The naked STark
Dance Up Close
Photo: Wide Bye Studios featuring Amalia Colón-Nava, Chloe Marie, Harlee Trautman, Katherine Kiefer Stark, Marcie Mamura, and Meredith Stapleton in falling up
Who we are
The Naked Stark is a West Philly-based modern dance company that crafts up-close, immersive dance experiences that delve into the intricacies of the human experience, question the status quo, nurture imaginations, and offer hope. We develop work through rigorous movement research, thematic research, and environmental design to create unique worlds. The company’s creative collaborative structure engages multidisciplinary artists who value intergenerational connections, and who find joy in this process of deep research and world building. We engage audiences in our questions and invite active participation and meaning-making.
Our classes and workshops engage folks in movement research, creative play, and dancing in community. The Naked Stark teaching artists are always co-investigators, diving in with joy and passion.
We create intergenerationally inclusive programming that offers folks of all ages artistic experiences they can grow into instead of out of. Guided by our Artistic Director, Katherine Kiefer Stark, The Naked Stark is a community of artists and arts advocates who strive to be sustainable dance-makers, build community, and share our programming primarily in Philadelphia where we live, work, and create.
Our work in 2025 is made possible by funds from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the Creative Sector Flex Fund - thanks to the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts AND donations of money and time from individuals. We are so grateful!
The Naked Stark is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization.
Our Values and Our process
Center our work in movement, community, and change
Anti-Oppressive Framework
Self-care & Community Care
Continually Evolving Collaborative Structures
Financial Transparency
Learn More HERE
Current collaborators
upcoming events
Collaborators side-by-side
december 13th 7pm
mascher space cooperative
1170 S Broad
FREE! Donations Accepted
Featuring works by Chloe Marie, Shannon Brooks, and Shannon Murphy
Collaborators Side-By-Side incubates new creativity and individual projects from Collaborators (past and present) of The Naked Stark. Each collaborator receives an honorarium for sharing. All donations go to the pool to support the honorarium fund.
Accessibility: The entrance to Mascher Space Cooperative is up 3 steps. There is no ramp. Two non-gendered bathrooms are located in the basement down a flight of stairs. There is no elevator.
Image description: a colorful graphic shows three groupings of people in different silly poses. In the background are three big circles, one blue, one orange, one green. The background of the graphic is yellow.
Creative Movement Workshop
2026 dates coming soon!
The Cedar Works, 4919 Pentridge Street
This is a workshop for all ages, folks with and without disabilities, and any amount of dance experience. Dance teaching artists Katherine Kiefer Stark and Aubrey Donisch invite you to practice play through guided improvisation, movement games, and dance-making. Learn from each other as we build something together!
We’ll spend 4 Sundays creating a dance! Explore movement through games and learn tools for collaboration in dance-making. We’ll share what we’ve made for family and friends at an informal showing at the end of our last class.
All-levels for folks of all ages with and without disabilities.
Sliding-scale suggested contributions - $5-$25
**No one turned away for lack of funds, reach out to offer an exchange or pay what you can.
ADA Accessible
About Release-based Movement PRactice
With Katherine Kiefer Stark
Photo: Sean Thomas Boyt, Movement Practice at Mascher Space Cooperative 2017
PRACTICE
Blending Kline Technique, Safety Release Technique, and release technique, my class is an energetic exploration of movement from the inside out. Emphasis is placed on the initiation of the movement and the path the various body parts take in space to discover how one's own body moves with/in the movement. We embrace the space through phrases that move in and out of the floor and carry us in and out of balance. I bring all of these ideas together through material that is infused with what I am researching, passionate about, and is foundational to the aesthetics I love. Class begins quietly and gradually builds in complexity, culminating in a dynamic phrase. Sleeves and knee-pads or long pants are recommended.
PHILOSOPHY AND ROOTS
Movement practice is a space for taking risks, making mistakes, and honing craft. My teaching approaches aim to create a holistic study of release-based techniques that explores movement as culturally informed, politically charged, and aesthetically particular. This philosophy is deeply informed by theories from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Dr. Ann Dils, and Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild. My physicality is strongly influenced by the studio practices of BJ Sullivan and Jeremy Nelson.
Among the movement/dance techniques I have studied, release techniques and Safety Release Technique fit best with how I like to move and with my values. These techniques appreciate and make space for the uniqueness of each mover’s body. Movement is learned through understanding the initiation of the movement, the path the various body parts take in space, and in discovering how one’s own body moves with/in the movement. This approach to movement values, develops, and supports self-awareness. My language around movement is continuously evolving as I search for words and imagery that resonate with the folks who are in the room.
In semester long courses, I explore postmodern movement aesthetics in relationship to the principles of Africanist aesthetic - Polycentrism/Polyrhythm, Embracing the Conflict, High-Affect Juxtaposition - and European aesthetic - Monocentrism, Resolving the Conflict, Arch Between Ideas - as outlined by Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild, as well the qualities - indirect/direct, heavy/light, quick/sustained, bound/unbound - from Laban. I weave these in more sporadically during weekly drop-in movement practice.
Donate
We do this together!
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Your Contribution is Tax Deductible!
The Naked Stark is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of The Naked Stark must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Prefer the postal service? Send a donation via Mail. Please make checks payable to Fractured Atlas and write The Naked Stark on the memo line and mail them to:
The Naked Stark
P.O. Box 30794
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Not interested in a tax deduction? Please makes checks payable to The Naked Stark
