On Saturday, March 22, the Forrest Theater hosted the 22nd anniversary of Shut Up and Dance. Each year, the dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet create this one of a kind, one night only performance and donate all of the proceeds to the Philadelphia based charity, MANNA. The partnership between the Pennsylvania Ballet and MANNA began in 1992 after multiple members of the ballet began losing friends and family to AIDS. The dancers got together to discuss how they could unite to take action and support those suffering from HIV/AIDS. They decided that the best way they could be of service would be to use their skills to produce, direct, and dance a one night only performance benefitting MANNA and aptly named it: Shut Up and Dance!

MANNA began in 1990 providing nutritional and emotional support for those dying of AIDS. In 2006, it expanded its mission to provide nourishment for those suffering from critical diseases such as cancer, cardiac and renal disease, and diabetes. Operating 7 days a week providing 3 meals a day, year round, MANNA serves more than 65,000 meals per month in Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. All free of charge to those in need.

The dancers create Shut Up and Dance around their already intense rehearsal and performance schedules. This includes Producing Director Ian Hussey who is in his 3rd year with the show in this role. Hussey could be found making the rounds earlier in the week before the show getting the word out at Tabu. And it’s this kind of passion that keeps the dancers involved after all these years. As Hussey explains, “it is still important for our dancers…to have a structure and platform to be able to impact the Philadelphia community and bring so much love and entertainment to the people that share the passion for the work that MANNA does.” This was certainly reflected in work on stage that night.

The performance itself was a wonderful mix of mediums and styles. It began with an Olympic inspired comedy dance piece, titled “The Price of Gold,” where audience members were treated to a humorous reenactment of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding’s feud on ice as if it were teleported through time to occur during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games.

Many of the pieces featured live music. The recorded music crossed genres from spoken word to waltz to experimental and back again. The pieces themselves were a broad mixture from modern dance to ballet. The costumes were a wonderful mix from classic to subdued to faux jeans hipster wear (many of which were provided by the Wilma dance company Ballet X).

One of my favorites was titled “Let Me Live,” a magnetic piece where a couple, composed of a man and a woman (who refreshingly wears pants and a shirt instead of a skirt) wrangle back and forth across the piece playing out the ups and downs of their relationship. One part tender, another tumultuous, it has a dream like quality that can either be a dream itself or the later memory of one or both of its participants.

“Suite Misery” brought down the house with its fiery demonic reprisal of a tempestuous scene from “Carmina Burana” by the Eleone Dance Theater. As the intense warnings of dies ires pound away in the musical themes, the dancers confronted each other and cascaded across the stage in a controlled frenzy, finally filling the stage and bringing the audience to its feet.

Inter-spliced into the evenings dance performances were several films making the evening a truly multi-media experience. “Chasm” managed to have the feel of a 1970s glam rock video while its moody smoke filled backlighting blended perfectly with music by Radiohead. This, like so many pieces, had me wondering when the dancers ever found time for sleep. It seemed as though the entire performance, its preparation, and its unexpected additions and embellishments would themselves take up all the dancer’s time, and this was on top of their already full performance and rehearsal schedules!

The evening seemed to move from humor to melancholoy to celebration to defiance and finally back to melancholy and mourning again, lest we forget the reason that brought everyone together for the evening. The final piece “Dying Swan” reminded everyone assembled that the fight against HIV/AIDS and the other life threatening diseases take the lives of members of our community on a daily basis. That even in the midst of appreciation for the joys of life, we can give of our time and ourselves to be in service to those in need. And hold those we have lost in our hearts and memory.

Hats off to the Pennsylvania Ballet for this wonderful performance that marries art with activism in the best possible sense of both words. I would only wish that there could be more than one performance so that more people could enjoy it.

To make a donation to MANNA or learn more about how you can volunteer, visit MANNApa.org

For more information about upcoming performances of the Pennsylvania Ballet, visit paballet.org.