NORWICH – The Phoenix Project Dance Theatre, a national award winning dance troupe based in Norwich, plans to seize the night on Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Chenango County Council of the Arts theater.

Eleven modern, mostly uptempo pieces will be performed under the theme, ‘Carpe Nocturne.’ Choreographer Amber Perkins said her troupe of 13 dancers will showcase “a less serious, much lighter pace of movement” than has traditionally characterized her work.

“We wanted to make a splash on stage this year with an all encompassing show of styles,” she said.

The Phoenix Project is a not-for-profit company of professional dancers formerly trained at the Amber Perkins School of the Arts in Norwich. Begun in 2004, it has performed at the Arts Council annually, traveled to Germany last year for the Tanz Tage Festival in Bavaria and won the Spirit of Elan Award at the Elan Dance Festival in New York City in 2005. The troupe’s award winning adagio piece entitled, “Firebird” will be featured in the upcoming show.

Audiences will be the first to see Perkins’ newest choreography, a Scottish-inspired piece called, “The Jig of Life,” in addition to several original solos and adagio duos.