Reactionaries, When Will you Come Home, Dancers Bethany Formica & David Konyk, Photo by J. J. Tiziou
What People Have Written
Bethany Formica, Liminal Lobby
Goodhart Hall Co-stars with Student Performers in Upcoming Spring Concert, Bryn Mawr News and Headlines, Shannon Eblen, 2024
David Gordon, The Philadelphia Matter 1972/2020
Formica in Virtual Dance at the Fringe
Dancer Bethany Formica of Swarthmore is performing virtually in David Gordon’s new work “The Philadelphia Matter 1972/2020” at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Gordon, a celebrated choreographer who is now 84, invited 30-plus Philadelphia artists working remotely to record video material on everything from iPhones to professional cameras. He then dissected, assembled, and collaged this material together with archival work in collaboration with video artist Jorge Cousineau. Bethany Formica writes:
I’m thankful to have had work as an artist during a pandemic, together with so many incredible artists (all working from our individual homes). It’s been a wild process. David Gordon sent us black-and-white videos from 1972-76. We had a designated number of hours to learn several dances and then send back videos of one accurate (or what we thought was an accurate) version of the dance, and also an alternative version. The assignments were not very specific; we had a lot of freedom as performers in how we created the videos. We did not see anyone else’s content. We had no idea what had made it into the final work.
“The Philadelphia Matter 1972/2020” is streaming for free through October 4 at swat.ink/dance-fringe. - The Swarthmorean, 2020
David Gordon Digs Into His Archives for a Dance That Matters - Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, 2020
“Theaters shut down, but dance didn’t. There was dancing in the streets and dancing on screens. Old treasures spilled out of the vaults.”
“Best thing to come out of working from home. The veteran choreographer David Gordon — a founding member both of the 1960s collective Judson Dance Theater and the improvisatory group the Grand Union — can’t venture far from his SoHo loft because of the pandemic. But Mr. Gordon, 84, managed to squeeze a lifetime of work into a riveting film, “The Philadelphia Matter — 1972/2020,” in which Philadelphia dance artists perform material from three of Mr. Gordon’s works. It is an engrossing, unsentimental continuation of his work on “The Matter,” which he first presented in 1972.”- Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2020
Swarthmore Professors Adapt to Online Learning - Elizabeth Miller, The Swarthmorean, 2020
Virtual Dance Class Keeps Students Engaged and Connected - Bryn Mawr News and Headlines, 2020
The students in Bethany Formica Bender's modern dance course haven't let the coronavirus crisis stop them. The class has continued to meet via Zoom. And while bedrooms and rec rooms may not have the ambiance of the Pembroke Dance Studio, class members continue to maintain their spirits and motivate each other. There have even been some Bryn Mawr alums who have dropped in to be part of the class. #BrynMawrAtHome
"Being able to continue to dance with the people in this class has kept me grounded over these past few weeks. The shift in space—from the studio to our own little squares of floor—hasn't impacted the sense of community in the slightest, although it is definitely not the same as taking class with everyone in person; it is dearly missed. Despite that loss, learning new movement and adapting it for where I am has become a new skill set, and I am so thankful that we are able to move together through it all." —Aubrey Donsich '20.
"I really appreciate the opportunity to continue going to a dance class that I am already familiar with during this time. While dance is not necessary for me to stay fit, thanks to online workouts, it serves as an important coping mechanism and an alternate form of exercise." —Calumina McCondochie '21.
"For me, being able to do this class online has provided me with a way to routinely keep moving and stay connected to my classmates. This has helped me greatly mentally as dance is one of my outlets for stress management. Getting up and moving vigorously also helps me focus better overall, especially now that I’m sitting around much more than I usually am. In addition, it’s been wonderful seeing all of my classmates and professor whom I miss very much." —Kyra Booth '22.
"I believe that dance has the power to move people, to heal people, to enrich and empower communities and connect us socially. Trying to accomplish this virtually has been challenging as we are all isolated in different time zones and different living situations, and we have new priorities given the magnitude of the crisis. Surprisingly, being able to connect online twice a week has been heartwarming; it has helped alleviate the isolation we’re all feeling, and has given us a glimpse into each other’s lives through a completely different lens. My week is always better because of my students, and that continues even in this environment. I look forward to the time when we can once again share real space and time together." —Bethany Formica.
Not Ephemeral
“Bethany Formica is one of the originators of the sale, which takes place in the house she shares with her husband, Conrad Bender, and their bearded collie, Gus. Formica is a modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher who has been performing for thirty years. More recently, she has become a woodworker, too. “The amazing thing about working with wood is that it’s not ephemeral,” she says. “At the end of the day, I can say, I made this.”
Formica and Bender make bowls, boards, benches, and their signature “sawdust sirens”: acoustic amplifiers for cell phones made out of wood and old-fashioned phonograph horns. Years ago, Formica saw a similar amplifier in a magazine and figured out how to make one. She kept it around the house for years until the other sale originator, Martha Perkins, convinced her that other people would want them too. “Then we got obsessed,” Formica says. They get help from friends and neighbors who come by with horns they’ve found, or pieces of old trees. “We have a lot of wood fairies that drop things off for us. Everything [we use] is reclaimed or a gift.” - Rachel Pastan, The Swarthmorean, 2019
Fringe at 20 Profile: Bethany Formica, Philadephia Fringe Arts blog, 2016
Cardell Dance Theater, Supper, People on the Move
Human Movement - Carolyn Merritt, thINKingDANCE, 2015
Review: Supper tells riveting stories of immigration
“Bethany Formica nimbly crosses a series of moving tables, each upended in a sequence. She crawls across the other dancers' hands, her own hands and feet moving atop outstretched arms as they walk her aloft on the walls behind the audience. William Robinson adds an equally striking gymnastic-driven performance in solo turns, executing a handstand onto a table; catching a soccer ball into a back bend; or performing an inverted arabesque, holding himself on one hand with a leg bent at the knee while another dancer turns him in a circle. The two lend a sense of excitement and peril that's balanced by the theatrical symbolism of Cardell's piece.” - Jim Rutter, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2015
Supper, People on the Move: A Topic Tackled with Great Success
“Bethany Formica and William Robinson performed several impressive duets throughout the piece, but one stood out among them. Formica’s sturdy body provided the strength to hoist herself atop a table from one leg. While standing with one leg on the table and the other on the floor, she slowly pressed into the table and lifted the dangling leg. She pulled the leg up and allowed it to rotate to her left side before placing it on the table in a crouching position. Robinson somersaulted onto the table, landing within close proximity of Formica. They carefully engaged in a tactile game of restrain and release. They were both loyal – they were both trusting.” - Gregory King, The Dance Journal, 2015
Supper, People on the Move: The Physicality of Migration - Courtney Lau, Fringe Arts Blog, and The Dance Journal, 2015
Curt Haworth, Onliest
Onliest Alone, Together - Becca Weber, thINKingDANCE, 2013
Sylvain Émard Danse, Le Grand Continental
Everyone’s Dancing in "Le Grand Continental" - Jonathan Stein, thINKingDANCE, 2012
Cardell Dance Theater, Evita, Solas, and Double Vision
Moving Pictures: Cardell Dance Theater’s ‘Excerpts’ - Carolyn Merritt, thINKingDANCE, 2012
Silvana Cardell & Bethany Formica, Flicker
Philly PARD’s Mixed Grille offers four delectable works from a most formidable cast of Philadelphia dancers - Steven Weisz, The Dance Journal, 2011
“The evening started with the audience sitting in an intimate space with the arrival of trays of votive candles and even a birthday cake to the opening of Flicker, a solo performed by Bethany Formica with choreography from co-creators Silvana Cardell and Bethany Formica. As laughter filled the hall and the celebration of a birthday ensues, we are drawn in to the dichotomy of the celebration juxtaposed with an internal struggle. The votives are strewn across the floor as Bethany brilliantly dances between them. As she pauses and even balances just above the candles, one can feel the heat upon the skin and even perhaps the burn. The candles flicker and as the only light source, cast shadows, beautifully accenting the flawless movements executed by Bethany as she fully embodies her character as no one else can. With each passing between celebration and anguish, a series of candles are snuffed out. At times, Bethany is literally throwing herself at walls in an endless frenzy. From a sudden stillness, her body begins to writhers, at first playful, sexy and even taunting, then consumed with that emotional pain that transforms through her every limb. Finally, with a burst of light from flash paper touched to a candle that wafts to the floor, the audience is left in the still of darkness.”
Cooking, Cake and Conversation at the LAB - Anna Drozdowski, thINKingDANCE, 2011
“Bethany Formica and Silvana Cardell brought us Flicker, which has previously seen the light through Philly PARD’s Mixed Grille series as well as Aquarius Era in Bulgaria. Formica extinguishes many flames, the sole source of light in her solo work, as a marker of time—a passing of years. Starting with a four-inch square piece of cake (laden with more candles than likely safe for fire code), she leaves her birthday table to sit and flip amongst the candles strewn about the floor. Formica is, as always, most at home while upside down. Next the wall buffets her back and forth to the now-waxy marley--a nervous side-effect of Formica’s normal razor-sharp precision. We are close to her, can smell the wicks burning, can see the sinew of her bandaged foot as it narrowly skirts the flame. We are able to see less and less of Formica until, in a flash, she is gone. It reminds me that dance is dangerous, that this field is intrinsically tied to aging, and that Formica continues to defy both of these culprits that can fell a career that relies on the body.”
Bethany Formica & Jebney Lewis, Blind Date - Leah Franqui, Staged, 2011
“Formica and Lewis achieved the most harmony and clear give and take in their piece, infusing it with a playfulness and a sense of humor...”
Curt Haworth, Either/Or
Either/Or Homegrown Dance, Times Two - Merliyn Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2011
Decadere dancer Bethany Formica on culture clash and why dancers are not normal human beings - Nicholas Gilewicz, Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival Blog, 2010
Boan Danz Action, Decadere
“I’m convinced that dancers Bethany Formica and Scott McPheeters are, indeed, superheroes. Their technique was impeccable and they filled their characters with a life rarely seen by many dancers.” Justin Jain’s Philadelphia Festival Blog, 2010
Movement in Survival Mode - Ellen Dunkel, Philadelphia Inquirer, 2010
Marienela Boan And Ellery Biddle Talk Cuban Art - Ellery Biddle, Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival Blog, 2010
Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre, Factor T.
“Bethany Formica, excellent throughout, arouses desires none of her favored males in the audience would dare act upon in public as she stares them down in increasingly seductive attire...Formica’s seductive glances are not only sexual; they portray the artist’s tragic need to endlessly seduce an audience.” - Steve Antinoff, The Broad Street Review, 2008
“A new note is brought in by the American dancer Bethany Formica (from Lat. “Mrówka” – Ant)...an immeasurable breeze of hope, of chance for tomorrow.” - Tadeusz Skutnik, Polska Dziennik Bałtycki nr 59, Gdansk, Poland, 2008
Tragicomic Throwdown: Dada von Bzdülöw’s Factor T. - April Greene, The Brooklyn Rail, November Issue, 2008
Philadelphia Fringe, Faktor T - George Jackson, danceviewtimes, 2008
“..Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre from far-off Legnica, Poland, returns to mystify and amuse us. Famous in Europe for intellectually stimulating fare, this year they're bringing Factor T, based on the writings of Polish intellectual Stefan Themerson. This gentleman posited a theory that mankind's tragedy (Factor T) lies in its drive to satisfy certain urges while being repulsed by the acts necessary to achieve these (ever has it been). One of Philly's best dancers, Bethany Formica, performs with the troupe.” - Janet Anderson, Philadelphia City Paper, 2008
“For the last year, Philly dancer Bethany Formica worked with the group for her role as a jaded ingenue in multiple gorgeous costume changes. (Hiroshi Iwasaki designed the 1930s period costumes...) - Merilyn Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2008
“This is a cross-cultural collaboration between Polish modern dance company Dada von Bzdülöw and Philadelphia dancer Bethany Formica (who seems to be on nearly every program in the festival). - Ellen Dunkel, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2008
Embedded and in bed with Faktor T. - Anna Drozdowski
Boan Danz Action, Voyeur
Marianela Boán y danza contaminada - Diario Libre, De Alfonso Quiñones, 2010
“...a provocative duet about marriage danced by two of the city's best, Scott McPheeters and Bethany Formica.” - Janet Anderson, Philadelphia City Paper, 2008
“Formica and Scott McPheeters give a clever, entertaining and highly gymnastic performance all over a bright yellow Little Tikes playhouse - with half the roof removed - in the world premiere of Marianela Boan's Voyeur, in which the Philadelphia-based Cuban choreographer examines suburban married life as an outsider looking in. McPheeters and Formica are a couple literally stepping all over each other in a too-tight space. To electro-acoustic music by Philadelphian Jason Carr, they deftly vault in and out of the house, hang upside-down and flip over the open top, their acrobatics projected on a screen behind them. ...It's not all fun; the dancers evoke religion, the military and women's issues with their bodies. A witty movie musical-style duet with pink plastic flamingoes serves as a comic interlude between serious moments” - Ellen Dunkel, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2007
Reaction: Marianela Boán's Voyeur - Ellery Biddle, Philadelphia Live Arts Blog, 2007
Melanie Stewart Dance Theater, A Simple Fact of Pain
“[Melanie Stewart] uses three of the best dancers around - Meghan Durham, Bethany Formica and Janet Pilla, and these ladies give their all, which is a very great deal...” - Janet Anderson, Philadelphia City Paper, 2007
Kate Watson-Wallace, Living Rooms
“...three of Philly's best dancers, Bethany Formica, David Konyk and Megan Mazarick” - Janet Anderson, Philadelphia City Paper, 2006
“Konyk and Formica performed one of the most interesting pas de deux on said couch that I’ve ever seen.” - Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey, ThePhillyist.com, 2006
Reactionaries, When Will You Come Home
“The group Reactionaries opens the show, with red-clad dancers in the aisles and balcony, the audience invited onstage, and theater technicians wandering through the space. This collective mixes up "us and them" and here and there in When Will You Come Home. Codirector Mark O'Maley's lights, often hand-held waist high, produce exuisite halo-lit configurations and shadows. The choreography coalesces and dissipates in changing locations with changing numbers of dancers to a suite of contemporary songs by the likes of Pink Martini and Björk. Though vigorous, with transverse leaps on one arm, flips, and unpredictable shifts of direction, the dancing could benefit by upping the ante to match the nervy intensity of codirector Bethany Formica. The ending is a gem, with nearly motionless dancers in squares of down-light while the stage is swept and the curtain slowly falls.” - Lisa Kraus, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2006
“Bethany Formica of Reactionaries is similarly movement-driven. "My biggest passion is a lot of upside-down floorwork and really hard athletic partnering work," she says. "I love to work on a highly visceral level of physicality." Add to that the dramatic play with light of Reactionaries' codirector Mark O'Maley, and you have a potent mix…Reactionaries' nine-member collective will literally invite the audience into its space. Ready to shake up the usual audience/performer relationship, Formica expresses appreciation for the work of John Jasperse, Anouk van Dijk, and other contemporary dance artists known for unconventional play with proximity to the audience.” Lisa Kraus, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2006
“It looked like we were all interrupting a pre-show photo call. The music was driving, and six red-bedecked dancers from Reactionaries were moving to it, being photographed by local photographer J.J. Tiziou. The stage managers roamed the stage speaking into their headsets. The man at the onstage lightboard communicated with the back-of-house sound operator through a megaphone and dragged his friends in the audience onto the stage to mingle with each other and the dancers. But soon enough, everyone seemed to realize this was intentional. People entering the theatre had to maneuver around the dancers who were clinging to and suspended from the hand rails. Their pre-show performance was interrupted by an introduction to DanceBOOM! by the Wilma staff, and then the dancers resumed their very entertaining, and sometimes very dangerous, third of the evening. It was an intersection of dance and performance art, and it was an impressive start to an evening of entertainment.” Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey, Phillyist, 2006
I Is for Interactive
“Perhaps no company in Philly embraces a collective, interactive approach to the performing arts more than the Reactionaries. According to co-director Mark O'Maley (who along with co-director Bethany Formica forms Reactionaries' core), the company is "a performance collective that is using a broader reach of its collective members to create visually based performances. We are designers, dancers, choreographers, photographers, technicians. But we don't hold ourselves strictly to those roles." A highly kinesthetic, intensely physical experimental dance company, the Reactionaries are known for paying particular attention to a performance space's environment-not just how the dancers move in the space or how the stage is lit (O'Maley is originally a lighting designer, Formica a dancer/choreographer), but how the production, audience and space interact. O'Maley says the idea is to give "the audience a new way to experience performance. The audience is the final piece of the puzzle." And the audience doesn't just influence the piece in terms of its architecture. It in effect tells the story. Formica explains, "I do think we have the ability to tell stories as artists. That's just not where the impetus to create work comes from naturally for Mark or me. Instead we're interested in audience members potentially creating their own interpretations of the work." If you haven't yet interpreted a Reactionaries production for yourself, you can catch the unique collective at either DanceBoom! in June or in September at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.” - J. Cooper Robb, Philadelphia Weekly, 2006
Reactionaries, Dying to Leave
“Giant Causeway-A brand-new performance series raises awareness about human trafficking. ...2005 Live Arts favorites Bethany Formica and Mark O'Maley with their performance collective Reactionaries in Dying to Leave, a "get your knees dirty" movement piece inspired by documentary images by Fringe legend Jacques-Jean Tiziou.” - Leo Beletsky, Philadelphia Weekly, 2006
Melanie Stewart Dance Theater, The Girl with Bees in Her Hair
"Formica tumbles and slashes through space, then quiets. The mystery compels like a magic-realist novel” - Lisa Kraus, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2005
Elrey Belmonti & Bethany Formica, Mysterium II
“In the best of the bunch, Mysterium II, Elrey Belmonti and Bethany Formica perform a lovely duet of interweaving bodies. It is the true highlight of the program.” - Ellen Dunkel, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2005
Kate Watson-Wallace, The Mentalist
“Olase Freeman and Bethany Formica…are brimming with ideas” - Lori Hill, Philadelphia City Paper, 2005
Reactionaries and The Bald Mermaids, Multi-Family Garage Sale
“Inside the cavernous, beautiful Crane Arts Center, treat yourself to a miniature walking tour of 13 pieces by remarkable local dancers…highlights among the stellar program are Bethany Formica’s aggressive performance in O’Maley’s ‘In The Rye’” - Juliet Fletcher, Philadelphia City Paper, 2004
Melanie Stewart Dance Theater, The Gathering
“Trotter and Formica are standouts” - Merilyn Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2003
Julia Ritter Performance Group, Love After Death
“…a flower-tossing, cartwheeling wild child” - Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times, 2002
Pearson/Widrig Dance Theater, A Curious Invasion
“Another highlight of the walking tour was Bethany Formica's impetuous tumbling in "Unleashed," a duet with Blake B. Pearson in which she tossed out capeoira-style back flips” - Jody Sperling, Dance Magazine, 2001
Michael Foley Dance, The Whipping Hour
Eddie Buggie, Mr. Foley, Bethany Formica, and Wilson Mendieta joined and separated in various permutations with rag-doll ease” - Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times, 1997