Project Moshen goes to jail

The Project Moshen dancers strike a pose.
Credit: Project Moshen

Kelli Moshen, artistic director of the dance company Project Moshen, is going to prison. On stage, at least.

“Trapped” will debut April 20 at the Performance Garage on Brandywine.

“I like a lot of action movies and I always wanted to bring that to the stage,” Moshen says. “I’m into the whole mystery of why is this person is in jail. You make your own story within the story. We start with a women being thrown into jail and you don’t know why she’s there.”

She’s either very misunderstood or very bad.

“The audience can make up their own story alongside my own story,” Moshen says. “I like to get the audience involved and feel that what’s happening on stage is happening to them. You’ll feel like you’re locked up.”

Mind you, this isn’t a campy “Reform School Girls” prison Moshen is talking about.

“It’s more of an Alcatraz kind of feel,” says Moshen, a graduate of the University of the Arts. “It’s inside a type of military prison. She’s in there for a hardcore crime and she’s in there for life. You have to pay your dues.”

Life in this case is the 45 minutes the jazz dance program runs. It features the cinematic mood-setting music of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.

“Trapped” will be performed by the five members of the all-female Project Moshen, plus two guest dancers. The company has been around for three years, performing in local showcases and experimental FringeArts shows.

“I like my audience to take in what they see and make their own plotline,” says Moshen. “We like to keep it opened ended.”