca Harper Project, which has become the platform for her own creative artistic vision- classical dance forms, deconstructed and molded with cutting-edge text, music, film and video.  The company debuted in ‘05 with the sold-out performance of MODO FUSION at The Ailey Citigroup Theater, and went on to perform a week-long run of MODO FUSION during the 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Festival in ‘06. Company members have also been active performers in MODO FUSION LOUNGE (the music-based cabaret version of MODO FUSION), performing alongside Harper at venues such as Makor and Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. This past summer, her work was featured at Solstice: Dancing at the Crossroads, sponsored by Dancers Responding to AIDS. The Francesca Harper Project will make its Central Park SummerStage debut in the Summer of ‘08.  Starting this Spring, “Francesca’s Lounge,” a 30-minute television program featuring interviews with today’s top artists, will air on MNN-TV’s Arts & Culture Channel. http://www.francescaharper.com.