"Ice House Tonight" provides a stage for artistic works from a variety of disciplines with innovative programming in a series of productions from regional arts organizations.

Dancelink presents "Ascent," an evening of moving meditation on spirituality, 8 p.m. Feb. 16, Charles Brown Ice House, 56 River St., Sand Island, Bethlehem

Dancelink presents art therapy, workshops, master classes and site-specific performances.

The founder and director of Dancelink, Sarah Carlson, originally from Massachusetts, was classically trained in the tradition of the Royal Academy of Dance and then studied released-based movement in the post-modern era.

Carlson is a choreographer, teacher and performer. Carlson completed a Fulbright Grant studying voodoo ritual dance in Benin, Africa. She danced professionally in New York City with numerous companies, including Paul D. Mosley Dance Inc. and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

"Ascent" is based on "Songs of Ascension" by Meredith Monk. A dozen or so short vignettes will be performed by six dancers including Carlson; Robin Gerchman, director of dance at Cedar Crest College; Jeffrey Peterson, contemporary dance professor at Muhlenberg College; and three of Carlson's students.

Says Carlson, "The movement is about fall and recovery, rising versus falling, the high being equated with the goodness and the falling being equated with failure.

"I am interested in movement where the body is welcomed as a vehicle to connect with the divine and in cultures where the body is seen in tandem with the spirit as part of the spiritual journey.

"The dance itself is considered a means of reaching a spiritual state connecting with the Gods representing the myth that grounds the tradition."

The piece is half-choreographed and half-improvisation. Carlson approaches the piece by "trusting the bodies that I have to deliver an authentic expression in the movement rather than having to craft it."

Light is an integral to the piece, creating contained spaces for the dancers to use as a medium for their performance. Carlson's younger brother, Benjamin, a New York City-based lighting designer for television. will "redefine the space with light," she says.

Carlson uses recordings of poetry, lyrics by Bruce Springsteen and a poem, "Ascending," by Rachel Mann.