OUR WORK
JUNK offers dance to audiences and communities in unconventional but accessible ways—guided by innovation, impact, engagement, and collaboration.
Photo by Pete Checchia.
INNOVATION
Unusual sites and alternative venues are at the core of the creation process and heavily inform JUNK, and a much-anticipated feature of the company’s work. Venues are a carefully integrated part of each show, physically and thematically, and have included a partially filled underground swimming pool (the audience sat in the shallow end), an old movie theater, an abandoned power transfer station, and a barn.
Photo by JJ Tiziou.
As with much art and culture, a new dance craze voices the popular archetypes of a time. In turn, the “latest” becomes “the past”, and formerly in-demand and now passé styles are cast aside, secreted into a kind of massive dance warehouse storage facility on the outskirts of town, never to be spoken of again—like much of the past. Sanders intentionally seeks out these dance genres and techniques that evoke past eras, times, and feelings. Playing with context and juxtaposition, Sanders evokes past movement as a way to frame our lives, to understand human tendencies, relationships, and conflicts through our bodies and their expression. JUNK often spends months studying new techniques with specialists and in workshops to introduce and understand new vernaculars and vocabulary—a current work in development involves the fitness trend of pole dancing. The company seeks out old and new movement from classical ballet to tap to voguing to rock climbing and synchronized swimming to the Hustle to even a stint on horseback.
Photo by Ted Lieverman.
Urban Scuba is JUNK’s polite term for dumpster diving. Life in an urban environment often leads you past discarded items. Brian Sanders finds inspiration in unwanted objects-cum-art that bring new perspectives to possibility. The concept isn’t limited to urban living: JUNK turned an old barn into the set of American Standard with cows and hay bales becoming dance partners. In the same spirit, Sanders intentionally seeks out past dance genres and techniques that evoke past eras, times, and feelings. Playing with context and juxtaposition, Sanders evokes past movement as a way to frame our lives, to understand human tendencies, relationships, and conflicts through our bodies and their expression.
IMPACT
Brian Sanders’ JUNK creates a common ground that brings people together to experience and share art across diverse communities, genres, and audiences. JUNK’s highly imaginative, boundary-breaking, and provocative work is eagerly sought after. For the last 30 years, Sanders has successfully brought bold, imaginative, and visually stunning performances to even the most “conservative” platforms. Sanders is committed to the future of performance and dance, engaging youth, communities, and artists through workshops, events, and special projects.
The reward for being open to Sanders’ creative aesthetic and vision is a sense of shared experience and community and seeing the world in new, wondrous ways.
JUNK WORKSHOPS
Throughout its season, JUNK offers workshops, internships and training within its unique settings and vernacular. Community members, students and professionals work side by side with Sanders and the company to explore, study, conceive and create. JUNK often spends months studying new techniques with specialists and in workshops to introduce and understand new vernaculars and vocabulary—a current work in development involves the fitness trend of pole dancing. The company seeks out old and new movement from classical ballet to tap to voguing to rock climbing and synchronized swimming to the Hustle to even a stint on horseback.
Photo by Ted Lieverman.
ENGAGEMENT
Photo by Melissa Kelly Photography LLC.
JUNK’s unique creativity and innovation allows for opportunities to engage audiences and communities with dance in unconventional but accessible ways. From patrons to passersby—audiences are witness to a distinctly JUNK experience. Unique venues and public spaces by their very nature create unpredictability and new backdrops for dance. As audiences experience dance differently, they expand their views of what dance can be. JUNK strives to challenge viewers into new—and at times provocative—environments that offer scenery and topical context more powerful than any theater set can provide. Dance can be a challenging art form to access, JUNK engages audiences by stimulating the mind through the senses, a sense of place, and evocative imagery.
JUNK also creates alternative intersections in dance. Recently, JUNK completed a three-year New Audiences/New Places project in partnership with the William Penn Foundation and Drexel University. The work 2nd Sanctuary invited audiences into an immersive environment that blended virtual reality with live performance. This multi-year project pushed the boundaries of interactive experience and proved tremendously successful at attracting new audiences.
Photo by Melissa Kelly Photography LLC.
COLLABORATION
In 2022, JUNK celebrates 30 years of art making with its community and peers. Collaboration has been a cornerstone of JUNK’s success whether working with community organizations, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Ballet, or the Mural Arts Program.
During the Pandemic: JUNK collaborated with the Philadelphia Orchestra to create an Orchestral Dance Film set to Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite (after Bizet). Audiences could safely view the work in their homes.
Watch: Putting Artists Back to Work
Photo by Jake Zaoutis.
Photo courtesy of Partners for Sacred Spaces.
Photo by Lara Billingham.