Tangle Movement Arts, Philadelphia’s aerial storytellers, founded by Chestnut Hill native, Lauren Rile Smith, 33, will premiere “The Way Out,” an in-person (not Zoom), socially distanced performance for a drive-through audience as part of the 2020 Fringe Festival. This unique site-specific show unspools across 78 acres of historic Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave. in East Falls (just off Kelly Drive) on Thursday, Oct. 1, through Saturday, Oct. 3, 7 to 8:40 p.m.

Tangle’s all-female cast swings, balances and flies above the daily grind. “This Way Out” is “an evening of live performance made for the pandemic,” Smith said, “capturing a world inside a bubble, a meditation on time and history and pockets of memory illuminated by flame, all without risking Covid transmission to audiences, performers or crew.”

Dancers hold tension from six feet apart, a sculptor captures breath in fire and glass, and aerialists are caught between earth and sky. Performers in “The Way Out” navigate a complexly woven dance-theater story in this unusual show designed with all Covid-19 precautions in mind.

Audiences flow along Laurel Hill’s gently winding roads to experience the show sequentially, visiting performance stations located across the historic cemetery, including dancers, live flameworking, physical theater, kinetic sculpture and aerial artists. One carload at a time, the audience parks to view each performance before continuing along the path.

“'The Way Out' features some of Philadelphia’s most intriguing dance and theater artists along the route of its immersive performance,” said Rile. “Each of these prominent local artists created site-specific performances to answer the question, 'What is the way out of our current moment?'”

Tangle Movement Arts’ performances mix traditional circus like trapeze and acrobatics with dance, theater and live music to tell a multi-dimensional story. Tangle’s work reflects individuals of diverse identities “with an emphasis on queer and female experiences” (according to Smith) and is created collaboratively by its all-female ensemble. Tangle has been a Philly FringeArts Festival favorite since its inception in 2011. Philadelphia Weekly wrote that Tangle “blends circus-style acrobatics with a smart theatrical spin.”

Smith, who was once an intern at the Chestnut Hill Local, graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in English literature and philosophy. After graduation, she made a somewhat unlikely transition and enrolled at the Germantown-based Philadelphia School of Circus Arts.

"When I started training,” she recalled, “I was inspired by the blend of athleticism, narrative and physical artistry in contemporary circus arts." Smith subsequently undertook further training at two circus schools in Brooklyn.

For several years Smith has worked at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the University of Pennsylvania. She is the rare materials assistant in the Special Collections Library, which means that she helps process rare books and manuscripts as they come into the collections.

"It allows me to switch gears,” she said, “between the head-centered world of books and libraries and the body-centered world of training circus arts. I chose the name Tangle for our acrobatic performance company because we are all about the possibilities that arise when things get complicated. Tangle also evokes the shapes of bodies you might see onstage when we perform.”

In a previous Fringe Festival performance by Tangle, Lauren was asked to explain their performance briefly to an eight-year-old. Her reply: “Seven women get together for a party on aerial silks, trapeze and other circus equipment. We’re going to climb the furniture, carry each other around and make new enemies and friends.”
At the time one of the performers in Tangle was seven months pregnant during the show. “Let me tell you,” Lauren said. “Trapeze is really hard, and it’s even harder when you’re doing pull-ups for two! Tangle is all about diverse expressions of female strength, so I love it.”

For more information, visit https://tangle-arts.com/the-way-out. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com