25/26 Season Rennie Harris Residency

Mar 2026

Losing My Religion

Concluding a significant three-year residency, this Philadelphia native and his company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, returned with world premiere of Losing My Religion. This commissioned work was an exploration of the world’s constant social, economic and political turmoil through street dance and hip hop. In three public performances, a school-day matinee, classroom visits and more community engagement activities, our residency explored personal and systemic struggle and transformation, serving as a multifaceted reminder of our humanity.

We are proud to have been an incubator for Harris’ impactful work over the past three years and look forward to continuing this great partnership in the future.

Photo credit: Mark Garvin

Residency Events

	Performances Mar 20 @ 7:30 PM \| Mar 21 @ 2 PM & 7:30 PM Audiences loved Losing My Religion, describing it as powerful and profoundly moving. One patron shared, “Rennie Harris [Puremovement] has been the most spectacular three-year residency ever. This performance brought me to tears. It was so astounding, amazing and wonderful. I would go to anything he did.”
	Open Rehearsal Showcasing Harris’ creative process, an open rehearsal allowed attendees to preview themes and motifs that informed Losing My Religion, including protest, tradition, ritual and mourning.
	Classroom Connections Our teaching artist Donnell Powell visited West Philadelphia High School and George Washington Carver High School for Engineering and Science classes with company dancers Rachel Snider and Maggie Waller. Together, they introduced techniques and gestures key to Losing My Religion, including introductory house moves that appear in the piece and the concept of collage. These partnerships gathered students from diverse academic backgrounds around Harris’ work.
	Student Discovery A sold-out theatre of enthusiastic K-12 students joined us for a weekday matinee featuring company standbys Nuttin’ But a Word and The History of Hip Hop, a lecture-demonstration piece that introduces the key players and movement vocabulary in street dance.
	Penn Community Harris’ presence on the Penn campus extended to the classroom. He visited Theatre Arts instructor Margit Edwards’ first year seminar, Theatre as Storytelling: Black Theatre and Performance Practice, answering a broad range of the students' questions. On opening night, students from the Penn First Plus program had dinner and a conversation with Edwards, who reflected on the conversation her class had with Harris.
	INSIGHTS On opening night, patrons enjoyed a pre-show talk between Rennie Harris and Christopher Gruits, our Executive & Artistic Director.