Press release by: Jill Randall
Following two vibrant sold out shows of “MoToRING ON” in February 2025 at Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center in Berkeley, MoToR/dance kicks off its 4th season with a new production “People Are You Ready” and a 3-city tour. MoToR/dance, under the Artistic Direction of Evie Ladin, is an all-female body music ensemble that explores immersive music and dance and audience engagement.
In times of discord and daily outrage, “People Are You Ready” builds connection and community among artists and audience. Creating their own rich soundtracks, the ensemble performs with no instruments but themselves. Tapping chest, laps, stomping feet, singing in harmony, moving in space, MoToR/dance brings the audience close, as a village square, and engages them to feel. Repertoire spans the emotional range from bombastic to subtle, spiritual to humorous, with the power of a multigenerational ensemble.
Coming from arts traditions that are participatory and communal, into performative contexts, Ladin prefers intimate pop-ups with cellular transmission among performers and audience. “People Are You Ready” is 3/4 in the round, action in the aisles, no sound support save the reverberance of the halls – in architecturally interesting spaces with sprung wood floors and bright acoustics. Body Music in these performative arenas feels personal, like a visceral massage, reflected in robust audience response.
Body Music involves not only body percussion, but melody and harmony, and exists in traditional and contemporary forms in most cultures. Co-founder of the International Body Music Festival with Body Music pioneer Keith Terry, Ladin works to fill a more choreographic approach to the self-scored music. MoToR/dance creates powerful and accessible works of art that appeal across multiple genres, cultural and interest groups, and offers new perspectives on inclusive art-making. As dance writer Molly Rose-Williams noted, “The performers demonstrate a virtuosic command of the interplay between physicality, rhythm, and musicality.”
Several of the new pieces in “People Are You Ready” grew from seeds planted during the pandemic. Inspired by social justice movements, creation was aimed at celebrating our shared humanity. Using rhythm and their physical selves, artists and audience connect through non-verbal communication, a shared pulse, that is a foundation of traditional cultures everywhere, proven to combat loneliness, depression and other failures of modern urban life. Ladin has self-produced three successful seasons with MoToR/dance in the Bay Area proper, always drawn to a variety of venues that suit the needs of the productions. This season, they expand their reach to communities with whom they’ve developed a relationship, that have beautiful, viable spaces MoToR/dance is free to reimagine. New venues shift perspectives, challenge the ensemble, bring audiences into diverse rooms, and allow for flexibility and accessibility.
The MoToR/dance season always revolves around the International Day of Body Music – the first Sunday in February, in honor of Fernando Barba, creator of Brazil’s Barbatuques and a seminal influence on the international Body Music scene. On that day, Body Music events (classes, jams, concerts) happen in all corners of the globe, community building through pulse and play. Global list of events here: https://internationalbodymusicfestival.com/day-of-body-music/all/
Ladin offers, “To be honest, collective music and dance is saving me these days. Bringing people into that acoustic space, connecting in pulse, it does things to your brain and your nervous system, that I can assume everyone could use. I’m excited about the dedication of the company, and the solid repertoire we’ve built. We’re getting quicker at developing new material as an ensemble in this fourth season, with new pieces that are solemn, grooving, and playful.”
This MoToR/dance season is dedicated to the memory of beautiful MoToRina and Bay Area
dancer Julie Kane.
WHO: MoToR/dance
WHAT: People Are You Ready
WHEN: January 30-February 1, 2026
WHERE: Odd Fellows Hall, Davis (Jan 30); Hillside Club, Berkeley (Jan 31); and
Bolinas Community Center (Feb 1)
TICKETS: All Shows at 7pm. $15 student / $25 adult / $40 angel;
ALL EVENTS: https://www.viewcy.com/motordance
DAVIS: https://www.viewcy.com/event/people_are_you_ready_davis
BERKELEY:https://www.viewcy.com/event/people_are_you_ready_berkeley
BOLINAS: https://www.viewcy.com/event/people_are_you_ready_bolinas
MORE INFO: https://evieladin.com/projects/motor-dance/
PHOTOS: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fpG3kbs9NrgbVwzf1cRObe8OoVk_s17Y
