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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Body and Soul/Listen.: Katy Pyle [AUDIO]


Katy Pyle

Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to dancer-choreographer Katy Pyle talk about the the saving grace--and the power--of imagination and performance.

Katy's bio

Katy Pyle and Jules Skloot present COVERS -- September 6-9 at The Bushwick Starr. Get details here.

To subscribe to Body and Soul podcast, click here.

Your donation will help keep Body and Soul together. Please get in touch, and I'll happily send instructions. Thanks!

(c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Thomas Mapfumo to play Carnegie Hall in October

Carnegie Hall
in partnership with  
World Music Institute
presents 


Saturday, October 20 (10pm)

Thomas Mapfumo
Known as "The Lion of Zimbabwe," Thomas Mapfumo has popularized the music of his native country throughout the world with his revolutionary, spiritually charged chimurenga (Shona for "struggle") music. Introducing the electric guitar and bass while maintaining the core rhythms and melodies of the traditional mbira, his songs became veritable anthems for the independence movement of his country in the 1970s, and later a litany of criticism of the Mugabe government. Mapfumo, now living in exile in the US, has been hailed as a musical visionary and one of Africa's greatest bandleaders. He performs with his group, The Blacks Unlimited.
Part of Carnegie Hall's World Views series in Zankel Hall

For information and tickets, click here.

Sean Lennon and Artists Against Fracking

Artists Against Fracking

Artists Against Fracking Facebook page

Destroying Precious Land to Drill for Gas
by Sean Lennon, The New York Times, August 27, 2012

Monday, August 27, 2012

Call for submissions: "Her Saturn Returns," Queer Women of Color

Her Saturn Returns | Queer Women of Color Life Transitions seeks essays, prose, poetry, interviews, and other forms of documentary writing for an upcoming Anthology on women’s experiences turning 30, and/or turning 60 – when Her Saturn Returns.

Deadline: October 15, 2012

Submit on the Submissions Page or email hersaturnreturns@gmail.com for more information.

Journey into "Blue"

Here's a gorgeous piece of writing on Derek Jarman's film, Blue, that I wanted to share with you. 

Proof of Life
by Matt Connolly, ReverseShot.com, Issue 32

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Body and Soul/Listen.: Dan Safer [AUDIO]

Dan Safer
Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to my guest Dan Safer (Artistic Director of the great dance/theater hybrid troupe, Witness Relocation) talking about the importance of listening.



Next Tuesday, August 28, see Witness Relocation perform I’m Going To Make A Small Incision Behind Your Ear To Check And See If You’re Actually Human REDUX--free!--at East River Park. 8pm. Click here for complete details.

To subscribe to Body and Soul podcast, click here.

Your donation will help keep Body and Soul together. Please get in touch, and I'll happily send instructions. Thanks!

(c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

FringeNYC: Nejla Y. Yatkin's Oasis

Every Fringe fest--stuffed to the gills with lots and lots of stuff--also has its must-see, unforgettable shows. This year brings us NY2Dance in Oasis: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Middle East but were Afraid to Dance--a work-in-progress by dancer-choreographer Nejla Y. Yatkin and some wonderful collaborators. The 70-minute ensemble piece--at once more serious, more powerful and more delicate than its subtitle would suggest--is showing at Theater 80 a few more times before the festival closes this weekend.

Oasis, inspired by the Arab Spring revolts, takes on difficult subject matter that others have tried on in dance theater and often fumbled--oppression, exploitation, rape, torture as well as the complexity of women's sense of personal identity and autonomy in repressive societies. Yatkin and her fellow dancers--Shay Bares, Sevin Ceviker, Ahmaud Culver, Jean-Rene Homehr, Rachel Holmes and Fadi Khoury--deliver a work that sears while daring to be exquisite, sensual and, during a fashion show devoted to hijab couture, even cheeky.

The modest East Village theater is clearly not the best location for Oasis, yet it presents little obstacle to this work's effectiveness and polished look--top-notch choreography enhanced by lighting design (Ben Levine), music (Shamou), animation (Iga Puchalska and Julien Smasal) and costuming (Ursula Verduzco and Yatkin). The seven dancers manage the small stage with ease, although this work needs, and will work well, in roomier surroundings.

A series of segments flow one into another, leaving no time for the viewer to recover from the dreamy spell or emotional devastation of the preceding one before becoming swept into the next. At the outset, animated silhouettes of a young girl conversing with her wise grandfather introduce the element of innocent curiosity. We might also ask, with this youngster, why we have created a world of so much pain? How did we lose our souls? How can we recover them?

That first bit of animation gives way to a swift, voluptuous duet between Yatkin and Iraq-born Khoury--both of them lithe and sinuous, continuously meeting and intertwining to the sound of muffled percussion and tinkling chimes. The dance is stylish, romantic and so engrossing that it takes a while before you notice something wrong: They're both wearing blindfolds. This segment yields to an anguished, frenzied solo for Khoury before a well-staged episode where masked men confine and torture him.

Yatkin can be a fiery dancemaker, but sometimes cool-and-quiet gets the job done--as in another section where Khoury lays out a serving tray and glassware along Bares' abject back and takes sips while calmly gazing at the young man who is so clearly his property and sexual conquest. And again, when Bares, alone and shyly trying out the finger cymbals that seem to manifest out of nowhere, slowly builds a deeply undulating solo--think of a Nijinsky, maybe, discovering bellydance--that speaks of the dawn of an inner power, a sexuality that is defined by self, for self.

I was shaken by much of Oasis. In the post-show Q&A, dancers revealed how deeply and personally it had affected them. Their investment in it clearly went far beyond getting the steps down.

Yatkin plans to tighten Oasis in advance of its premiere at next year's Bates College Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME). The Turkish Cultural Foundation will sponsor a presentation of Oasis at New York Live Arts (dates to be announced). Catch it this week at Theater 80 (Thursday, August 23 at 2pm and Sunday, August 26 at 1pm) or keep watch for these upcoming presentations of the finished piece.

Get more information and reservations on this and other New York Fringe Festival shows here.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

This week, journey "Between the Seas"

Between the Seas Festival, produced and directed by Aktina Stathaki, offers New Yorkers a diverse menu of performers and arts disciplines from all around the Mediterranean region. This year--the festival's second--Italy, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Albania, among other nations, are represented. It's a smashing idea, even though New York's glut of arts festivals--let alone individual arts and entertainment programs--makes it tough for a relative newcomer to establish a toehold.

Ido Tadmor in the Rachel Erdos solo, And Mr. (Photo by Gadi Dagon)

Tonight, it's worth the trip "between the seas"--or almost to Avenue C--for the chance to watch Ido Tadmor, a magnificent Israeli performer, dance in And Mr. (the choreographer's cut) by the British-born, Tel Aviv-based choreographer Rachel Erdos. Having seen this piece last evening, I'm not convinced that the original solo, And Mr., really needed to be expanded into a duet with Stefan Ferry. Stretching that initial half-hour of oddity into an externalized interaction brings out an unwanted preciousness, and it is simply too long. There seems enough Jekyll-and-Hyde duality and gnarliness within the tousled Tadmor alone as he interprets Erdos' stark, lacerating tangles of movement. It's a brilliant performance and, to my mind, Tadmor should be the end of the matter.

Vanessa Tamburi (Italy) and her FLUSSO Dance Project will open the evening again with Lost Rights, an ensemble piece inspired by the work of the late Italian journalist, Maria G. Cutuli, who was killed in Afghanistan. A well-intentioned piece, it nevertheless displays a disconnect between Tamburi's choreography and her stated theme of African women and children suffering poverty, disease, exploitation and abuse. Although the quartet of performers, who learned the piece in just two weeks, give it their all, the projected text and larger-than-life photo portraits--which carry the only connection to the serious theme--distract the eye and overwhelm the dancing.

Between the Seas Festival continues through Sunday, August 26, at Wild Project. Get complete programming and schedule information here.

Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street (between Avenues A and B), Manhattan
(map/directions)

"Body and Soul" podcast presents Listen.: Doug Varone [AUDIO]


Surprise!

It's time to revive my old dance interview podcast, Body and Soul.

I'm starting with Listen., a new series-within-the-series that will feature short, unmediated takes by artists from the dance world and allied disciplines about...well, really about anything they want to say, any way they want to say it. While I expect that these folks have plenty to say about life, art, politics, spirituality and more, each one will have to keep it all down to 10 minutes max--which is good for focusing the speaker's mind and holding the typical Web surfer's attention, right?

Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to my great first guest of the new series--choreographer/director Doug Varone, Artistic Director of Doug Varone and Dancers.

Doug Varone (Photo by Phil Knott)

Doug Varone and Dancers
 
Joyce Theater season, October 9-14

All upcoming performances
 
Your donation will help keep Body and Soul together. Please get in touch, and I'll happily send instructions. Thanks!

(c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody (http://infinitebody.blogspot.com)

Monday, August 20, 2012

Donal Henahan, music critic, 91

Donal Henahan, a Music Critic for The Times, Dies at 91
by Robert D. McFadden, The New York Times, August 20, 2012

Phyllis Diller, 95 [UPDATE]

Humorist Phyllis Diller Dies at 95 in Los Angeles
by The Associated Press, The New York Times, August 20, 2012

Laughs Were On Her, By Design
by Richard Severo and Peter Keepnews, The New York Times, August 20, 2012

Jean Davidson: Saving dance in the US

A Chance to Dance in America
by Jean Davidson, The Huffington Post, August 17, 2012

SXSW's Brent Grulke, 51

Brent Grulke, South by Southwest’s Creative Director, Dies at 51
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, August 19, 2012

William Windom, 88

William Windom, Emmy Winner and TV Everyman, Dies at 88
by Eric Grode, The New York Times, August 19 2012

Film director Tony Scott, 68 [UPDATE]

Director Tony Scott Jumps to His Death From Los Angeles Bridge
by Michael Schwirtz, The New York Times, August 20, 2012

'Top Gun' Director Dies After Jumping Off Bridge
The Associate Press, August 20, 2012

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Fiscal administrator sought for Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

Every few days, I still get a query or two about CollectiveDWNM's internship program, our Leadership Circle, which now has eight members. Are we still accepting applications?

Yes, we're still willing to look at applications for the Leadership Circle. However, we're in specific need of one or more interns with training or experience in fiscal administration. We'll be more likely to take on a new intern who can assist in this essential area of our development. We also strongly encourage retirees to apply for this as a long-term or ongoing volunteer position. Membership benefits will apply.

Please feel free to share the following notice with prospective candidates.

Thank you!

**********

Collective for Dance Writing and New Media seeks Fiscal Administrator

The Executive Committee of Collective for Dance Writing and New Media seeks a reliable, ongoing volunteer or long-term intern for financial management of this new, volunteer-driven organization. You can make a difference, and you’ll receive member benefits, including free admission to our events.

Candidates for this position should document academic training and/or experience in arts or business administration and possess a high level of organization and responsibility. Retirees are especially encouraged to apply.

To apply, address an email to Eva Yaa Asantewaa at collectivedwnm@gmail.com with the Subject line: FA application.

Please include:

*Name

*Street address

*Phone number(s)

*Email address

*Days/hours available for work

*Two academic or professional references

Please attach a pdf of your resume or include a detailed bio in the body of your email.

If you have any questions, please write to us at collectiveDWNM@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Founder
Member, Executive Committee
Collective for Dance Writing and New Media
http://collectivedwnm.com

FringeNYC: Yin Yue's "We Have Been Here Before"

I found myself longing for something as I watched We Have Been Here Before performed by Yin Yue Dance Company--a sense of why. That can happen even when both choreographer and dancers show prodigious facility, as is the case here. That doesn't mean that there isn't a why--just that it might not be clear to me, one viewer. The piece ran for 50 minutes, which I figured is a reasonable amount of time to hang out with people displaying serious talent and bravery, even if I'm not sure what it's supposed to add up to beyond what the choreographer said elsewhere--that she wants to "push the limits of physical capability" and bring out deep human emotion. Those desires are not unique in dance-making.

I'll guess at a how--which is that Yin draws from her training in Chinese classical and traditional dances, applying superb flexibility and an alert complexity of timing and coordination to the contemporary dance she makes for her small ensemble. What makes her project contemporary is, in particular, its embrace of physical distortion, great stretches of crunchiness alternating with taffy-pull movement. A big, chewy meal.  

We Have Been Here Before is "beautiful ugly"--shapely and picturesque with a strain of mania running through it, beginning to end. And what dancers: able to walk, chew gum, rub their bellies and--I'm sure if you asked them--launch into some throat singing, all at the same time. I exaggerate, sure, but not by much. The work relates no story, draws no characters, and continously snaps together minute jigsaw puzzle pieces of movement that could have been plucked from the bottom of a black velvet bag in the the dark. So you've got to wonder: How did they ever memorize all of that?

For some reason, the FringeNYC program lists only five performers--Rachel Patrice Fallon, Daniel Holt, Sarah F. Parker, Nicole von Arx and Grace Whitworth--but Yin also performs late in the piece. Also watch the darkly dramatic Whitworth and often simian Holt, but all dancers serve this intriguing, diverting work quite well.

See We Have Been Here Before tonight at 7:30pm or Friday, August 17 at 2pm.

The New School for Drama Theatre
151 Bank Street, 3rd Floor (between Washington and West Streets), Manhattan

(map/directions)

Get more information and reservations on this and other New York Fringe Festival shows here

Monday, August 13, 2012

Al Freeman, Jr., 78 [UPDATE]

Al Freeman, Jr., Performer of Stage and Screen, Dies at 78
by Robert Simonson, Playbill.com, August 13, 2012


Al Freeman, Jr., Actor Prominent in Civil Rights Era, Dies at 78
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, August 15, 2012

Lucy Sexton responds to Gia Kourlas' Bessie Awards criticism

The Bessies are not only back but in boldface--and drawing some heat. See the recent critique by Gia Kourlas in The New York Times here.

Lucy Sexton, Director, NY Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies), replies here:

I’m writing in response to Gia Kourlas’s recent article on the changes in The NY Dance and Peformance Awards, The Bessies (Aug 11, 2012). Ms. Kourlas says the awards “absolutely” matter, and that they are engaged in a mission not only to recognize outstanding dance and performance, but to “make the world care about dance.” But she takes issue with the creation of subcommittees within the Bessies Selection Committee, which are charged with looking at work in different areas of NYC’s large and diverse dance landscape. She rather inexplicably concludes that the changes mean the awards are “focused on raising the profile of the Bessies rather than on artistic achievement.”

The total number of the Bessie Selection Committee was raised from 15-20 to a total of 41, so there are more eyes looking at more work. The members work in subcommittees so there can be more rigorous considerations of specific areas of dance. The intent, and indeed the result, of the new structure is that artistic achievement is more central to the discussions. And to state the obvious, raising the profile of The Bessies is critical to ensuring the artistic achievement recognized gets broader visibility.

Ms. Kourlas is rightly concerned with how to define the purview of the subcommittee considering more performance-oriented work. As she noted, we have recently changed the wording so it does not define the work recognized as “not dance.” The Judson movement opened up what could be considered dance. The club and performance scene in the 80s created a stew where dancers were mixing it up with people in different disciplines, from drag queens to visual artists doing performances. This is precisely why the awards are called the NY Dance and Performance Awards.

The subcommittee categories are certainly imperfect, but they are adaptive to a wide, ongoing community dialogue and a changing creative environment. The Bessies’ partnership with Dance/NYC, a branch of the national service organization, Dance/USA, has helped to extend and deepen the dialogue with a broad range of dance artists.

Our opportunity is to make clear to a non-dance-insider audience the wide spectrum of dance and performance work being considered. Making what The Bessies do more transparent and understandable to a wider audience is a step in our efforts to “make the world care about dance.”

We welcome feedback and ideas on how best to accomplish that goal.

Lucy Sexton
Director, NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies
Produced in partnership with Dance/NYC
thebessies@gmail.com

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Our Timeline: Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

OUR TIMELINE

JULY 2011
After participating in a dance community discussion convened by Dance/NYC, dance writer Eva Yaa Asantewaa contacts colleagues about holding similar meetings to address the specific needs of dance writers.

AUGUST 24, 2011
Eva Yaa Asantewaa convenes the first of several meetings at Gibney Dance Center to discuss conditions and issues within the profession of dance writing. Attended by print and online writers, dance artists and experts in new media.

DECEMBER 2011
Collective for Dance Writing and New Media’s Mission Statement is adopted.

JANUARY 2012
CollectiveDWNM goes social on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Audioboo.

FEBRUARY 2012
Official announcement of the formation of CollectiveDWNM.

FEBRUARY 26, 2012
Dance artist/writer Gus Solomons jr and Lane Harwell (Executive Director, DANCE/NYC) announce CollectiveDWNM at Dance/NYC’s annual symposium at Gibney Dance Center.

MARCH 2012
Eva Yaa Asantewaa invites dance artists/writers Aaron Mattocks and Cory Nakasue to form an Executive Committee for CollectiveDWNM.

MARCH 2012
Temporary Web site created.

May 2012
CollectiveDWNM’s launches official Web site (collectivedwnm.com), created by Aaron Mattocks with logo design by Marissa Sher.

JUNE 23, 2012
Writing on Tap forum, co-sponsored and hosted by American Tap Dance Center, features award-winning tap experts and performers--including dancer-choreographer and educator Brenda Bufalino, dancer-choreographer-director Derick K. Grant, 2011 Bessie Award winning dancer-choreographer Michelle Dorrance, jazz pianist Frank Owens and tap historian Constance Valis Hill, Ph.D., author of Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History.

JULY-AUGUST 2012
Eva Yaa Asantewaa invites candidates for internship and forms CollectiveDWNM’s Leadership Circle, an internship/leader empowerment program.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
CollectiveDWNM will hold its first Open House for prospective members and interns, hosted by Gibney Dance Center, featuring special guests Shay Wafer ( Executive Director of 651 Arts) and choreographers Kyle Abraham and Marjani Forté.  For information, click here.

For general information on Collective for Dance Writing and New Media, click here.

To get involved--and help us add more achievements to this great timeline--email us at collectivedwnm@gmail.com!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Parsing the complexities of dance...and dance awards

Bessies’ New Categories Limit Definitions of Dance
by Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, August 10, 2012

"Saharava" on the Fringe

I'm only getting around to a couple of FringeNYC shows this August. With age--and heat and humidity--comes the desire, and the right, to be more selective and dash about less. But Saharava: A Ritualized Dance-Opera, with its Tarot-related theme, called to me, and its nearby location at Theater 80 on St. Mark's Place made it an easy choice.

Described as "a primitive and raw theatrical ritual combining dance and wordless song," the hour-long production "follows the journey of the Fool through the Major Arcana of the Tarot." As wonderful as Theater 80's tiny, shallow stage can be for some shows, the ambitious Saharava needs bigger space to serve Andre Megerdichian's large, skillful cast, passionate, sometimes complex choreography and bustling stage arrangements. A little more distance between viewers and performers might also work in its favor--for example, minimizing the awkwardness of up-flipping, underwear-exposing lifts. These close-up, unsightly flashes of strange-looking, "flesh"-colored underpants beneath the women's faux-Greek tunics had unintended comical, trance-deflating effect. Megerdichian's respectable efforts--and his dancers--deserve a chance.

Fahad Siadat, who played The Magician, a symbol from Tarot's Major Arcana, also composed the instrumental and vocal elements of this "dance-opera." His influence begins in the lengthy "Prelude" of Om-like vocalization, didgeridoo-blowing and drone-droning from a dimly-lit stage, dropping the audience's blood pressure several notches. That's cool and befits a ritualistic atmosphere. Unfortunately, despite the presence of trained voices, the subsequent straight hour of wordless howling, screeching, barking, wheezing and the like sounded amateurish, suggesting an extended acting exercise more than a ritual of transformation.

I know the Tarot well, and the only archetype that read at all clear to me was The Devil (David Niles), who turns the stage into hell on earth for his driven minions. It would have been good to comprehend this work better as The Fool's Journey if other Tarot characters had been rendered with sharpness and purpose.

But see for yourself. Saharava: A Ritualized Dance-Opera continues at Theater 80 over the following schedule:

Sunday, August 12 at 1pm
Tuesday, August 14 at 2:30pm
Wednesday, August 15 at 7:45pm
Friday, August 24 at 7:15pm

Get more information and reservations on this and other New York Fringe Festival shows here.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

I'll be in Gibney Dance Center's Greenroom once again!

Guess Who’s in The Greenroom...again!

Once again, the answer is...ME!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo by Deborah Feller)

Did you miss taking part in today's Guess Who's in The Greenroom at the Gibney Dance Center?

Then step up and try again for your free half-hour, 1:1 consultation with me on Thursday, September 6 (11am-2pm). RSVPs are required, and appointments go fast. See below for instructions.

Same topic as last time:

Pitch Your Show to A Dance Writer: Does Your Promotion Work?

Bring existing materials (press release, brochure, postcard, mission statement--whatever you'd use to promote and pitch your show) or just talk to me about your upcoming project, and I'll help you find strategies to improve your chances of getting noticed and covered. Time permitting, I can also take a quick look at your Web site, photos and brief video clips to assess how well each serves your efforts.

This event is offered by Gibney Dance Center in partnership with Collective for Dance Writing and New Media.

Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway, 5th Floor (between 19th and 20th Streets), Manhattan

*Reserve your free half-hour by emailing allie@gibneydance.org

Eva Yaa Asantewaa's writing on dance has appeared in Dance Magazine, The Village Voice, SoHo Weekly News, Gay City News and other publications since 1976. She has interviewed dance artists as host of Body and Soul podcast. She served on the New York Dance and Performance Art (Bessie) Award Committee for three years and has been a panelist and consultant to various arts funding and award programs. Ms. Yaa Asantewaa is a former radio producer/host with WBAI/Pacifica, specializing in programming on the arts, spirituality and LGBT and women’s issues. She blogs on the arts for InfiniteBody. She is the founder of Collective for Dance Writing and New Media and serves on its Executive Committee.

Live to Tell: Black queer writers speak out [AUDIO]

Stanley Bennett
Stanley Bennett Clay
Imani Henry
Imani Henry
Cheryl Boyce Taylor
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor


Our voices are important to the fabric of who we are and to America.
-- Terrance Dean

If you happened to miss last evening's exciting and motivating panel, Live to Tell: The Life and Legacy of Black Queer Literature, never fear: I've got it for you right here.

Presented by the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in conjunction with author Terrance Dean, the panel addressed issues of access to mainstream publication, the unique value and struggles of independent Black LGBT publishers, the uses and abuses of social media, the inspiration of trailblazers and hell-raisers--from James Baldwin to Staceyann Chin--and much, much more.
Steven G. Fullwood, Project Director of the Schomburg's Black Gay & Lesbian Archive, introduced the program and moderated a panel that included (in the order first heard on this recording):

Stanley Bennett Clay
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Terrance Dean
James Earl Hardy
Imani Henry
G. Winston James

To download an mp3 of Live to Tell, click here. [2:32:38]

For information on future programs of the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive--including Ordinary People, a film and book club series running from October 2012 to June 2013--follow the Schomburg Center on Facebook, Twitter @SchomburgCenter or Tumblr.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Collective for Dance Writing and New Media seeks Financial Administrator


The Executive Committee of Collective for Dance Writing and New Media seeks a reliable, ongoing volunteer or long-term intern for financial management of this new, volunteer-driven advocacy and service organization. You can make a difference, and you’ll receive annual member benefits, including free admission to our events.

Candidates for this position should document academic training and/or experience in arts or business administration and possess a high level of organization and responsibility. Retirees are particularly encouraged to apply.

To apply, address an email to Eva Yaa Asantewaa at collectivedwnm@gmail.com with the Subject line: FA application.

Please include:

*Name

*Street address

*Phone number(s)

*Email address

*Days/hours available for work

*Two academic or professional references

Please attach a pdf of your resume or include a detailed bio in the body of your email.

If you have any questions, please write to us at collectiveDWNM@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Founder
Member, Executive Committee
Collective for Dance Writing and New Media
http://collectivedwnm.com

Volunteer at CollectiveDWNM's Open House

Collective for Dance Writing and New Media would love to have a few wonderful volunteers for our Open House on September 10 (exciting details here).

Get in touch with us at collectivedwnm@gmail.com, if you'd like to help us out with a few light necessities. Thanks!

Antony and the Johnsons: Cut the World

Antony and the Johnsons: Cut the World
by Enio Chiola, PopMatters, August 6, 2012

Chavela Vargas, 93

Mexican singer Chavela Vargas dies aged 93
BBC News, August 6, 2012

LEIMAY-CAVE seeks writers for new online publication

LEIMAY-CAVE is currently seeking writers for its online publication,conectom. The aim of the project is to report and comment on new developments in visual arts performance, contemporary performance, hybrid stage and installation works.
As a writer, you will make contributions ranging from interviews, reviews, essays, and development journals. You will be in contact with LEIMAY-CAVE’s local and international network in addition to any individual projects you are interested in proposing. A strong concentration for conectom is the adaptation of critique style to contemporary works. This means doing away with traditional theater or visual art criticism when writing about contemporary performance, visual performance art or other hybrid works. As such, you will be expected to learn a new perspective when writing about performative works, be it considering your position as a spectator or situating the works you are writing about within their proper context.

We are seeking persons with a strong interest in contemporary performance and visual art performance. Writing experience is preferred, but a strong ambition to become involved in the performance medium is just as important. Our tentative launch date for the writing series is September 15th. From then on, we aim to maintain a well-updated publication, therefore we ask that you submit one article every three weeks (Occasional writers are also called please feel free to apply and specify your interest).

conectom is an artist/audience network and online publication focusing on visual arts performance, contemporary performance and hybrid stage works. conectom features an artist directory with a permanent and rotating portfolio display, community forums, interviews, written and photographic essays, development journals, and an ever-updated, curated calendar of performance events in New York City.
Please send your resume, a writing sample, and a brief cover letter to raul@leimay.org by August 25, 2012.

In the absence of a writing sample, please describe your interest in becoming a staff writer for LEIMAY-CAVE as well as your interests in visual arts performance, contemporary performance and hybrid stage works. Additionally, we are also interested in photo essayists and an editorial intern. No monetary compensation is available for these positions.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Asia Society's Rachel Cooper: From Performer to Producer

The Transition From Performer to Producer
by Rachel Cooper, The New York Times, August 4, 2012

Florence Waren, Dancer Who Resisted Nazis, dead at 95

Florence Waren, Dancer Who Resisted Nazis, Dies at 95
by Denise Grady, The New York Times, August 4, 2012

Author Terrance Dean discusses Black queer literature

Click here to read an interview with Terrance Dean, creator of Live to Tell, a panel of Black queer writers at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, co-sponsored by the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive.

Wednesday, August 8, 6pm 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Manhattan
(map/directions)

I plan to attend this event and hope to record and post an audio of Dean's panel which will include these notable Black LGBT writers:

Stanley Bennett Clay
James Earl Hardy
G. Winston James
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Imani Henry

For more information, click here.

Admission is free, but you must register (click here) or call 212-491-2040.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Special guests announced for first CollectiveDWNM Open House

Kyle Abraham (photo by Steven Schreiber)
Marjani Forté  (photo by Ian Douglas)

Yes. You got that right: 

Kyle Abraham

Marjani Forté

in conversation with 651 Arts' Shay Wafer

Shay Wafer (photo by Whitney Thomas)

Collective for Dance Writing and New Media's
Executive Committee
and
Leadership Circle

welcome you to our first  
Open House

 Monday, September 10 (6-8pm)

presented by in partnership with 651 Arts

hosted by Gibney Dance Center 
890 Broadway, 5th Floor, (19th/20th Streets), Manhattan
(directions)

Curious about CollectiveDWNM? Want to join as a member or participate in our Leadership Circle (internship program)?

This Open House will be a great time to become involved with this important new initiative, open to writers and all media professionals, artists, students, advocates and fans who care passionately about the art of dance and its documentation.

Program

6pm: Refreshments. Membership/internship info/sign-up (Studio 3) 

6:40pm: Conversation with Abraham, Forté and Wafer (Studio 6)

Free admission
Annual membership: $20 (cash only)


ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUESTS

Kyle Abraham, professional dancer and choreographer, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Over the past few years, Abraham has received tremendous accolades and awards for his dancing and choreography including a 2010 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show, a 2010 Princess Grace Award for Choreography, a BUILD grant and an individual artist fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and selected in 2009 as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch.

In 2011, OUT Magazine labeled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama” and was most recently awarded The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2012. 

His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad, most recently at On The Boards, South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, REDCAT, Philly Live Arts, Portland’s Time Based Arts Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Harlem Stage, Fall for Dance Festival at New York's City Center, Montreal, Germany, Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan, The Andy Warhol Museum and The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

As a performer, Abraham has worked with acclaimed modern dance companies including David Dorfman Dance, Burnt Sugar Dance Conduction Continuum, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Mimi Garrard Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Dance Alloy, The Kevin Wynn Collection and Attack Theatre. In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, Abraham also teaches his unique approach to post-modern dance in various schools and studios throughout the United States.

He is currently working on a new pas de deux for himself and acclaimed Bessie Award winning dancer and New York City Principal, Wendy Whelan while still creating new works for his company A/I/M.

For more information please visit: http://abrahaminmotion.org

Marjani Forté is a Los Angeles, CA native and Harlem resident. She graduated with a B.A. in Marketing and Dance from Loyola Marymount University and attended Los Angeles High School for the Arts.  She was a five-year member of Urban Bush Women Dance Compay and has worked with Earl Moseley, Garth Fagan, Blondell Cummings and Nia Love's BSD|dance. She is now co-founder of LOVE|FORT… A COLLECTIVE--a research/process, performance, and teaching geared collective with a commitment to social and politically conscious art making, that connects the human experience through time (www.loveforte.org). Forté has taught master classes and workshops across the US and beyond including University of Minnesota and TU Dance Center, Florida State University, Hunter CUNY, and the American Dance Festival.  She has presented for New Orleans McKenna Museum, DNA Raw Material, Kelly Strayhorn newMoves Festival in Pittsburg, PA, and DanceNow at Joe's Pub. Forté premiered her solo EGO at Dance Theatre Workshop as a 2010 Fresh Tracks Resident Artist while concluding a choreographic residency and lecture series at Loyola Marymount University. Forté most recently premiered Here… for Danspace PLATFORMS: Parallels Series in March 2012 and EGO for Harlem Stage’s E-Moves April 2012. Forté is a Movement Research Artist-In-Residence 2011-13, a recent BAX Artist in Residence with LOVE|FORT…, and has joined a roster of teaching professionals, as faculty, at Dance New Amsterdam in NYC.  Forté is thrilled to join arms with 651 Arts in the further creative development of Here… Her work stems from being born in and having engaged with culturally rich, vibrant, historic, and politically charged communities. 

Shay Wafer, Executive Director of 651 ARTS, has demonstrated a stalwart dedication to the arts and community development through many years of service to the field. Her passionate vision is balanced with pragmatic experience, as she has held senior level positions at a number of non-profit arts organizations with a focus on African-American programming, community engagement and arts education. In 2007, Shay became the founding Vice President of Programs for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, a new multi-disciplinary performing arts center and museum in downtown Pittsburgh. Prior to the August Wilson Center, she served for six years as the managing director of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles, California--her hometown. She also served as the Managing Director of the St. Louis Black Repertory Company and LA Theatreworks. She was a founding partner of Marla Gibb’s Crossroads Arts Academy and Theatre in L.A., as well as the co-founder of Colored Girl Productions. Ms. Wafer has engaged in additional community and volunteer activities throughout her career including serving on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and as a NEFA National Theatre Project Advisor. A graduate of Howard University and Yale School of Drama, prior to working in the arts field she was a pre-school and kindergarten teacher.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

UKanDanz...the night away

UKanDanz, based in Lyon, France, made its US debut at Lincoln Center Out of Doors last evening before a sparse but increasingly impressed audience. Earlier rain, and the threat of thunderstorms, had kept initial attendance down. But the deepening night sky stayed dry, great music kept coming from this French/Ethiopian quintet and two other bands over the next few hours, and more people arrived to partake and enjoy.

It took me a couple of songs to warm to UKanDanz, with its raucous collision of high-pitched, passionate Ethiopian melisma and hard-charging rock. But vocalist Asnaqé Guèbrèyès served as a magnetic center to keep all the components from flying off in different directions. After awhile, it just worked.

Oumar Konate (photo by Darial Sneed)
Due to the ongoing conflict in her country, Mali's esteemed vocalist Khaira Arby could not join her band in New York, but guitarist-singer Oumar Konate took up the leadership role, bringing the funk and the rock with a majestic glide. These guys--especially Konate--really rock out in the classic style on their beautiful guitars and do so without losing the slightest degree of crystal clear precision.

I stayed for only half of the last set--Yemen Blues, fronted by an electrifying Israeli-Yemenite vocalist, Ravid Kahalani--but I was glad to hear that much.
Ravid Kahalani (photo by Darial Sneed)

These musicians play trombone, trumpet, flute, viola, cello, violin, oud, gimbri, percussion and keyboards. I hear blues, funk, North and West African rhythms and Latin jazz influences threaded through the fabric, a big, colorful, sophisticated sound, powerful enough to rattle your chest. Kahalani's sexy exuberance carries the Life Force; in fact, his first utterance, upon taking the stage, was to cry "Adonai!!!" Audience members flocked to empty spaces near the stage to sway and dance in complete enchantment. All in all, a sensational night at Lincoln Center.

Here's a taste of Yemen Blues from a 2010 trailer:

Get a schedule of remaining Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival events here.

"Writing the Living Matrix" with Deena Metzger

Deena Metzger's Writing the Living Matrix
The imagination is a real place. The real life and our future reside there. It is rich with stories, visions and dreams. When we enter this sphere, the writing experience calls self and other(s) into dynamic relationship on the page. This writing can be like a council that holds all the voices, including our ancestors and descendants as cohorts. It develops from the intrigue that we can each imagine and enter a new literature that looks to and helps create a future, vibrant, beautiful and alive....
To follow Story is to understand the path of healing.
Each of our stories is a universe.
Each one of us is living a story. 
To discover its shape and essence is essential to soul making.
 --Deena Metzger (Author, Writing for Your Life)
Click here to learn more about and register for Metzger's Writing the Living Matrix workshop at Rowe Camp & Conference Center (Rowe, MA in the Berkshires), October 12-14.

Theater critic Catherine Rampell on previewing and reviewing

Not quite sure why, but I'm tickled to read this from Catherine Rampell of The New York Times:
In addition to covering economics, I also write theater reviews for the Arts section.
In any case, here's her recent column on the business of theater previews and reviews.

Theater Review Economics
by Catherine Rampell, The New York Times, July 30, 2012

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