Search This Blog

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Gibney Dance takes action

Gibney Dance to lead community action
for Domestic Violence Awareness Month 

All through October, Gibney Dance will host events designed to provide information and increase awareness around the issue of domestic violence. These events, held at Gibney Dance Center will be free and open to the public. This initiative includes:

-- "I Am Against Violence" photo campaign, in which members of the public can volunteer to be featured.

--  Community Action (CA), a first-of-its-kind program centered on dancer-led workshops using the power of movement and creativity to empower domestic violence survivors living in shelters in New York City and beyond.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a time not only to recognize the significant efforts that have been made to reduce domestic violence but also to recommit ourselves to serving the critical needs of survivors and their families. Through our Community Action work, we have learned that there is a powerful synergy between domestic violence and dance that helps survivors take their whole self forward—both body and mind. We look forward to sharing with the broader community the knowledge and expertise we have gained through 12 years of work around the issue of domestic violence.
--Gina Gibney, Artistic and Executive Director of Gibney Dance

--  a discussion with Beth Silverman-Yam, Clinical Director of Sanctuary for Families

--  free yoga classes

--  coaching opportunities on work/life balance

--  a CA Open Studio featuring Gibney Dance Company

All activities will take place at Gibney Dance Center, 890 Broadway, Fifth Floor.

Participants can register for and learn more about October’s events by emailing community@gibneydance.org.


Domestic Violence Awareness Month Schedule of Events


Domestic Violence Informational Session
Wednesday, October 3, 2:30–3:30pm (Studio 3)

Dr. Beth Silverman-Yam, Clinical Director of Sanctuary for Families, will lead a discussion on domestic violence and healthy versus unhealthy relationships.


Community Action Open Studio
Wednesday, October 10, 6:30–8:30pm (Studio 5–2)

Artistic and Executive Director Gina Gibney presents an overview of the Community Action model while the Company demonstrates workshop content and performs an excerpt from its repertory.


Body and Wellness Week
October 15–19, 8-10am (Studio 2)

A week of free wellness events

    Monday/Wednesday: Mind Body Dancer
    Led by Liz Montgomery

    90-minute Yoga class followed by 30 minutes of optional guided meditation


    Tuesday/Thursday: Tools for Managing Stress
    Led by Jennifer Edwards, jened.com

    The coaching sessions will guide participants through practical approaches to (1) creating a holistic model for how to manage life, work and their personal brands; and (2) using tools for sleeping better, reducing anxiety and managing stress symptoms.


    Friday: Chi Kung/Qi Gong
    Led by Laura Shapiro

    Chi Kung/Qi Gong is often translated as “life force energy practice.” With roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy, its gentle movements over time restore balance and harmony to body, mind, and spirit.


“I am Against Violence” Campaign Open Photo Shoot
Tuesday, October 23, 12:00 – 4:00 pm / Studio 5

Members of the public are invited to join the Gibney Dance community in taking a stand against domestic violence by having their photos taken for our online and Center-wide advocacy campaign.

Falling for dance again....

For many of us, it takes very little to fall for concert dance. In fact, we've been goners for some time now. For everyone else--and, in America, that's a sizable number--the kind of rah-rah action on hand at New York City Center's annual Fall for Dance festival might be just the ticket. And a relatively cheap ticket at that ($15), if they can manage to get their hands on one, even with the newly-expanded--12 nights now!--Fall for Dance evenings. Really, all you sharpies who already love dance should step aside, at least for one year, and let some newbies get in the door.

Once in the door, they will discover a tossed salad of troupes and styles--everything from ballet to hula to contemporary dance out of Indonesia--designed to open their eyes to dance's fabulous diversity, its connection to their values, and the rock-star appeal of skilled, hard-working performers from celebrated troupes. They will thrill to an environment where they're free to applaud between sections of a dance and raise the roof with lusty, arena-ready cheering when it's all over. A fun night out, maybe even an enlightening one. That can be good for business at City Center and, ideally, elsewhere.
http://blog.nycitycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/WEB_IMG_2605premieres_Photo-by-Erin-Baiano.jpg
Wendy Whelan and Tyler Angle (Photo © 2011 Erin Baiano)
http://blog.nycitycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Jared-Grimes-by-Ernest-Gregory.jpg
Jared Grimes (Photo by Ernest Gregory)

For the most part, I had a good time with Program A, which featured choreography by Jared Grimes (Transformation in Tap); Christopher Wheeldon (Fang-Yi Sheu & Artists in Five Movements, Three Repeats); Sol León and Paul Lightfoot (Nederlands Dans Theater in Shutters Shut); and Jarek Cemerek (BalletBoyz in Void).

In Grimes' voice-over, he remembered himself, newly arrived in New York, as "a mad scientist" in the lab of the tap world. His world-premiered ensemble piece, Transformation in Tap, isn't nearly as "mad" as it might be--especially since one of the most delectable parts of it, a Grimes solo to "The Lady is A Tramp," reaches way back to pay homage to world-class, charismatic Sammy Davis, Jr. But younger viewers will find in Grimes' intense, muscular style some of the clean snap and acrobatic flourish of hip hop, keeping tap in the moment and ready for whatever's ahead.

To my eye, Wheeldon gave modern dancer Fang-Yi Sheu an elegant, lyrical backdrop--New York City Ballet dancers Tyler Angle, Craig Hall and Wendy Whelan. She is, to quote a superstar of baseball, "the straw that stirs the drink" in Five Movements, Three Repeats (2012), a being of almost inhuman ability to mold and re-mold her body, shape-shifting into new forms. Whelan and Angle--faithful, if less dazzling, in a somber, increasingly ethereal pas de deux--have the good fortune to have been paired not only with each other but with composer Max Richter's affecting remix of Dinah Washington singing "This Bitter Earth." (Listen to it here). What good is love.... What good am I.... But while a voice within me cries/I'm sure someone may answer my call...." It was hard to not feel a pang, even a foreboding chill, whenever Angle lifted Whelan just high enough for her toes to clear and skim the floor, just high enough to free her of the earth for a brief respite.

Shutters Shut (2003) is a sparkling duet performed by NDT's Astrid Boons and Quentin Roger with Gertrude Stein's "If I told him: A completed portrait of Picasso" as score. Clad in costumes that seem to flash a succession of now white, now black signals--a secret language--these two jutting, wind-up dolls rapidly work through Stein's ear-tickling repetitions and variations.

In Void (2011), Britain's hunky BalletBoyz kick butt and will smack down anyone who hears "Dance is..." and thinks "...for sissies." I was reminded less of West Side Story (see the Macaulay review) than Fight Club, right down to the suggestion of a secluded, urban warehouse setting where bare-chested guys get into it, but a Fight Club choreographed to be sleek, slick and picturesque, where no blow lands with impact and people fly at one another but all you get is the idea of men fighting, over and over and over and over.... Cemerek carefully crafted every detail of this idea but quickly exhausts it, even if he never exhausts those ten amazing dancers.

Fall for Dance continues through October 13. If any tickets remain, you can find out here or by calling the City Center box office at 212-581-1212 (Monday-Saturday, Noon-8pm; Sunday, Noon-7:30pm).

New York City Center
55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, Manhattan
(map/directions)

A view of New York City's dance...from the inside

http://www.kinerenterprises.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/INYCD-Logo.png 


New York City has a new way to explore its vibrant and diverse dance scene: Inside New York City Dance with Ashani Mfuko, airing Fridays, 10:30pm EST on Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Culture Channel (Time Warner Cable 67 | RCN 85 | FiOS 36).

http://insidenycdance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/471039_10150693393682168_74622938_o.jpg
Ashani Mfuko (r) with ballet dancer and blogger Taylor Gordon

Mfuko's program will feature in-depth interviews, health and wellness tips and the latest dance industry news. In addition, Inside New York City Dance will soon launch an iPhone/iPad app, and the show will be available for streaming live online at http://mnn.org. (Simply click on the “Culture Channel” link.)

The first season will spotlight the Bessie Awards, the Joffrey Ballet School, Ailey II, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, Full Circle Soul Productions at Lincoln Center (Lincoln Center Out Of Doors), The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory, The Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival, Taylor Gordon (professional ballet dancer and member of Exit 12 Dance Company), The Young Choreographer’s Festival, Dr. Linda Hamilton (Dance Magazine columnist and clinical psychologist specializing in wellness for performers) and more.

To find a channel in your local area, click here.

Click here for more about Mfuko and Inside New York City Dance.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Dan Safer's "Body and Soul: Listen." audio...redux!

A Facebook friend, downloading an episode of Body and Soul podcast, noticed that the Dan Safer Listen. segment had been switched with the Katy Pyle segment. I don't know how this happened, but I have uploaded Dan's podcast again.

You'll find the original InfiniteBody post about Dan's segment here.

So check for the new (9/28/12) Dan Safer segment, and ignore the old (8/23/12) one--that is, unless you enjoy Katy Pyle so much you'd like to hear her twice, and I can understand how you might!

As far as I know, this should be the final glitch in the Hipcast/iTunes saga, but if it isn't let me know right away, and I'll see what I can do about it!

Thanks!

Just keep listening...!

If you've had any trouble subscribing to Body and Soul podcast to hear my new Listen. segments--with fab people like Doug Varone, Deborah Hay, Maria Bauman and Imani Uzuri--try again here http://magickaleva.hipcast.com/rss/bodyandsoul.xml. It is my great pleasure to bring you these fantastic voices from the arts, and there will be many more to come. So...listen.

It's almost Bessies' time! See you there!

 produced in partnership with Dance/NYC

Monday, October 15
 
2012 Host: Elizabeth Streb

Presenters include Marina Abramovic, luciana achugar, Ron Brown, Brenda Bufalino, Archie Burnett, Bebe Neuwirth, Charles Reinhart, David Thomson, and Wendy Whelan, among others.

Paul Taylor will receive the 2012 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance, and Alice Teirstein will be honored with 2012 Bessie Award for Service to the Field of Dance.

The ceremony will also feature live performances by the Trisha Brown Company, recipient of last year’s Bessie for Lifetime Achievement, and Souleymane Badolo, the 2012 recipient of the Juried Bessie Award, known for his contemporary interpretations of traditional African dance. 

Doors open: 7pm
Award ceremony: 8pm

Food and drink available in the theater

Tickets $10 
Available at the Apollo box office and at www.apollotheater.org

Click here for more information on the 2012 Bessies and the pre-show benefit cocktail reception and after-party. 

The Apollo Theater  253 West 125th Street, Manhattan (directions)

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Seeking more interns for Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

We're growing, 
and we invite you to grow along with us!

New Intern Positions Available

Intern for the new advocacy organization, Collective for Dance Writing and New Media as part of our talented Leadership Circle.

We’re looking for a few more smart, creative, community-minded interns to help us build this dynamic initiative in the dance and dance-writer communities. (See our Vision and Mission Statements).

ADMINISTRATIVE PROJECTS

Interns will work in support of a variety of essential projects in the following areas:

    Communications: community outreach, publicity, website management, e-newsletter editing and production, social media management, blog editing, podcast hosting/production, speakers bureau management

    Events: collaboration with community organizations, planning, coordination, facilitation and support

    Finance: financial administration and development

    Membership Services: outreach/recruitment, benefits, members-only trainings and other members-only events

We’ll be happy to arrange a weekly schedule and selection of tasks (plus assistance at occasional events) that will be comfortable and useful for you. You need not have a background in journalism or dance writing to qualify for this internship, but this opportunity will be ideal for candidates with interest in dance or other arts.

TIME COMMITMENT AND BENEFITS

In exchange for a six-month commitment, you will receive a one-year membership in CollectiveDWNM entitling you to free or discounted admission to all of our events and workshops, including members-only events and trainings, and our members-only bi-weekly newsletter (coming soon).

APPLICATION PROCESS AND REQUIREMENTS


To apply for a CollectiveDWNM internship, please send an email to:

Eva Yaa Asantewaa at collectiveDWNM@gmail.com with SUBJECT: Internship Application.

In the body of the email, please include your:

●    Name
●    Street address
●    Phone number(s)
●    Email address
●    Areas of competence and/or interest (including any tech/new media skills)
●    Days/hours available
●    Optional: links to samples of your writing online, if available

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

[Special Note: Our Executive Committee and Leadership Circle will be meeting on Thursday, October 11, 2pm to 4pm, at Gibney Dance Center, 890 Broadway, 5th Floor, Studio 1. If you're available, grab your application, come meet us and we'll consider your application on the spot!]

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

Thanks very much for your interest. We look forward to hearing from you!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Founder
Member, Executive Committee
Collective for Dance Writing and New Media
PO Box 210 Cooper Station
New York, NY 10276
collectiveDWNM@gmail.com

Asia Society to host Indonesian performance troupes

Nan Jombang Dance Company

As part of its Creative Voices of Muslim Asia initiative, Asia Society will present two innovative performance companies from Indonesia:

Nan Jombang Dance Company (Saturday, October 6, 8pm) will show work that combines the Minangkabau (West Sumatra) traditions of martial arts, dance, folk theater and body percussion. (video clip and tickets)

Papermoon Puppet Theatre's Mwathirika (photo by Indra Wicaksono)

Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Monday, October 1, 8pm) presents Mwathirika--a non-verbal, puppet-theater experience set in 1965, when thousands of Indonesians were jailed and murdered. (video clip and tickets)

Asia Society
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), Manhattan
(directions)

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Body and Soul: Listen.: Imani Uzuri


http://s3.amazonaws.com/rpsmedia/ImaniUzuri_Photo-c-PetraRichterova.jpg
Imani Uzuri (photo by Petra Richterova)

Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to vocalist/composer Imani Uzuri talk about deep listening to the ocean and her own need, as an artist and a woman, for meditative time alone.
Innovative vocalist and composer Imani Uzuri is an eclectic artist who travels internationally from Morocco to Moscow creating and performing across various genres including concerts, recordings, experimental theater, performance art and sound installations. Uzuri’s work has been called “stunning” by New York Magazine and incorporates her interests in world culture, experimentation and sacred music. She has earned critical acclaim for her debut album, Her Holy Water: A Black Girl’s Rock Opera as well as for her collaborations with diverse artists such as Herbie Hancock, John Legend, Wangechi Mutu, Sandford Biggers and Vijay Iyer. Her new album The Gypsy Diaries which also features sitar, acoustic guitar, cello, violin, Japanese shinobue flute and world percussion, is a vibrant lyrical and spiritual sound scape and was named #2 on Rhapsody's World Top 10 List Summer 2012. She is currently composing a new musical GIRL Shakes Lose Her Skin that she is developing with playwright Zakiyyah Alexander inspired by the works of Philadelphia Poet Laureate Sonia Sanchez.
Click here to visit with Imani Uzuri and hear tracks from The Gypsy Diaries.

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)

"If I can make it here...": Spanish Consulate offers help

Want to make it in New York?

Spanish cultural professionals interested in presenting arts projects or making a career in New York City can download a new series of pdf guides--covering everything from funding resources to media outlets--directed to professionals in architecture and design, film, gastronomy, literature, humanities and science, music, performing arts and visual arts.

These How to Make It in New York guides should be useful for any newcomer--Spanish or not. So, click here for more information on this project and to download links for each of the covered arts and culture disciplines.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

CollectiveDWNM to welcome Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener and Nancy Dalva

Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener
Monday, November 5 (7pm)


presents its next special evening

FROM THERE TO HERE:

A conversation with
dance artists Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener 
moderated by dance writer Nancy Dalva


Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway (entrance at 53 Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Admission:
Non-members: $10
Paid members: Free

Please RSVP here.

Become a member of Collective for Dance Writing and New Media ($20 annual fee) and receive free or discounted admission to our events. For an application, inquire here.

Become an intern in CollectiveDWNM's Leadership Circle and enjoy membership benefits. For an application, inquire here.

Harlem School of the Arts: Herb Alpert to the rescue!

Harlem School of the Arts Gets $5 Million From Herb Alpert
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, September 20, 2012

Monday, September 24, 2012

Discuss the "Bessies" (NY Dance and Performance Awards)

You're invited to join a discussion of the New York Dance and Performance Awards ("Bessies") on Monday, October 1.
Panelists include Lucy Sexton (Director, The Bessies), Andrew Dinwiddie (Bessies Selection Committee) and others TBA.

Come talk about the recent changes in the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies. Hear about the awards process, its subcommittees and categories, and its goals and aspirations. And offer your questions, suggestions, thoughts and concerns. All are welcome.
Monday, October 1 (7pm)
Cathy Weis Studio
537 Broadway, 3rd Floor (between Prince and Spring Streets), Manhattan

"Congo in Harlem" film festival

https://snt002.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=1&messageId=1f7dcd65-027b-11e2-8067-00237de461b2&Aux=44|0|8CF649F0DDD16A0||0|1|0|0|14|3,53,63,65,73&cid=cf6a871699f3a1ee&maxwidth=220&maxheight=160&size=Att

Congo in Harlem 4 (October 12-21) is the fourth annual series of Congo-related films and events at the Maysles Cinema in New York’s historic Harlem neighborhood. Congo in Harlem showcases innovative work that celebrates Congolese culture, raises awareness about the Democratic Republic of Congo’s challenges, provokes dialogue, and encourages community engagement.

This year’s series highlights a wide selection of films by Congolese and international directors, ranging from political exposés to personal journeys, historical inquiries, artistic provocations, and groundbreaking animation.

Congo in Harlem is presented by Maysles Cinema, True-Walker Productions and Friends of the Congo.

For a schedule and more information, click here.

Ticketing

InfiniteBody's Frequently Asked Questions

Time for a little housekeeping!
So, I've devised this mini-FAQ for readers of this blog. Enjoy!

* * * * *

What is the proper way to write the name of this blog?

InfiniteBody. All one word. Caps on I and B. Not Infinite Body--two words.

What is this blogger's surname?

Yaa Asantewaa. Not Asantewaa.

What is the name of this blog's podcast?

Body and Soul.

This podcast has a brand new feature. What is its name? 

Listen.

I like/I don't like this blog post. How can I say that?

Click the Add a comment link at the very bottom of the post, and have at it.

I like/I don't like Body and Soul podcast. How can I say that? 

Write a review on iTunes.

I like this blog and/or Body and Soul podcast well enough that I want to show my support. How can I do that?

  • Post this blog's URL in the blogroll on your site or blog.
  • On your site or blog, post a link to one or more posts from this blog.
  • Tell your friends and colleagues and send them here.
  • Send a buck or two or three. Write to infinitebody[at]outlook[dot]com, and I'll tell you how to do that.
Thanks for your attention!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Tonya Pinkins is Live & Outspoken

http://www.651arts.org/images/uploads/events/event_LO_NBF2012.jpg
Dominique Morisseau and Tonya Pinkins

On Monday, October 8 (7pm), The New Black Fest at 651 ARTS presents Live & Outspoken with Tony Award Winning Actress Tonya Pinkins, moderated by PONY Fellow Dominique Morisseau

hosted by The Classical Theatre of Harlem

Complete information here

Free admission: RSVP here

Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Center
3940 Broadway (between 165th and 166th Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

CDWNM: Fiscal administator sought


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.

In addition, after a six-month evaluation period, you may be considered for Executive Committee status which includes ongoing membership benefits.

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, please address an email to Eva Yaa Asantewaa at collectivedwnm[at]gmail[dot]com with the Subject line: FA application.

Your application must include the following:

*Name

*Street address

*Phone number(s)

*Email address

*Days/hours available for work

*Two academic or professional references

Please attach:

1) a pdf of your resume (or include a detailed bio in the body of your email)

2) two reference letters from past or current academic instructors or employers

If you have any questions, please write to us at collectiveDWNM[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thank you!

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

Body and Soul: Listen.: Maria Bauman

Maria Bauman (photo by David B. Smith)
Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to dancer-choreographer Maria Bauman talk about everything she's inspired to listen to, with great care, these days.

Bauman fun facts:
  • Premiered Stand at SummerStage, August 11, 2012
  • Setting Stand at Long Island University Dance Department this semester
  • Guest Artist at Connecticut College, September 2012
  • Teaching contemporary dance at Hunter College this semester
  • Working with Jen Abrams on a new piece called Any Resemblance, using video, photography, the Internet and live performance (Click here for information on special previews showings.)

Web site
Most recent MBDance news

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)

Saturday, September 22, 2012

A house is not a home: David Levine's "Habit"

"This is so wild--the semiotics of it! Do you even know what semotics means?"
--David Levine, Habit

David Levine's theater/installation piece, Habit--co-presented by the currently nomadic Performance Space 122 and FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival--inhabits several rooms of an unremarkable ranch house. What is remarkable, though, is that this house and all of its dismal furnishings have been painstakingly assembled within the bare, unused confines of the original Essex Street Market near Rivington Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The audience views the action by peering through or parting several diaphanous curtains and gazing in on dusty Halloween decor dispiritedly strewn around and the typical hipster mess of well-worn electronics, cheap living room furniture and empty beer cans. Kudos to scenic designer Marsha Ginsberg for the cheesy, fascinating macro- and micro-details of all of this, right down to the food-stained menu stuck to the refrigerator and the fine layer of undisturbed dust. Achoo!

Sure, pull the curtains aside, if you wish. No one stops you. If you want to reach past the window and slap some sense into one or another of Levine's characters, you're often close enough to do so. Lucky for the actors, I restrained myself, and I trust most other people will, too, though the temptation lingers through the hour-plus of increasing intrigue and tension.

It all starts off banal enough. "Nobody likes Frank Zappa," argues the curiously snide, menacing Doug (well played, in the cast I saw today, by shark-eyed Ben Mehl). "Nobody likes Captain Fucking Beefheart," he harangues his brother and housemate Mitch (Brian Bickerstaff). In return, the rangy, hapless Mitch can only offer a feeble retort, "But The Grateful Dead are okay?"

The (unwanted--by Doug, vaguely-wanted--by Mitch) presence of a blowsy cokehead named Viv (Eliza Baldi) introduces a few more critical areas of hostility between the brothers, which I will not reveal. Not that revealing any of this story would make a difference one way or another. That the plot of this thing is not really the point of this thing will become obvious once you experience it.

Your experience as a watcher is the point. Looking through those windows, figuring out where and how quickly to trot in order to catch the next batch of action, wondering if the "sleeping" Doug--one hand resting in a suspect location under the bedcovers--will start masturbating in front of your very eyes...all of this is the point. Getting to a place where you find yourself also looking hard at your fellow voyeurs as they gaze through windows on the opposite side of the house--that, too, might be the point.

If you lose interest--and you don't opt for reaching in and slapping--you can always keep an eye on the Animal Science show running on the characters' unwatched television. You know: wolves, bears, salmon swimming upstream. Wholesome family fare.

Habit runs through Sunday, September 30, open 1pm-9pm daily, featuring alternating casts. It's free and open to the public. Come and go as you please.

Essex Street Market (not the new one, though)
130 Essex Street (near Rivington Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

African women's "Voices of Strength" at New York Live Arts

Read my review of "Voices of Strength" here on DanceMagazine.com.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Body and Soul: Listen.: Deborah Hay

http://www.codadancefest.no/media/magne-antonsen-0/deborahhayimage1309709549_m.jpg
Deborah Hay










Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to choreographer Deborah Hay talk about what she has learned from working with highly-skilled performers and about her plans for a sabbatical to re-set, refresh and see what comes next in her work.

Deborah Hay bio

Visit the Deborah Hay Dance Company Web site here.

Upcoming presentations (Houston, New York, Minneapolis)

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) 

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie takes the subway for "A Single Ride"

The fun, fast-paced A Single Ride (at Dixon Place now through the 29th) didn't give me time to mentally whine that its director-choreographer--the talented hip hop dancer Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie--doesn't perform in it. Or to ponder the fact that a whole swath of it brought to mind The Groove to Nobody's Business, a popular piece by Camille A. Brown that also features a humorous, sometimes contentious ensemble impatiently waiting for and eventually riding the subway. Asherie carries the physical humor of this situation a little further and funnier. Another sold-out crowd was richly entertained last night at Dixon Place.

You've swiped your Metrocard a billion times, but have you ever thought how that brisk, nearly automatic but sometimes thwarted action might look translated by three dancers' bodies (two to play the turnstile)? Asherie has. You've heard that announcement that "a crowded train is no excuse for sexual harrassment," but have you ever wondered what might happen if a cluster of riders decided that, no, actually it's the best excuse going? Asherie has.

Asherie gets a big assist from her creative team, especially Grammy-winning composer Marty Beller and projection designer David Bengali, both of whom are so bold and brilliant here, I would pay to experience their work even in the absence of an accompanying dance. And her dancers--Ljuba Castot, Teena Marie Custer, Valerie "Ms. Vee" Ho, Erin Holmes, Richard Maguire and MiRi "Seoulsonyk" Park--turn out to be capable dancer-actors, appealing and wonderful overall. You'll forget that Asherie isn't among them until she joins them for the final bows.

Shows are at 7:30pm through Saturday, September 29.

Information and tickets

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
(directions)

Martha Swope dance, theater photos on show

Martha Swope Exhibition at the New York Public Library
by Erik Piepenburg, The New York Times, September 20, 2012

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Tami Stronach premieres "Me and Not Me"

It's possible to find yourself completely lost in a work shaped by Tami Stronach. Lost and wondering if you should have brought along some bright red yarn to unspool as you walked so that, later, you could retrace your steps.
Tami Stonach (l) and Lindsey Dietz Marchant and that crazy little bike in Me and Not Me

A kind of poetic disorientation can work to the choreographer's benefit, but not always. When her drive and facility with movement, her fascination with relationships between dancers, run on long, it looks as if she's a little lost, too. But not in Me and Not Me, that brash duet between the choreographer and Lindsey Dietz Marchant, both articulate, masterful performers. Stronach gave this artful piece its world premiere last night at Dance New Amsterdam, along with a solo from repertory (Mother Tongue, with Dietz Marchant dancing like Isadora-gone-postmodern) and a work in progress (Closer, a more lighthearted quartet toying with DNA's space and our focus of attention). If you enjoy dance that treats human nature in its complexity from the inside out, Stronach's evening at DNA could be a wise choice for your weekend.

The title, Me and Not Me, hints that the two characters might be two sides of the same woman, as easily as they could be a literal Self and Other. It also suggests the rejection of something inside a person that she does not want to see and accept. The piece pits a fairly well-rooted (and ferociously energetic) Stronach against the irrational vision of Dietz-Marchant, a full-grown woman making her wobbly and crash-prone way, 'round and 'round, on a small child's bike, strewing aromatic yellow flowers (that made me sneezy) and, when she is not astride the bike, clinging to, pawing at and struggling with the choreographer. (I made a note: "So, Tami, who was the impossibly difficult person in your life?") The women handle each other with stubbornness, resistance and deep need. Jane Shaw contributes a resonant sound design--a mixtape of gorgeous Czech folk and pop--now, I'll need to seek out more music by Karina Denike--interspersed with the grating, repetitious streaming of anxiety and OCD. Go-to lighting guy Joe Levasseur, once again, works his painterly magic against the women's skin.

Now through Saturday evening, 7:30pm

Information and tickets

Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway (entrance on Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Karma Mayet Johnson's "Indigo"

http://www.boldaslove.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/karma21.jpg
Karma Mayet Johnson

I should have figured that Karma Mayet Johnson's Indigo: a Blues Opera--featuring her text, composition, lyrics, choreography, direction and charismatic performance--would bring out almost everyone who's anyone in New York's vibrant Black lesbian community...and anyone who's hip in the Black arts community and then some...and then some more...and then everyone else.

I should have figured, too, that since Dixon Place comps press but does not reserve seats for press--an unnecessary holdover from the old, informal setup at Ellie Covan's tiny Bowery loft--I might end up, for the very first time, stuffed into a corner of the theater's balcony, even though I showed up early--or what would normally be early. Lucky to have that rail-side seat, though, since there were people dragging chairs they managed to find somewhere to sit behind me a couple of rows deep.

I regret it if you were not one of the roughly half-million smart people crammed into Dixon Place last night, for Indigo was a one-night-only affair. Unfair.

Can we meet up again, some time-traveling time, with handsome Bell (Ashley Brockington) and honey-sweet LizaSue (Karma Mayet Johnson), two brave, uppity women in love taking the Underground Railroad to freedom? I want to go there again and take you, too, to experience this very different slave story. If the Dixon Place sound sometimes muffled details of speech and singing, enough emotion and narrative were conveyed by carved, gestural movement and bluesy sensuality.

Visit This Is Karma, and keep watch for the possible, desirable reappearance of LizaSue and Bell.

Frances Alenikoff memorial announced

A memorial will celebrate the life and legacy of Frances Alenikoff, hosted by Alenikoff's family.

All are invited to toast Frances and share their memories with her fellow artists, friends, and loved ones.
Eden's Expressway
537 Broadway, 4th Floor
Sunday, September 30
6:30pm
Featuring words from Francesca Rheannon and from Movement Research, and a video presentation by Ray Grist.  Frances's art and writing will be on display. All with memories and stories of Frances are invited to share them.

Please feel free to bring a contribution of light fare or drink, in Frances's true spirit of community.

Monday, September 17, 2012

US conservatives object to cultural tourists dancing in Cuba

Licensing Rules Slow Tours to Cuba
by Damien Cave, The New York Times, September 11, 2012

Body and Soul: Listen.: Edisa Weeks

Edisa Weeks (photo by George Larkin)
Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen to director/choreographer/educator Edisa Weeks (DELIRIOUS Dances) talk about the role of storytelling and justice in her work and the inspiration of the political insights of Thomas Paine.

Edisa Weeks premieres To Begin the World Over Again at the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Sept 27-29 at 8pm; Oct 4-6 at 8pm.

Learn more at:

DELIRIOUS Dances
Numinous Music
Irondale Center

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) 

Friday, September 14, 2012

Sharing the process: Tere O'Connor and "BLEED"

Get inside the process of making dance with BLEED: A Process Blog from award-winning choreographer Tere O'Connor and writer/performance scholar Jenn Joy.
....BLEED, trespasses between dance and dialogue, process and idea and includes interviews between Tere and Jenn, “interrogations” or discussions at open rehearsals, video and text documentation. In addition, Tere provides ongoing reports from the studio in the PROCESS NOTES section. We invite you to read, to watch, to ask questions of our attempt to more transparently reveal the systems, values and thinking surrounding the making of these dances. 
Visit BLEED here.

Mac Low's collection

Highly, highly recommended: Spend your weekend with Clarinda Mac Low and a whole bunch of friends at Danspace Project's PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now. Mac Low presents 40 Dancers do 40 Dances for the Dancers, based on a text by her dad, the poet Jackson Mac Low, with dancemaking responsibilities parceled out to a variety of "downtown dance" notables. She calls it "a love letter to my dance community, and a recreation of a child's eye view of the 1970s New York 'avant garde' arts world."

In this nomadic (wear comfy shoes), episodic experience, you'll marvel at bodies elastic, unpredictable, intoxicated by space (that last, particularly inspired by dancer Abigail Levine, but it could be any and all of them). You might wonder aloud with the poet, like delicately beautiful Simone Forti, "What's the point of all this art?" Or, with the alternately thoughtful and unruly David Thomson, ponder the consequences of molecular exchange between dancers. Less a formal concert than a lively village, 40 Dancers is family-friendly--in fact, family-inclusive--and has a way of turning even seniors into tiny kids. So go--tonight or tomorrow at 8pm--and have fun.

Info and tickets

Danspace Project
131 East 10th Street (corner of Second Avenue), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Catherine Peila on why DNA--and your support--matters [AUDIO]

Catherine Peila, Executive and Artistic Director of Dance New Amsterdam, discusses the current challenge for this educational and presenting organization and the action that community supporters must take to help ensure its survival and future.

Listen here. [7:26:00]

For complete background information, see my previous post on DNA's Five Year Recovery Plan.

Dance is essential. So is dance film.

Be sure to visit Essential Dance Film every Tuesday for the weekly release of new creative short features and documentaries from around the world, such as director Kate Duhamel's Kaleidoscope, coming soon.
Kaleidoscope features tap-dancer Jason Samuels Smith dancing to Paolo Nutini’s “New Shoes.” The dance film displays tap at its coolest, pairing the highly stylized and physical dance form with the suavity of Smith’s dancing.
Up now: Jody Oberfelder's popular Come Sit Stay

Essential Dance Film is available at Hulu and TenduTV’s YouTube channel.

Body and Soul: Listen.: Saifan Shmerer

Saifan Shmerer
Click here to subscribe to Body and Soul podcast in iTunes and listen as Saifan Shmerer relates how being present with impermanence launched a dreamlike journey of discovery for a choreographer at the start of her career. 

saifan shmerer | SASSON premieres Nothing Lasts Forever, Nothing is Lost Forever at The End (18 Kent Street, Brooklyn: map/directions). Thursday-Saturday, September 27-29. Details and tickets can be found at www.dontyousass.me.

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)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Skin in the game: Nina, Nora, Miriam

Stir Builds Over Actress to Portray Nina Simone
by Tanzina Vega, The New York Times, September 12, 2012

Should Zoe Saldana play Nina Simone? No. And that's neither a knock on the Dominican-Puerto Rican Saldana for not being African-American nor an assessment of her acting abilities. Simone's dark, dark skin and broad features--clearly not acceptable to Hollywood's image-makers and marketers even today--were essential to her experience in the world as a Black woman and to her politics. Casting a light-skinned actress with conventionally pretty features to portray Nina Simone would be as absurd as trying to turn a gay business associate into a heterosexual lover. Oh, wait....

Dance artist Nora Chipaumire, as I'm sure you've been hearing and reading about everywhere, has had another giant of Black music and activism much on her mind--the late Miriam Makeba. But don't expect Pata Pata, or anything remotely like it, from Miriam, Chipaumire's raw and provocative "solo for two people," set to music composed by Omar Sosa.

Performed at BAM's new 250-seat Fishman Space with Okwui Okpokwasili, this demanding, hour-long ritual digs beneath the surface of Black Woman as Icon (throwing in, less obviously, the Virgin Mary) to the archetypal id of imagination or, perhaps, reality. The intimate performance area remains quite dark almost throughout this experience, greatly magnifying the effect of sound (dripping water; heavy footfalls; a single voice ringing out or a welter of voices overlapping; orgasmic breaths, shrieks and moans) and, whenever it comes, the selective touch of light.

I was stunned to realize that Okpokwasili actually towers over Chipaumire--a majestic performer who looms larger in one's imagination than, perhaps, in reality. By the time Miriam concludes, in a blaze of light, you will have visited the place of the ancestral and archetypical intensities--desire, fear, shame, jealousy, anger. In other words, it is a hair-raising journey through the usually hidden end of the spectrum.

At the end, I stood to leave, struggling to adjust my eyes in a sudden shock of light. Meanwhile, two white women seated to my left immediately took up their pre-show chat precisely where they had left off, as if nothing at all had occurred in the interval. Unbelievable.

Directed by Eric Ting with lighting by Olivier Clausse, scenic design by Olivier Clausse/Hecho Mano, sound by Lucas Indelicato and costumes by Naoko Nagata

Nora Chipaumire's Miriam continues at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) through Saturday with performances at 7:30pm. Tonight's show will be followed by an artist's talk moderated by Simon Dove.

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space)
Brooklyn Academy of Music
321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn
(around the corner from BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building: map/directions)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Jake Eberts, Movie Producer, 71

Jake Eberts, Movie Producer, Dies at 71
by William Yardley, The New York Times, September 12, 2012

Rally around Dance New Amsterdam


Click here to support Dance New Amsterdam:

DANCE NEW AMSTERDAM ANNOUNCES
FIVE YEAR RECOVERY PLAN

Current Situation Still Challenging
Immediate Needs Totaling Nearly $150,000

NEW YORK, September 12, 2012 – On the heels of winning a 3-year battle to renegotiate new lease terms which substantially reduce its monthly rent obligations, Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), NYC’s foremost progressive dance education and performance center, releases the outline of its 5-year Recovery Plan. The announcement coincides with the opening of its 2012-2013 DNA PRESENTS Season and the introduction of strengthened educational offerings. Initiated by Executive and Artistic Director Catherine A. Peila, the plan is already actively being implemented and outlines key initiatives the organization is taking to achieve financial stability within three years and create income surplus within five years. Shaped by community concerns for public access and stability for artists’ careers, the plan incorporates cultural entrepreneurism and the economics of culture connected to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan/Tribeca. By serving more than 35,000 individuals yearly and providing over 650 arts-related jobs, DNA bolsters local businesses and greatly adds to the dynamic downtown cultural scene.

Since 2011, Michael M. Kaiser of the Kennedy Center’s DeVos Institute/Bloomberg Philanthropies has been working with the DNA team to offer greater insight into a successful turn around. Development of the plan included ongoing input from NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, a broad spectrum of key business representatives and cultural advocate Paul Nagle. State Senator Daniel Squadron, aligned with state and local elected officials and strategic cross-sector advisors, was also included in the conversation.

"DNA has been an integral part of Lower Manhattan's recovery, and critical to our neighborhood's emergence as one of New York's burgeoning cultural centers. In June, we reached an agreement to ensure that DNA remains in its home in ourLower Manhattan community. And now, DNA deserves another round of applause for continuing to work to forge a strong, viable, and dynamic path forward withtoday's strategic plan," said Senator Daniel Squadron. "I'm proud to stand with DNA, and the many community-based cultural organizations that make New York so great. Thank you to DNA for your invaluable work, and to all of our partners who helped make this strategic plan a reality."

The plan identifies four major strategic objectives:

1. Lower monthly lease costs and negotiate a settlement on arrears (achieved)
Peila announced on June 1, 2012 that new lease terms lowered DNA’s rent by an average of $30,000 per month through 2020. Additionally, the renegotiation resulted in the forgiveness of rent arrears debt.

2. Practice effective business operations

Under Peila’s direction, DNA has responsibly reduced general operating and programming expenses from $3.6 million to $2.3 million annually. The organization has implemented programmatic and curatorial changes and strengthened educational offerings. These restructured production and education programs expand artist services and include fitness, teen and children’s programming. DNA has also implemented energy efficiency measures and initiated restructuring plans to bring on new upper management hires with diverse cross-sector skill sets. The plan also puts keen emphasis on increasing thenumber of board embers by two to three times.

3. Build capacity through key partnerships to increase earned revenue and contributed income

Since 2008 DNA has built various strategic partnerships to generate additional streams of revenue and provide artists with increased access to services. Beyond these partnerships (Lower Manhattan Arts League, Tribeca Performing Arts Center/BMCC, the New Museum, and the National Museum the American Indian), DNA is working with elected officials, Community Board 1, community members, peer organizations, local businesses and artists from all five boroughs to establish additional opportunities for growth and community engagement. These local, national and international partnerships will provide an actively nurturing platform for dance, from DNA’s signature Simonson Technique© to ballet, contemporary and experimental dance. DNA artists and students are seen in performance spaces such as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Joyce Theater, La MaMa, MoMA and Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Increased revenues will be used to further incubate existing and future generations of live performance artists.

4. Restructure the existing debt burden to create manageable payment schedules

DNA’s success in lowering the monthly facility lease payments means it is now in a position to move forward on restructuring its debt through a mixed model of refinancing, forgiveness of contributed investments and increased revenues. Under Peila’s leadership the organization has already cut deficits by $1.2 million and increased individual and philanthropic giving by 45% and earned income by 25%.

CALL TO ACTION:

The plan’s four objectives are focused on stabilizing DNA’s finances and operations. DNA projects $2.1 million for 2013 programming and facilities operations. The loss of a large rental client has recently created an unexpected income gap for the organization. An immediate call to the community to meet DNA’s first target goal of $150,000 by September 15, with the larger goal set at $450,000by the end of the current fiscal year (June 2013) is necessary to keep programs running and meet strategic milestones. A multi-year target of an additional one million for the next three years and a benchmark constant income goal of $3.5 million during years four and five are also part of the plan to create a surplus.

“I’m incredibly proud of the progress DNA has made over the past four years; especially when the future looked dismal. Already, DNA has achieved more than expected without sacrificing our mission,” said Executive and Artistic Director Peila.  “Our success thus far is due to the stability of our creative and educational programming and the energy and commitment of DNA’s staff, students, artists, funders, audiences and partnering organizations. However, even after all this hard work the recent unexpected income gap could result in Lower Manhattan losing one of its few ‘public access’ cultural centers and incubator art spaces. We moved to Lower Manhattan to be a part of its revitalization. We call upon the philanthropic community and government representatives to join the community and ensure DNA meets our immediate goal - and to further support the long-term solutions in this strategic plan, propelling DNA to a place of sound fiscal health thus creating a stable environment for artist works and the birth of new ideas. ”

DNA’s Strategic Plan FY2013-2018, represents the organization’s commitment to offering the highest caliber of dance programming, continuing DNA’s 28-year tradition of supporting the life, career and longevity of dance artists. Upon accepting the leadership position in 2008, Peila began turnaround initiatives advised by Arts ActionResearch and supported by funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In 2010, as part of a Bloomberg Philanthropies grant, DNA attended the DeVos Institute of Arts Management Capacity Building Arts Advancement Initiate conferences. In 2011 Ms. Peila initiated further development of the 5-year plan working closely with Kaiser, local elected officials, DNA partners, while reaching out to funders and the community. The organization is not only developing a strong strategy to become financially stable but anchoring a downtown cultural campus that encouragesentrepreneurial spirit, provides a space for arts incubation and fosters collaboration.

###

About Dance New Amsterdam

Founded in 1984, DNA provides a community hub for the highest quality dance training, choreographic exploration and innovative performance, developing new audiences and bridging communities. It provides valuable opportunities for the aspiring, emerging and established artist, including daily classes, certification courses, commissions and artistic residencies, along with studio and administrative office subsidies. DNA encourages professionalism, entrepreneurial cross-disciplinary initiatives, community engagement and diverse artistic expression. It was the first nonprofit arts organization to move to Lower Manhattan after 9/11, serving as a renewing force in NYC's cultural landscape. To learn more about DNA and supporting its programs through charitable donations, visit www.dnadance.org

DNA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and its 2012-2013 programming is made possible through the generosity of its supporters. As of July 2012, public funding provided by: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Private funding provided by: Bloomberg Philanthropies, with support from the Kennedy Center/DeVos Institute; The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Jerome Robbins Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; and FJC, a Foundation of Philanthropic Funds. In-kind support from: Arts & Business Council, Fox Rothschild LLP, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and Materials for the Arts. Additional support provided by our Advisors, Programming Partners, Neighborhood Partners, International Partners, and DNA’s community of individual donors. Dance New Amsterdam is part of The Lower Manhattan Arts League and its downtown festivals, made possible by generous support from The New York Community Trust – LuEsther T. Mertz Advised Fund. For a full list of DNA’s partnerships, visit www.dnadance.org.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Photos from CollectiveDWNM's Open House at Gibney

Two CollectiveDWNM interns--Dale Amanda O'Reilly and Hayley Muth--from our Leadership Circle. Photo (c)2012, Donna Mason
What a pleasure to welcome lots of new and old friends to the Open House for Collective for Dance Writing and New Media at the Gibney Dance Center last evening! We thank everyone who came, especially our new and prospective members. Big thanks, also, to our great interns and volunteers on the scene, to our fantastic guests--Shay Wafer, Executive Director of 651 Arts, and dance artists Marjani Forté and Kyle Abraham--and to the ever-generous Gina Gibney and her staff.

Enjoy this gallery of photos from the event and, if you didn't make it last night, don't worry: We're working on more get-togethers for sharing--artists-to-writers, artists-to-audience, and dance world-to-outside world. We'll announce exciting news in the coming weeks. Be sure to join us next time!
Kyle Abraham with dance artist Walter Rutledge. Photo (c)2012, Donna Mason

Marjani Forté. Photo (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
New York Live Arts' Ben Kimitch greets Shay Wafer. Photo (c)2012, Donna Mason
Shay Wafer in conversation with Kyle Abraham. Photo (c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Music to their ears: Its value in early education

Brain Waves Stay Tuned to Early Lessons
by Perri Klass, M.D., The New York Times, September 10, 2012

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Study of fiscally sponsored NYC dancemakers announced [AUDIO]

State of NYC Dance: Discovering Fiscally Sponsored NYC Dancemakers

presented by Dance/NYC

September 7, 2012
at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center

We are in discovery mode, and this is a call to action."
--Lane Harwell, Executive Director, Dance/NYC
 Do you know it's Friday, and we're all here talking about research?"
--Anne Coates, VP, Arts and Cultural Development, Municipal Arts Society

As dance journalist Pia Catton noted in her recent article, "More Dance Companies Scrapping the Old Funding Model" (Wall Street Journal), independent artists without nonprofit status are increasingly turning to fiscal sponsors as a sustainable means of managing the legal and technical requirements for fundraising and accounting. The following audio provides data and follow-up discussion around Dance/NYC's study conducted in partnership with five New York City fiscal sponsors serving movement-based art:

Foundation for Independent Artists 
Fractured Atlas
New  York Foundation for the Arts 
New York Live Arts 
The Field

This community forum was presented at the 92nd Street Y's Buttenweiser Hall. The recording includes presentations and remarks by, among others, John-Mario Sevilla (92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center), Lane Harwell (Dance/NYC), Ian David Moss (Fractured Atlas), Anne Coates (Municipal Arts Society), Jennifer Wright Cook (The Field), Alexander Thompson (New York Live Arts), Eleanor Whitney (New York Foundation for the Arts), Mara Greenberg (Pentacle), Dianne Debicella (Fractured Atlas) and Victoria Smith (Dance/USA).

Click here to download audio file [1:32:43]

Friday, September 7, 2012

Pyle and Skloot premiere "Covers" at The Bushwick Starr

Covers--presented by dancer-choreographers Katy Pyle and Jules Skloot at that funky little Bushwick Starr performance space--is totally worth your time this weekend.
Performing beneath quilts, Katy Pyle and Jules Skloot shape-shift through an amorphous landscape of literal and metaphorical covers, inhabiting and discarding roles through cover songs, dance styles, and contemporary performance tropes.
Text by Francis Weiss Rabkin.  Music contributions from Erica Livingston, Margot Bassett, and Katie Workum
That does not mention Carrie Wood's enchanting lighting design (evoking candlelight, a campfire, daybreak) and how an interweaving of guileless entertainment and emotional transparency--plus some beloved pop music--makes this hour-long duet poignant and irresistible.

See it tonight, Saturday night or Sunday at 8pm. Get tickets here.

The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

And if you haven't yet heard Pyle's beautiful recording for Listen., here's the link to my blog post for it (click).

My "Greenroom" sessions at Gibney Dance Center

Self-portrait (c)2009, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

In my second series of informal, 30-minute "Greenroom" consultations at Gibney Dance Center (Pitch Your Show to A Dance Writer: Does Your Promotion Work?), I met and worked with everyone from a mature choreographer who said that her projects are often marginalized because critics and presenters see her age before they recognize her innovation to an accomplished performer and producer deeply connected to a network of traditional and contemporary dance troupes from Africa. Not everyone had actual dance shows to pitch to critics; specific projects and needs varied widely.

As with my first series of sessions back in August, I drew upon not only my experience as a dance writer but also my almost equally long experience in intuitive counseling. I tapped into my listening skills and enjoyed the process of helping people to focus, stand up for themselves and their values, and effectively communicate with the world of media, presenters and the public. We discussed new strategies and new media tools as well as the central, perennial importance of putting yourself in the place of the recipients of your message: What do they most need to read, hear, see?

I look forward to future opportunities to offer this service.

After both of these three-hour events, the Gibney folks asked for an impromptu reflection on these sessions for a brief video, and I have just received the link to the August clip on Vimeo. I'll post the link to yesterday's video--which I much prefer to this one!--as soon as I get it from the GDC.

To find out more about Gibney Dance Center's Guess Who's in the Greenroom program or any of GDC's programs and events, click here.

Rambling with Elastic City

‘Island Night,’ a Walk Across Fire Island
by Jennifer Schuessler, The New York, September 6, 2012

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Celebrate women at WORD*ROCK*&SWORD

Toshi Reagon presents

Various New York City venues

September, 16-23

See full schedule below or check out Facebook.
Laura Flanders

September 16, 4pm: Why We Care! Opening Service: Laura Flanders, Sara Zaidi, Jacqueline Woodson, J. Bob Alotta

The Brecht Forum
451 West Street (between Banks and Bethune), Manhattan
FREE and open to the public

September 17, 8pm: My Name is My Own II: An Evening of Words by Formerly Incarcerated Women

Curated by: The Correctional Association of New York

Casa Frela Gallery
47 West 119 Street, Harlem
FREE and open to the public

September 20, 6pm: Rituals of Sound and Body led by Ola Ronke of So Hum Studios and vocalist/composer Imani Uzuri

Sacred Studio (http://www.sacredbrooklyn.com)

$10-$30 sliding scale. 30 spaces available (RSVP suggested). 5 scholarships available. yoga mats will be provided. please wear comfortable clothes, bring a journal and an open heart.

Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya

September 21, 7pm: Free screening of A Drop Of Life and discussion with filmmaker Shalini Kantayya

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
1360 Fulton Street, Brooklyn

RSVP http://www.restorationplaza.org/calendar/adropoflife

At last year's festival (l-r): Imani Uzuri, Alsarah, Sun Singleton, Invincible and Joan As Police Woman (Photo by Desdemona Burgin)

September 22, 6pm: Doors open for Word*Rock*& Sword: A Musical Celebration of Womens Lives.

Toshi Reagon, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joan As Police Woman, Lizz Wright, Slanty Eyed Mama, Morley, Dj Rimarkable, Alsarah, Imani Uzuri, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Sun Singleton, Allison Miller, Ganessa James, Alex Nolan, Liza Jessie Peterson, Arooj Aftab, Staceyann Chin, Christelle Durandy, Lenelle Moise, BETTY, Gwen Snyder Siegal, Climbing PoeTree

September 23, 6pm: Closing Service Kundalini Foods! To Heal/Cleanse Energize your Chakras With Chef/Healer Stefanie Kelly

Pillow Cafe
505 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn
718-246-2711

Get complete information here.

Copyright notice

Copyright © 2007-2023 Eva Yaa Asantewaa
All Rights Reserved

Popular Posts

Labels