The Fuller Moon Arts Festival
Melissa Dvozenja-Thomas, Director, Development & Marketing, Arts Mid-Hudson
As summer slowly starts winding down, there’s still time to find events for the whole family to enjoy. The Fuller Moon Arts Fest, on Saturday, August 27, celebrates a variety of art forms in a one-day festival. Presented by Wickham Works, Warwick Dance Collective, and the Orange County Arts Council, this event is influenced by the magical lakefront setting and backdrop of Fuller Mountain. Guests are invited to take in the natural beauty of one of Orange County’s best-kept secrets along with meeting local artists, enjoying live music and dance, interacting with art installations and more.
If you are interested in dance, Warwick Dance Collective will present a range of performances from Emotions Physical Theatre, Ian Wen and De Novo Dance, Darrah Carr Dance and Linda Mensch, and The Moving Company Modern Dance. Even within the medium of dance, there is something for everyone. The Emotions Physical Theatre combines theatre and dance to tell thought-provoking stories. They look to expand the viewers imagination and empower future generations to create. De Novo Dance creates pieces inspired by cultural dance forms such as belly dance and butoh dance. Darrah Carr Dance draws inspiration from Irish music, step dance footwork, and spatial patterns to create high-energy, rhythmically based work that is accessible to a broad audience.
The Moving Company Modern Dance will premiere “The Unfolding”, choreographed by Linda Mensch featuring two young dancers, Lidia Baluk and Sofia Mudryk, who recently arrived from Ukraine. “We are two girls who could not imagine our lives without dance,” they recently said. “We arrived in America from the Ukraine in May. We could not find a place to relax our bodies and indulge in music and reveal our possibilities to the fullest. But luck smiled on us and we met Linda of the Moving Company. Where we can communicate without words, our common language is dance.”
If you are intrigued by visual arts, visit one of the many site specific interactive art installations curated by Wickham Works. Featured artists for this part of the festival include, Solidarity Installation by Amanda E Gross, The Nest by Nicole Hixon, Murals in Motion by Heidi Lanino Bilezikian, Dandelion by Maxine Leu, Kindred Face Installation by Daniel McQuade, Synthesizer Petting Zoo II by Torino Margolis, and Skin Deep: Voices From Beneath the Surface by Vernon Byron. Guests can also stop by the Maker’s Market to purchase beautifully handcrafted items from local artisans.
If you’d like to catch live music performances, there are plenty of opportunities to be found. Enjoy The Blue House with David Schiff on guitar, Tony Sky playing harmonica, and Piet Koster on the upright bass or Rose Stoller with Joseph Mullhaupt, and Matt Kopec. Rose is a NYC based multidisciplinary artist who performs as a jazz vocalist, experimental musician, singer-songwriter, theater artist, and more. Funkrust Brass Band is sure to please with their mix of post-punk, disco, EDM, metal, funk with Balkan brass, and New Orleans second line sounds, and filters that through the medium of a massive street brass band with a punk rock sensibility.
Rounding out the art genres is PEP Productions presenting two plays, “Everything Happens for a Reason . . . Right?” a Black comedy By William J Royce, and “Kirby is Missing” by Scott Gibson from the Orange County Short Play Festival. Both plays are directed by Paul Ellis, with technical direction by Brian Koch and star Sue Mormile and Raymond Aponte.
Tickets for the festival are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (65+), and children (6-18) - children
under 6 are free. Visitors of all ages are sure to enjoy a day full of the arts.
If you go:
The Fuller Moon Festival
46 Bowen Road, (former) Kutz Camp, Warwick, NY 10990
Saturday, August 27, 2022
noon - 11 pm (rain date Aug. 28)
Melissa Shaw-Smith, Wickham Works
Contact: (917) 922-0943
www.ocartscouncil.org/fuller-moon-arts-fest
