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Conceptual pop artist Francesca Harper blends original choreography, dance, music and film to create groundbreaking stage works that are bold, edgy and category-defying. The African-American artist was raised in New York City, where she studied at the School of American Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet School, The Ailey School and under Madame Darvash and Barbara Walczak. After performing with the Dance Theater of Harlem, she danced as a principal in William Forsythe s Ballett Frankfurt from 1994-1999. Since returning to the States in 2000, Francesca has performed in several Broadway productions. In 2000-2002, she was a featured performer in Fosse. In January 2004, she completed a tour with The Producers. As part of the 2004 Lincoln Center Summer Festival, she performed in another Susan Stroman project -- The Frogs. Francesca also can also be seen in The Producers: The Movie Musical, and at the Broadway Theater in the musical The Color Purple. Her choreographic career began while still in Germany, where Francesca choreographed a full evening for the Holland Dance Festival. She has since choreographed two works for Ailey II, and dances for The Ailey School Spring Concerts in 2001 and 2002. Her choreographic work Apex received its world premiere in December 2002 as part of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 44th season performances at New York City Center. In April 2004, Francesca set a new work on Tanz Graz that premiered at the Graz Opera House in Austria. Francesca s work, fusing dance, music and video, was first seen in 50 minutes with Harriet and Phillis, a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margo Jefferson and composer Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, performed in 2000 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. She premiered her critically-acclaimed one-woman show The Fragile Stone Theory at the 2002 Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival. The piece was conceived and performed by Francesca, synthesizing dance, text, music and video. As singer and lyricist Francesca has singles r