ADAMS, Mass. — Dancer Molly Hess and musician Ciarra Fragale are collaborating on "Love is a Crowded Room" on Friday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 PM at the Adams Theater. 

 

They're hoping to bring their audiences something special that crosses unspoken boundaries between music and dance.

 

Get tickets at www.adamstheater.org/present. The artists will work with local farmer and chef Tu Le of 328 North Farm on a special menu for the night.

 

Hess, a dancer, choreographer, educator, and arts administrator, and Fragale, an indie pop singer-songwriter who's about to release her fourth full-length album, are melding their talents to create a show that gives their audience an opportunity to move.

 

"The goal is to have people enjoy dance–but also, dance to the music," Hess said. "We're trying to shift and merge these forms so both things happen." 

 

Hess and Fragale have collaborated extensively in the past as members of the Common Folk Artist Collective and on open-ended, spacey sets with Fragale playing looping experimental music while Hess improvs choreography, but they haven't worked together on a long-term project like this before.

 

"There's this expectation of a social contract related to performances," Fragale said. "The idea is for us to blend our work and reframe that social contract." 

 

Hess worked as a dance teacher and community dance project-maker.

 

"I do a lot of things that have alternative audience engagement in them," she said.

 

In a recent installation at North Adams' Plant Connector, Dance for Your Plants, she included fiber arts, video installation and interactive activities. "I always have invitations to do things, but it's never a requirement, she said. "I want to invite the audience to engage with other senses besides witnessing."

 

Both artists are excited to bring this work to the Adams Theater; as North Adams residents, they've watched it being rebuilt; Hess even volunteered at one of the theater's first community events. 

 

"It was just amazing to see how many local people were coming through the theater," she said. "This is a place where local people can come and see art which feels so valuable when some other spaces are more for tourists."