UMA is taking part in Philly Fringe Fest! You'll be able to catch a TON of different shows throughout the month of September- there's something for everyone! Check out show dates/ descriptions and purchase tickets below!
NOTE: We recommend purchasing tickets on a browser. Sometimes MindBody ticket links are funky on mobile. If you have trouble purchasing, email [email protected] for support. Tickets will also be on sale at the door
NOTE: We recommend purchasing tickets on a browser. Sometimes MindBody ticket links are funky on mobile. If you have trouble purchasing, email [email protected] for support. Tickets will also be on sale at the door
Show dates & descriptions
Feed// Swallow
Future Adjacent
September 12 and 19th
at 7:30pm
40min
$25
2100 Chestnut St
at 7:30pm
40min
$25
2100 Chestnut St
Feed//Swallow is a symbolic journey representing Alex Brazinski and Chloe Marie's experience as a couple who both work as artists in Philadelphia. They are inspired by the arduous but worthwhile journey to build a life together while also pushing through a career that often asks for individuality in order to succeed.
Themes being explored: trust//support, freedom//domesticity, jealousy//doubt, and indulgence//repugnance. Questions guiding the process: Is creating artistic work together feeding the relationship or suffocating it? Can your partner be your teacher? How does being witnessed by an audience influence performance? Can a relationship be authentic when witnessed?
Alex and Chloe are interested in exposing how, over time, the way you view your loved one changes. How some days they are monstrous because they didn’t fold the clothes, or forgot to refill the toilet paper; and other days they are a beacon of endless possibilities, and the only person who understands you.
With props, cue cards, and opportunities to speak with Feed or Swallow-the worlds created are as much the audience to imagine as it is the performers.
Themes being explored: trust//support, freedom//domesticity, jealousy//doubt, and indulgence//repugnance. Questions guiding the process: Is creating artistic work together feeding the relationship or suffocating it? Can your partner be your teacher? How does being witnessed by an audience influence performance? Can a relationship be authentic when witnessed?
Alex and Chloe are interested in exposing how, over time, the way you view your loved one changes. How some days they are monstrous because they didn’t fold the clothes, or forgot to refill the toilet paper; and other days they are a beacon of endless possibilities, and the only person who understands you.
With props, cue cards, and opportunities to speak with Feed or Swallow-the worlds created are as much the audience to imagine as it is the performers.
The Space Between and
Reckless Abandonment (Split bill)
Reckless Abandonment (Split bill)
Allison Smith // Tamar Gutherz
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September 13th
@ 2 and 4pm
60min
$20
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St
@ 2 and 4pm
60min
$20
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St
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“Reckless Abandonment” explores the concept of “abandon” in all senses of the word. Delving into our body’s living memories of abandon, abandoning, abandonment, and being unbound—we acknowledge the duality that freedom and joy can co-exist with grief, pain, and loss inside our bodies. We explore what it means to move with abandon, without actually abandoning ourselves.
In our culture the word “abandon” has both negative and positive connotations. Having abandonment issues is generally viewed as negative, whereas moving with abandon is something we aspire to. We yearn for this feeling. This dance-theatre work explores both connotations of the word “abandon”, and the explores the relationships between them. What is the physicality of “leaving” or “being left”, and what are we left with, after the leaving happens?How can we alchemize this unique energetic quality of “abandon” and use it as fuel? There is an emptiness and a fearlessness inside abandon—a strange combination of lightness and gravity that is raw,vulnerable, and full of potential. Dancers swing, spin, slide, fall, and curve through space in imperfect unisons and bursts of solo. They embody a chaotic musicality—alternating between fast, rhythmic movements and moments of slowness,stillness, and non-doing. They engage with momentum and centrifugal force, exploring the dynamic of the floor dropping out from under, unexpected transitions, sudden shifts. Their movements are direct,disheveled, and— at times, dreamlike—suspending time and sometimes attempting to move backwards in time—collectively searching for release, and leaning into the freedom that comes with a loss. |
"The Space Between" is a dance solo that investigates the connection between visibility and value. Choreographer and performer Allison Smith forefronts the play between contemporary dance aesthetic, street and club dance frameworks, and filmic visual principles; in that play, she considers how they mingle to form a synergetic balance, and how together they antithesize institutionalized and codified approaches to movement.
For her movement inspiration, Smith draws from her training in contemporary, popping, house, breaking, and hiphop. She maintains an activated presence through both loud and subtle movements, applying the principle that all volumes of movement are unquestionably significant. The outcast shadows and echoes of an act are just as meaningful as the act itself. Therefore, lighting and shadows are used as a means of storytelling, by illustrating the disassociation, masking, transparency, and materiality in the quest to feel valued. In our culture, what typically gets seen, recognized, and rewarded? How does that affect our understanding of worth? Smith considers these questions as she both appeals to them and challenges them on her own journey of visibility and worth. There is substance in both the significant and the neutral, the loud and the quiet, the assertive and the reserved, the fanciful and the natural, the filled and the empty–there is substance in the space between. Smith chooses to resist cultural expectations, emphasizing that her expression does not have to fit in a specific mold at any time. Everything is brought forward, her vulnerability leaving nothing behind and nothing hidden. Her movement bleeds, professing the value of every movement she executes. |
Moral Injury
Ubin Theatre (Daniel Ubin Burgess in collaboration w/ Arthur Robinson)
September 13 @ 7pm
September 27 @ 2pm
60mins
$20
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St
September 27 @ 2pm
60mins
$20
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St
Dil and Dak are stranded on a deserted island. Desperate and starving, the two attempt to hunt and consume a pig, with dire consequences. Chaos ensues in this genre-blending performance piece featuring heavy movement, mask, and sound work
FLOW STATE
Urban Movement Arts
September 20th
4pm
60min
$20
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St
4pm
60min
$20
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St
UMA’s Flow State features physically daring and artistically adventurous dance works, fusing the worlds of street, contemporary theater and folkloric dance. Performance material is generated via workshops led by four Philly based choreographers. The choreographers share an aim of producing a dance experience that unites virtuosity, whimsy, the ethereal, surrealism and groove.
Take a deeper dive into learning about the artists, art work and additional features to this event and other UMA produced events appearing in the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival at www.urbanmovementarts.com
Take a deeper dive into learning about the artists, art work and additional features to this event and other UMA produced events appearing in the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival at www.urbanmovementarts.com
WORKINONIT
Urban Movement Arts
September 26th
2pm
60min
$20
@ First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St.
2pm
60min
$20
@ First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St.
WORKINONIT is one of UMA's signature performance series, entering its 6th year of operation. WORKINONIT unites dancemakers and performers of all levels. There are pieces presented by local professionals, pieces choreographed onto students and pieces made by emerging artists. It is a street dance focused dance salon.
Take a deeper dive into learning about the artists, art work and additional features to this event and other UMA produced events appearing in the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival at www.urbanmovementarts.com
Take a deeper dive into learning about the artists, art work and additional features to this event and other UMA produced events appearing in the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival at www.urbanmovementarts.com
Extended Techniques, Abbreviated
Free Range/ Urban Movement Arts
September 26th
7:30pm
60mins
$10
2100 Chestnut St
7:30pm
60mins
$10
2100 Chestnut St
What is music? If an instrument is a tool with which we make music, is anything made with that tool then music? On the other hand, is any implement used in the making of music therefore an instrument—the enormous hammer in Mahler’s Symphony no. 6, cannons in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture, and even the slow snapping of plywood in Saltwater Lung by contemporary composer J.L Marlor? Are the performers in "Here be Sirens” by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kate Soper “playing” the piano when instead of striking the strings to make them produce sound, they use their own voices, screaming into the instrument to create sympathetic resonance?
Extended Techniques, Abbreviated is an exploration of what instrumental performance can be, featuring a variety of pieces. Each performance will toy with our conceptions of what a musical “instrument” is and how that instrument is “played.” Through improvisation and composition, various objects and novel frameworks, Extended Techniques, Abbreviated interrogates the way we make music, approaching the process in novel ways.
Extended Techniques, Abbreviated is an exploration of what instrumental performance can be, featuring a variety of pieces. Each performance will toy with our conceptions of what a musical “instrument” is and how that instrument is “played.” Through improvisation and composition, various objects and novel frameworks, Extended Techniques, Abbreviated interrogates the way we make music, approaching the process in novel ways.