Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company

What the Critics Say

"The 35th Home Season Concert of Anne-Marie Mulgrew & Dancers Company (AMM & DCO) began with a welcome from founder/artistic director Anne-Marie Mulgrew, who remarked upon the thrill of performing indoors for a live audience after two years outside. AMM & DCO, an experimental modern dance troupe based in Philadelphia, has a history of innovative approaches that included outdoor performances long before the pandemic. Mulgrew and the dancers brought the company's inventiveness to their exploration of today's tumultuous times. Beautiful Chaos, a new full-length work, considers the hope and potential of uncertainty." "The dance (Beautiful Chaos) contained evocative and haunting images featuring the entire company. Ridley and Lombardi shone as a pair caught in a movement frenzy. This gave way to a space full of movement with multiple things going on at once: people dancing, someone reading a poem, and Mulgrew, shrouded in layers of clothing, seeming to represent an enduring, insightful wise woman. The piece concluded with Mulgrew alone on stage, removing the shirts and pants draped around her frame one by one. She laid them in a trail on the floor before exiting, leaving beauty and mystery in the space formerly filled by chaos." "In finding opportunity for creation and growth in formless uncertainty, Beautiful Chaos is a thoughtful and hopeful reflection on our times and a testament to AMM&DCO's creativity and endurance." - Broad Street Review, Melissa Strong June 27, 2022
"Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company's performance, 'The Umbrella Dance' has happened at several locations in Philadelphia, and it brings forth language through dance, into a public space. This movement subtly touches on the mystery of the many piers along the Delaware River. The bizarre at Cherry Street Pier under a steel roof invites many vendors to showcase their products. But down the waterway harbors cruises, restaurants, and other undeveloped piers which have been abandoned over time, because my interest in this dance is a haunted time capsule." "The Umbrella Dance cast a shadow over this active place of business. As I try to capture the elegant movement, it is a rocaille style in the fashion of Rococo. The curves and ornamental frill became an architectural movement." - Dance Enthusiast Chuck Schultz July, 2021
"Anne-Marie Mulgrew presented her dance company's 33rd home season concert at the Performance Garage on June 14 and 15. The playbill showcased a re-imagined One Minute Dances for Small Spaces from 2017, some film pieces, and a world premiere, From Feminine Gaze, all of which showcased her unique and poetic interpretation of feminism and relationship between our spirituality and our bodies. " - Phindie Review Eri Yoneda
"Interesting ideas, standout performances, and Mulgrew's signature inventive yet thoughtful use of props contributed to an enjoyable and entertaining evening of dance. From the Feminine Gaze contained multitudes, challenging notions of a single, unified female experience. " - Broad Street Review Melissa Strong
"Since 1986, the dancer has led the South Philly-based Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company through thought-provoking works in spaces spanning from alleyways to museums. " - South Philly Review Grace Maorino
"Strange Dreams was a treat, offering moments of striking beauty, laugh-out-loud humor, and thought-provoking imagery. " - Broad Street Review June 2018
"highlighted appealing and important aspects of contemporary dance: combining muscular athleticism with classical grace and undermining traditional gender roles. " - Strange Dreams Broad Street Review June 2018
"Unlike some dance performances where it is on the audiences to reach to the world of the dance to feel and understand what is narrated on the stage, AMM & DCO steps into our world by citing common interests and phenomenons that may occur in our daily lives. Dance is, in fact, one of our most natural ways to communicate and express our thoughts." - Phindie Review June 2017
"One Minute Dances were appealing and intriguing. Anne-Marie danced two solos. Both were tender and graceful in the movements, poetic and narrative at the same time, which felt the shortest one minute that left the long-lasting impressions." - Phindie Review June 2017
"Part art installation and part tribute, the performances of Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company"s 30th-anniversary (AMMDC) celebration were assortments of nostalgic delicacies and newer movement explorations. Each still helps to define the company"s decades-long existence." - Thinking Dance 2016
"quirky, visually enticing treats" - Thinking Dance 2016
"Highlighting the company"s longstanding commitment to cross-discipline collaborations, founder and artistic director Anne-Marie Mulgrew, appropriately titled the opening installation "The Prelude" (2016). By unleashing a slew of memorable excerpts from three past works, Mulgrew prepared the audience for quaint props, comedic deliveries, and lasting visual images." - Thinking Dance 2016
"For more than two decades, Anne-Marie Mulgrew has presented beguiling performances all around the city, indoors and out. With more than 60 works to her name, Mulgrew's oeuvre bears the mark of an experimental artist who truly sees and feels through movement. She knows how to grab your attention in alluring fashion. Her upcoming show, Red, White and Blue, comprises two features, including World of Dreams 2014, an adventurous new piece created in collaboration with video artist Carmella Vassor-Johnson that contemplates what it means be an American." - City Paper by Deni Kasrel May 2014
"Conceptual, witty and prop-laden..." - The Inquirer by Merilyn Jackson May 19, 2014
"The evening was a pleasant one, with music that landed comfortably on the ears (a tango sung by Carlos Garde4l, big-band jazz by Harry James (and even a piece by Justin Bieber) dancers who were committed and clean in execution, and videos of people you felt you might well know." "It is no feat to keep a company going for 28 years, as Anne-Marie Mulgrew has done. I am glad she has been able to grace Philadelphia with her persistence and generous programming." - Thinking Dance by Lynn Matluck Brooks May 2014
"Anne-Marie Mulgrew reprised her utterly charming and painterly Umbrella Dance, replete with ladies in white gowns and parasols parading on the west side of the Barnes' grounds." - broadstreetreview.com Merilyn Jackson
"The Keepers Project by Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company was a creative piece that mixed factual family history with feeling and emotion. What makes The Keeper's Project such a unique piece is that emotion is used to interpret the story, coming from both the spoken word and the visual movement. The dancers embraced the techno - style music along with a projection of pictures and short videos. I interpreted The Keepers Project as both a metaphor for the confusion and wonder of family history, and the assimilation of others' emotions and thoughts about their past." - www.mightypost.org Merilyn Jackson
"Anne-Marie Mulgrew's latest work in her presented program , From Here to Seattle, continues her 25-year Philadelphia dance legacy of whimsical landscapes and stages inhabited with charm and panache. To this writer's delight, she has choreographed to her own drummer, resisting popular trends and persevering amidst erratic funding." "The archeology of DIG, a premiere in collaboration with video artist Carmella Vassor-Johnson, mined Mulgrew's family roots back to her émigré forebears from Poland and Ireland. Their histories and memories fueled the choreographer's fertile imagination..." - *Thinkingdance.net Excavating the Past and Future* by Jonathan Stein, May 2012**
"Showcasing the range of humor, whimsy, and dark mystery of Paris Dada, the conceptualist influence was strongly felt. It was easy to get caught up in the scenes, as nostalgic, French accordion music blared loudly and resonated throughout the high vaulted ceiling of the Rotunda. The building was the performance, as architecture acted as an interactive sculpture coaxing the viewer and the performers. Mulgrew and her Company have clearly made a cultural statement and created a time machine of sorts, transporting the viewers back to 1911 Paris and the imagery that inspired the Dada Movement." "Mulgrew yielding two metals poles, which she dragged around on the floor creating a chilling yet beautiful sound and visual experience." - Ali Printz www.underwriteart.com May 4, 2011
"For 25 years, she (Ms. Mulgrew) has been one of Philadelphia's most conceptual and prolific dance makers." - The Philadelphia Inquirer May 21, 2009
"SALT's...Pillars of Rumination (is) an intense and visually evocative dance segment." - Broad Street Review May 26, 2009
"In a trio of religiously grounded, mystical movements forming the core of (SALT's) Part Two, Mulgrew fashions a unity...She explores the duality of salt-it corrodes and it preserves - in dancers rushing toward and repelled by a rope stretched across the stage. Their forceful motions ... fall to arise into a choreography that achieves the luminous quality of a dream." - Broad Street Review May 26, 2009
"...You can't help but admire the breadth of Mulgrew's ambition. Nearly every movement in SALT explored a different style of dance and exuded a different sensibility of feeling. The musical selection - ranging from chanting, stylized techno, even an opera aria - articulated a mood for each segment, evoking moods ranging from Egypt and later sub-Saharan Africa to the Far East, South America, and Greece." - Broad Street Review May 26, 2009
"Full of whimsy and spontaneity....Mulgrew has been an outstanding contributor to Philly's dance scene." - Key to Philadelphia, August 13-26, 2007 (The Hidden River Project)
"The piece morphs between history and fantasy, concrete and imagined, anchored by the history of the site"" - The Bulletin August 24, 2007
"Elegance, Insight And Wit" - The Bulletin May 25, 2007
"Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers in long white gowns, carrying white umbrellas strolled down Broad Street. Creating very pretty, wonderful street art, the slow-moving ladies enhanced the evening." - Janet Anderson, CityPaper (DanceBoom) June 29, 2006
"Their hour-long trek along Broad Street to the Wilma Stage was an arresting and serene cityscape installation. My favorite moment occurred when the women, in the middle of Broad Street, locked into a two-minute group frieze, as the wind billowed their muslin." - Lewis Whittington, Broad Street Review (DanceBoom ) www.broadstreetreview.com July 7, 2006
"The work (Field of Memories) is ever-full of striking visual imagery and whimsy." full article - Lisa Kraus, Philadelphia Inquirer June 2, 2006
"The Hans Project is based on the Dance of Death woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger. With Keith Calmes live electric guitar sliding between classical and flamenco improvisation, the work carried the evening-s strongest emotional punch... its heart is an enigmatic and virtuosically danced duet that transforms from playful connectionedness to bewildering separation." full article - Lisa Kraus, Philadelphia Inquirer June 2, 2006
" The most nuanced choreography is the first of the three sections of The Big Dance where the use of space becomes fully dimensional, the interactions increasingly complex. One satisfying sequence repeats a lift with changing facings and numbers of dancers being hoisted in the split leap, like joyous, surfacing dolphins." full article - Lisa Kraus, Philadelphia Inquirer June 2, 2006
" I loved the experience. And experience is what the piece was all about. It was the street, the time, the spectators as well as the dancers and their moods, movements and images that made this so enjoyable.....The work cannot be separated from the environment in which it happened. The effect of this performance on the city and the people was as much a part of the performance as the dancers themselves." Dances forImaginary Places, Philly Free-Fringe-For-All 2005 - Tom Blair www.enter.net
"As if they were fabled magical elves that pop up in Iceland, the dancers dressed in pure-white from head to toe, prance in an Olde City alley, transforming the cityscape to an uninhibited space where women celebrate their capricious sensuality. Prepare mentally to be guided by the show's Samuel Beckett's ideology. Gotan Project's accompanying music inspires performers and audience members alike." - Three Ladies in Waiting ,Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2004 - Helen i-Lin Hwang CityPaper
"The Dance and Choir Project is one of the largest dance pieces in recent memory. Performed at the beautifully renovated Philadelphia Cathedral by one of the city's most innovative and irreverent dance companies." - J. Cooper Robb Philadelphia Weekly, June 2 - 8, 2004
"In the piece (A Deconstruction of Degas) dancers took turns donning a tutu and striking a pose of Degas' Little Dancer. Others came in solo, pairs and trios, sometimes emulating Degas, sometimes being carried in sculpted poses. This dance had a lovely, hazy quality and Mulgrew, who always uses an element of incongruity, interjected the Pink Panther theme after Moonlight Sonata to give it unexpected playfulness." full article "Mulgrew regular, Joseph Cicala, and newcomers Gabrielle Revlock and Michelle Tantoco danced with finesse throughout the concert, that was thoughtfully designed for the space." - Phildelphia Inquirer May 26, 2003 (The Philadelphia Cathedral, May 23, 2003)
"Always appealing.."
Phildelphia Inquirer June 3, 2001

"The mix of straight dancing and more concept-driven movement in ten sections revealed Mulgrew's maturing range... The strong company of five joined Mulgrew to create moments of freshness and engaging complexity."
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 13, 2001

"The six person dance-theater piece is more earnest that mysterious. Mulgrew mixes sinuous well performed movement... it feels less like excerpts than a series of novelties." City Paper September 3, 2001 (Philadelphia Fringe Festival Excerpts from The Yard) "Paper Waitress is cool and witty, its sly comments on work and gender interactions embedded in the three dancers' moves and use of props. Mulgrew danced a dance... vaguely Balinese in its formality... her tour-de-force was slowly somersaulting while keeping the tray upright."
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 17, 2000

"Paper Waitress is cool and witty, its sly comments on work and gender interactions embedded in the three dancers' moves and use of props. Mulgrew danced a dance... vaguely Balinese in its formality... her tour-de-force was slowly somersaulting while keeping the tray upright."
Miriam Seidel, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 17, 2000

"Mulgrew is loathe to give away too much about the four dancer work, based heavily as it is on an element of surprise. Suffice it is to say that urban 'beasts,' glowing inflatable structures and 35' long bolts of fabric come into play."
Unknown City preview NOW, Toronto Canada, August 19-25, 1999

"Two pieces by Anne-Marie Mulgrew combined literal and abstract concepts. In a light and occasionally amusing excerpt from Unknown City (part 3-Ryoko) three women carrying suitcases perform a dynamic sequence built from entrances and exits and circular patterns of movement. ... The Last Ten Minutes is darker in tone, the work features slides of abstract images that I later learned were an MRI of Mulgrew' s knee. A voice over lists the names of cities around the world, where atrocities occurred in 1999. On one area of the stage a woman lies prone as if beaten down, across the way two ladies chat while enjoying cups of tea."
Philadelphia City Paper, Oct. 22-28, 1999

"After seeing ANNE-MARIE MULGREW & DANCERS Strange Tongues in its one-night engagement at Parallax Pictures, I'm tempted to describe Mulgrew as our own Margaret Mead of dance." full article
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1997

"Their (the dancers) catching and carrying and supported falling away from each other placed their bodies in sharply defined new angles, each an unexpected pleasure." full article
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1997

"Choreographer, Mulgrew is known for her comic dance inventions (such as PBS produced Tales of the Buffoon) and for Swiftian commentary on social mores told in various movement styles."
Philadelphia Forum, May 29, 1997

"This is the third collaboration between Mulgrew, Vida and Price and have now look toward their high-tech union as a source of inspiration. The result, choreographically, is a Cunninghamesque abstraction merged with contact-inspired partnering and occasionally, touches of tenderness."
Philadelphia City Paper, May 31, 1996

"Mulgrew's choreography was full of surprising accents, loopy inflections and irregular rhythms."
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 27, 1996

"Flatland is Anne-Marie Mulgrew's ambitious ongoing work based on Edwin Abbott's classic fantasy. The piece succeeds through the interaction of visual artist Vida's well conceived projections with six dancers onstage."
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15, 1995

"Mulgrew and her dancers were like children attempting to use every inch of available space to see just how far they could go."
WELCOMAT, Dec. 7, 1994

"One of Philadelphia-s most acclaimed choreographers and performers."
Syracuse Times, Mar. 13, 1993

"Mouth, seemed to come from Mulgrew' s personal vision... it unfolded into a series of emotionally charged scenes suggesting historical memories of a single family."
Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 6, 1992

"This is an imaginatively realized piece-full of energy and drive, like Mulgrew herself."
WELCOMAT, Feb 7, 1990

"Witty, cerebral and provocatively titled.."
Philadelphia Magazine, Dec. 1998

"Earth Planet Dances has a wholeness and continuity of vision that is immensely satisfying."
Philadelphia City Paper, April 1987