Warren Adams: from apartheid to Home4Dance

The Die-Hard Dancer (Who Keeps Meryl Streep On Her Toes)

nojoeschmo, July 27, 2011

Mark Rylance gives more than credit due

Mark Rylance Gives Away His Tony Award for 'Jerusalem'

by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, July 29, 2011

A "buffalo soldier" remembered

My Very Own Captain America
by Charles M. Blow, The New York Times, July 29, 2011

Merce? There's an app for that!

Now, from 2wice Arts Foundation

Merce Cunningham Event for iPad

Between 2001 and 2007 Merce Cunningham choreographed a series of performances for the visual and performing arts journal 2wice. Working with photographers Katherine Wolkoff, Christian Witkin, and Joachim Ladefoged, creative director Abbott Miller created a series of publications that fuse choreography, photography and design. This series is here adapted to the unique context of a digital tablet, and enhanced with three newly-created videos featuring Cunningham dancers Jonah Bokaer and Holley Farmer. The project honors Cunningham’s lifelong devotion to new ways of seeing dance, and is supported by the 2wice Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the visual and performing arts.

Want it? Get it here.

Feminist activism and the academy

Conference: Activism and the Academy: Celebrating 40 Years of Feminist Scholarship and Action

September 23-24

Registration in Barnard Hall lobby

Barnard College
Broadway at 116th Street, Manhattan

Forty years ago, the Barnard Center for Research on Women began its mission of using research and knowledge to advance feminist scholarship and long-term partnerships with activist groups. Inspired by the new women’s movement, BCRW became part of an historic moment that witnessed the proliferation of feminist activism, the establishment of women’s studies programs and women’s centers, and the founding of women’s bookstores and other cultural projects. This fall, we bring together our past, present and future collaborators as well as kindred institutions, scholars and activists engaged in social justice feminism to consider what kinds of collaborative projects are possible when scholarship and activism are joined.

The anniversary conference will also include a special reception with a performance by Suzanne Vega ’81 and remarks from Janet Axelrod ’73, as well as keynote lectures by Sonia Alvarez and Mamphela Ramphele.

For a list of speakers and all program information, click here.

For directions to Barnard College, click here.

What Larsson knew

Stieg Larsson and the Scandinavian Right

by Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, July 26, 2011

Also see:
Palestine's Norwegians
by Vijay Prashad, Counterpunch, July 25, 2011

Voice of mischief and genius

Amy Winehouse, Bad Girl With a Touch of Genius
by Guy Trebay, The New York Times, July 27, 2011

OK Go + Pilobolus + Google!

OK Go play with Chrome

In All is Not Lost — an HTML5 music collaboration between the band OK Go, the dance troupe and choreographers Pilobolus, and Google—you can embed your message in a music video and have the band dance it out. The band and Pilobolus dancers are filmed through a clear floor, making increasingly complex shapes and eventually words—and messages you can write yourself.

Read all about it here and play with the All Is Not Lost video messenger here.

New: Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive!

Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive is an incredibly fun and educational resource. Check it out and enjoy!

Inside this online exhibit view brief performance excerpts spanning from 1930s dance pioneers to today's most exciting artists. All recorded at Jacob's Pillow, this collection is ever-growing with many paths to explore, meaningful connections to discover, and surprises to share. Welcome.

Right on! Be free...and dance!

Never forgo a dance class because of its price. Whether dance is your passion or something you always wanted to try, a space exists where any person on any level can bust out some polished moves, learn for the first time, or improve in whatever style someone will teach. Come dance with us and donate what you can. Just bring an open heart. It's all you need.

For more information, check out Liberated Movement™ | Donation-Based Dance Classes in New York City.

at Battery Dance Studios
380 Broadway, 5th Floor, Manhattan
NE corner of Broadway and White Street, Tribeca (map)

Look for the door to the left of the Blues clothing store on street level. Ring buzzer #5.

The story of Westbeth

Manhattan Film Festival presents

Westbeth--Home of the Arts (2011, 69 minutes)

Sunday, July 31 at Noon

...383 studio apartments in one complex of buildings. A groundbreaking utopian vision–offering space for art and artists’ families at affordable rents in New York City, it has been home to Diane Arbus, Merce Cunningham, Joseph Chaikin, Nam June Paik, John Scofield, Robert de Niro Sr, Vin Diesel, Gil Evans, Nadine Gordimer and 1000’s of artists for the past 40 years.

Symphony Space
Broadway at 95th Street, Manhattan
(map and directions) 

Tickets

Shay Wafer to lead 651 Arts

651 ARTS has announced the appointment of Shay Wafer as its new Executive Director. Ms. Wafer will be the fourth woman to lead 651 ARTS, now entering its 23rd year, and succeeds Georgiana Pickett who steps down in mid-August to become Executive Director of the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

Here is an excerpt from today's announcement:

Wafer’s appointment comes at a critical time for 651, as the organization is launching a planning and fundraising effort to relocate to a new home outside of the BAM Harvey Theater. While undertaking this next step in the organization’s history, 651 will continue to present live performing arts events born of the African Diaspora in venues in Ft. Greene and Downtown Brooklyn along with conducting education, international exchange and artist development programs focused on artists of African descent.

Ms. Wafer 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 Ms. Wafer 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, Wafer 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 was a founding partner of Crossroads Arts Academy and Theatre in L.A. and was a 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). Ms. Wafer is a graduate of Howard University and Yale School of Drama.

It is the mission of 651 ARTS to deepen awareness of and appreciation for contemporary performing arts and culture of the African Diaspora, and to provide professional and creative opportunities for performing artists of African descent.

For more information about 651 Arts and its programs, click here.

Amy Winehouse, 27

Amy Winehouse, British Soul Singer, Dies at 27
by Ben Sisario, The New York Times, July 23, 2011

An Appraisal: For Winehouse, Life Was Messier Than Music
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, July 23, 2011

ICP honors photojournalist Ruth Gruber

Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist | International Center of Photography

Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist celebrates the life, vision, and heroic tenacity of one of the 20th century's great humanitarians and photojournalists. Born in 1911 to Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, Gruber was the youngest PhD in the world when she became the first journalist to travel to the Soviet Arctic and Siberian Gulag, in 1935. (Read more here.)

This show ends August 28, and it is so worth seeing. And please don't miss the accompanying (and much too brief) video interview with Gruber. I could have listened to her forever!

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas (between 43rd and 44th Streets), Manhattan
(hours, admission, map and directions)

For my beloved fellow New Yorkers...

...getting married tomorrow: a classic love song for you!

You're just too much

and just too very very

to ever be in Webster's Dictionary.

And so I'm borrowing

a love song from the birds

to tell you that you're marvelous,

too marvelous for words!
(Johnny Mercer)

Have a beautiful day, everyone! Congratulations and best wishes!

Love,
Eva

Discover the Von Howard Project

Yes, the best plan for this city weekend is to stay indoors with A/C and the--for now, at least--affordable charms of Netflix. But if you do want to venture out, you might enjoy discovering the young dancers of Von Howard Project, who hail from all over the US plus Kingston, Jamaica. Under the direction of master dancer Christian von Howard, VHP proves to be a disciplined team capable of plasticity, apt timing and finely-calibrated expression in two demanding new works by Susan Douglas Roberts (breath to bone) and von Howard (the New York premiere, Triptych). Triptych--an extended meditation on romance delivered in three sections with a 10-minute intermission--seems a little catch-all, something for everyone, from serene abstraction to sheer mainstream entertainment. But it does offer a sense of this company's range and hints of considerable potential. It also includes a memorable star turn for von Howard himself, a strong man as surefooted as a mountain goat, decked out in a bridal gown and carrying a bouquet of calla lilies. Michael Jarett handsomely supports the evening with lighting keyed to the poetic intent of both works.

Performances by von Howard, Elizabeth Alvarez, Laura Barbee, Rachel Brady, Beth Brandt, Bryanna Brown, Matthew Cumbie, Whitney Hubbard, Aaron Burr Johnson, Christina Carlotti Kolb, Allison Meyer, Nikolai McKenzie, Kelly Oakes, Kim Palmer, Allison Ploor, Kyoko Ruch, Courtney Sauls, Ellenore Scott, Stacie Shivers, Jerome L. Stigler and Rohnie D. Williams

Von Howard Project continues tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30pm with a final performance on Sunday, July 24 at 2pm.

Click here for tickets, or call 212-924-0077.

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan,
(directions)

Novelist Sapphire at Brooklyn Public Library

Brooklyn Public Library welcomes Sapphire, author of Push--the basis for the award-winning movie Precious--and her latest novel, The Kid, which explores the life of Abdul Jones, the son of Precious.

Talk/book signing.  Free. Seating is first come, first served.

Information 

Monday, August 15, 6:30 PM

Central Library, Dweck Center
 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
(map)

Performa 11 plans announced

...more than 100 performances, films, radio plays, concerts, and events by some of the world's most exciting contemporary artists, including 12 Performa Commissions, 6 Performa Premieres, and a host of new Performa Projects by established and up-and-coming artists at locations throughout the city.

November 1-21, New York City

Click here to connect with all things Performa!
Performa 11 press release

Stacy Grossfield: In your dreams

As the red summer sun sets over Sunset Park, we're ushered up the stairs into 283 47th Street and funneled into a warm, narrow room that smells, faintly, of paint. I gingerly tuck my feet, backpack and tote bag out of the way of a dancer already seated just about an inch away from my reserved folding chair, nearly blocking me from taking it. Dressed in a shiny black wig and a simple black dress with a plunging back, she bends low over a piece of drawing paper, finishing an ink sketch.

Another dancer clings to the left wall like a barnacle. She's covered, head to fingers and toes, in skintight, royal-blue fabric and also wears a lush, silky wig of a sea-green color I might associate with mermaids. Long bangs dip below eyes that are probably covered in fabric; I'll never see them. There's an opening for her mouth but, as far as I can tell, not for her nose.

When "Black Wig" rises, makes her way to the door of the room and opens the door, we can see someone crouched in the hallway. "Black Wig" steps out and closes the door behind her, leaving the sightless, languid "Sea Creature"--these are my nicknames for them, for convenience sake--to sprawl, to rut, to curl up like a fetus or sleepily slide her limbs across the wall or floor, to pulsate and writhe to electronic music that sounds as if its singer were being held under water. Later, another "Sea Creature" will emerge, as the slithers along the wall, a kind of Changing of the Guards.

The door opens. A nearly-nude man in an ironically translucent blindfold moves to a far corner of the room, breathing with audible exaggeration and dancing with restless, hyper-dramatized elegance and force as if compelled to dance ballet in a sci-fi movie scene where the walls are closing in. Meanwhile, "Black Wig" sits at a mirror in another corner, fixing her makeup. She doffs her wig and changes her clothing to loose, pink-and-white sleepwear.

At some point, a tall man in a bear costume ambles past the open door--an apparition! Did we really see that? Yes, because he reappears with a woman in a floral summer dress, stopping to chat with her. Later, we see her alone, silently crying. At other moments, the two flit and dart about. Then we see them confront each other and argue, out of earshot, in the brightly lit hallway. They never enter the room but exert a strong magnetic pull on Stacy Grossfield's Sugar doesn't live here, roughly 45 surrealistic minutes of moving collage that makes the most of restrictive space, framing (that doorway) and barebones or mundane sources of lighting. The other dancers, close to us, are strange, for sure, but not nearly strange enough. What you want to know is what's going on with the Woman and the Bear.

Performances by Grossfield, Laura Grant, Joey Kipp, Heather Olson Trovato, Bennett Harrell and Tracy Jennissen. Music design by Tei Blow. Sculpture by Eric Fertman. 

Sugar doesn't live here continues, Wednesday-Friday at 8pm through July 29 with a final performance at 3pm on Saturday, July 30. Ticketing information by email here or online here.

at The Studio
283 47th Street, Brooklyn
(Take the R to 45th Street, then cross under the BQE. Or take the N or D to 36th Street, then R to 45th Street. Cross under the BQE.)

Celebrating marriage equality

Come celebrate Marriage Equality 

with great music from

Isle of Klezbos and Nedra Johnson

at 92YTribeca

Tuesday, July 26 (8pm)

Glitter valentine, East Village (c)2011, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

  

Isle of Klezbos, the soulful, fun-loving powerhouse klezmer sextet makes its 92YTribeca debut to help celebrate marriage equality (the city starts giving out licenses to ALL starting Jul 24, people). This band approaches tradition with irreverence as well as respect. Based in New York City, they have toured from Vienna to Vancouver with a repertoire that ranges from rambunctious to entrancing: neo-traditional folk dance, mystical melodies, Yiddish swing, retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking songs, re-grooved standards and genre-defying originals.

Nedra Johnson is a singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist born and living in New York City. Her unique style of guitar playing is unmistakably informed by her many years as a professional bassist, and keeps her live solo acoustic performances on more of an R&B tip than what one might expect of a "girl with a guitar." Johnson plays with a joyful mix of funk, rock and gospel.

Complete information and ticketing 

92YTribeca
200 Hudson Street (south of Canal Street)
(map and directions)

St. Ann's Warehouse confirms move

Brooklyn Theater Group St. Ann's Warehouse Says It's Leaving Dumbo
by Marlon Bishop, WNYC Culture, July 20, 2011

Let's hear it for the Bessies!

Last year, our awards ceremony sold out, and that's a final answer to whether the community wanted these awards to come back. They did. They have. And we're here!

--Lucy Sexton

I'm psyched about the revitalized New York Dance and Performance Awards, now unmistakably back by popular demand and the enormous effort of dedicated organizations and individuals. The "Bessies"--produced by Lucy Sexton and overseen by a steering committee chaired by Dance/NYC's Lane Harwell--deserve our full support as they unfold a new era of inclusiveness and diversity. And that inclusiveness and renewed energy certainly was vividly heralded by hip hop queen Rockafella and her multicultural crew, toasting The Bessies's July 18 press conference with a blistering opening dance act.

Some news from The Bessies:

• Downtown is heading uptown. Way uptown. The 2011 Awards Ceremony will be held at the landmark, world-beloved Apollo Theater, thanks to a new, ongoing partnership announced by the Apollo's Executive Producer, Mikki Shepard. (Ms. Shepard is also chair of the Board of Directors of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, a major supporter of The Bessies, and she was a co-founder of 651 Arts.) Put Monday, October 24, 8pm, on your calendar. See you uptown!

• The new Juried Bessie Award, given to a choreographer selected by a jury of top-flight peers, will include touring opportunities for "the most exciting, most interesting work presented in New York during that year," as explained by steering committee member Reggie Wilson. The Bessies's first partner in this initiative will be Nazareth College Arts Center Dance Festival (Rochester, NY). Choreographers Elizabeth Streb, Ralph Lemon and David Gordon will serve as its first team of jurors.

• For the first time, The Bessies Selection Committee has announced finalists under consideration for nine newly-reconfigured awards (selected by a variety of subcommittees):

Outstanding Production (of a work performed in a larger capacity venue of more than 400 seats):

Thirteen Diversions--Christopher Wheeldon--American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House

Quartet--Merce Cunningham--Merce Cunningham Dance Company, The Joyce Theater

The Bright Stream--Alexei Ratmansky--American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House

Outstanding Production (of a work that stretches the boundaries of a traditional or culturally specific form):

Remembering Jimmy and Three to One--Michelle Dorrance, Danspace Project

Los Muñequitos de Matanzas with Max Pollak and Barbaro Ramos, Symphony Space

Caribbean Soul Dancers--Ismael Otero, Salsa Congress, Hilton Hotel

Outstanding Production (of a work performed in a smaller capacity venue of less than 400 seats):

Them--Ishmael Houston-Jones, Performance Space 122

Etudes for an Astronaut--Lance Gries, La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Nameless Forest--Dean Moss in collaboration with Sungmyung Chun, The Kitchen

Outstanding Production (of a work not technically considered dance but happening in and influencing the dance community):

Selective Memory--Brian Rogers and Madeline Best, The Chocolate Factory

Lili Handel--Ivo Dimchev, La MaMa

Montgomery Park, or Opulence--Karinne Keithley, Incubator Arts Project

Outstanding Visual Design:

Walter Dundervill for Aesthetic Destiny 1: Candy Mountain (choreographed by Dundervill, performed at Dance Theater Workshop)

Patricia Forelle for La Folia (1700/2011) (choreographed by Raoul Auger/Lynn Parkerson as part of From Baroque to Hip Hop performed at the Performance Space at the Schermerhorn)

Bjorn Amelan, Robert Wierzel, and Janet Wong for Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray (choreographed by Bill T. Jones, performed at the Rose Theater)

Outstanding Sound Design or Composition:

Stephen Vitiello (in collaboration with Patrick DeWit, drumming segment) for Nameless Forest (choreographed by Dean Moss in collaboration with Sungmyung Chun at The Kitchen)

Jon Moniaci for Electric Midwife (choreographed by Beth Gill, performed at The Chocolate Factory)

Rodrigo Marçal for ID: Entidades (choreographed by Sonia Destri, performed at City Center)

Savion Glover for SoLe Sanctuary (choreographed by Savion Glover, performed at The Joyce)

Outstanding Emerging Choreographer:

Souleymane Badolo

Beth Gill

Bouchra Ouizguen

Justin Peck

Outstanding Individual Performance:

Camille A. Brown in The Evolution of a Secured Feminine (choreographed by Camille A. Brown)

Rebecca Serell Cyr in beginning of something (choreographed by RoseAnne Spradlin)

Caleb Teicher in A Shared Evening (choreographed by Michelle Dorrance and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards)

Marcelo Gomes in Giselle (performed by American Ballet Theatre)

Sustained Achievement in Performance:

Rashaun Mitchell in the work of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company

David Thomson in the work of various choreographers including this season's performance in Muna Tseng's STELLA

Wendy Whelan in the work of the New York City Ballet

To keep up with Bessies news, visit this page and/or connect with the Bessies on Facebook.

Find me...

Me (photo by Me)

...on my Web site

...on InfiniteBody

...on hummingwitch

...on starlight-sensitive

...on Facebook (Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

...on Facebook (Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Journalist)

...on Twitter

...on tumblr (Eva, naturally)

...on Warren Adam's Home4Dance
(A new professional/social site for the dance community. Check it out!)

...on LinkedIn (though not very active there)

...and last, but not least, on Google+. (No link. You'll just have to...find me.)

Yes, I really am all over the place. It's fun, surprisingly easy and, as the whip-smart Sarah A.O. Rosner once said, "We're just wired this way."

Rosner, a choreographer and new media activist, is much younger than I am, but I seem to be wired in a similar way and curious about it all. And, yes, in the CyberAge, it really does make a difference.

I especially love it when someone comes up to me at a dance event and says, "I've never met you, but I feel like I know you!" :-D

See you around town (and the 'Net), folks!

Stanford Makishi takes new role at Asian Cultural Council

Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Executive Director Jennifer P. Goodale announced the appointment of Stanford Makishi as Director of Programs. The newly created position signifies ACC’s ongoing, dynamic response to the changing needs of cultural, educational and artistic exchange between the United States and Asia. Mr. Makishi begins the new position on August 1.

“Ever since it was founded by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1963, ACC has played a crucial and visionary role in promoting major cultural and artistic exchanges between the United States and Asia as well as between the countries of Asia,” said Ms. Goodale in announcing Mr. Makishi’s appointment. “Stanford’s uniquely rich and varied artistic, cultural, and intellectual background will offer a new perspective on our work and facilitate ACC’s ability to meet the needs of contemporary artists at critical stages in their careers and the shifting issues that mark cultural exchange in our rapidly changing world.”

Mr. Makishi’s responsibilities will include leadership of the organization’s grant-making process, as well as exploring and creating new ways to meet the unique needs of each of the creative individuals funded by ACC.

“ACC has been remarkably forward-thinking in its support of important emerging artists, revered masters and scholars from a vast Asia, long before the digital age shrank our world,” said Mr. Makishi. “The organization is now identifying new ways to enrich the lives and careers of creative people, while remaining true to the far-sighted goals set forth by John D. Rockefeller 3rd nearly 50 years ago. I am thrilled and humbled to be able to help make this possible.”

Prior to his present appointment at the ACC, Mr. Makishi was Executive Director of the Baryshnikov Arts Center, where he oversaw all facets of the organization, including fundraising, strategic planning, capital expansion, budget oversight, artistic planning and programming, and general management of staff and facilities. During his tenure, in addition to more than doubling BAC’s annual operating budget, he put in motion a $15 million capital campaign, led the purchase and renovation of BAC’s new Jerome Robbins Theater, greatly expanded the Center’s robust residency program, and was closely involved with the launch of an international festival at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida.

As Director of Creative Services at Carnegie Hall, Makishi oversaw the group that serviced and optimized institutional brand management, publishing operations, Internet activity, fundraising efforts, pedagogy, and communications. Mr. Makishi was a performer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company and became the company’s development director after he retired from dancing. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Makishi, 46, is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was recognized as a Harvard National Scholar and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. He is presently a panelist for the dance program at the New York State Council on the Arts, a board member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, and the Artistic Advisor for the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center.

The Asian Cultural Council awards an average of 100 grants a year for travel and study, totaling approximately $1.5 million annually, with offices and affiliates in Hong Kong, Manila, Taiwan and Tokyo. To date, the ACC has supported nearly 6,000 artists and scholars in cultural exchange programs; among them are Cai Guo-Qiang, Ushio Torikai, Lee Breuer, Yang Meiqi, Meredith Monk, Lin Hwai-min, Robert Wilson, Ming Cho Lee, and Barbara London.

Ortiz: On the (disco) beat

New York City dance journalist and critic Lori Ortiz talks about her first book, a cultural history of disco and its era.

Guillermo Canales and Kendra Jackson (photo by Lori Ortiz)

  Disco Dance

by Lori Ortiz

ABC-Clio/Greenwood, 2011

EYA: Your book--Disco Dance--is part of a series, The American Dance Floor, that includes Country & Western Dance, Latin Dance, Swing Dancing, Folk Dancing, Rock'n' Roll Dances of the 1950s, and an upcoming volume on hip hop. Some dance advocates have suggested that social dancing could be pathway to greater awareness and appreciation of concert dance by potential audiences in the US. Do you agree and see a valuable connection?

LO: Definitely, I do. When people have dance in their lives already, it opens them up to seeing dance, and vice versa. That is, seeing dance on stage can inspire people to get on the floor themselves, in classes or socially. Social and theatrical dance feed each other. Exposure to dance in any way shape or form can change things for a person. I, for example, took classes for many years and then started going to concerts and writing about them.

EYA: Yes, that's also the way I started, too: taking many classes, then wanting to write about dance! Let's look at the reverse, too. Are there valuable lessons for contemporary dance artists to learn from social dancing? Or, specifically, from the disco phenomenon and its culture?

LO: Ballet tradition came from social dance; ballets, for example those of Jerome Robbins, include waltzes.  Lots of contemporary dance artists bring club or social dance into their work. Neil Greenberg has a famous dance about disco. It's one I haven't seen, but I wish it would come back; the New York Public Library for the Peforming Arts has a video. Nicholas Leichter has a new dance to disco music. Sidra Bell, Karole Armitage, and many others have choreography that includes club dances associated with disco. Much of contemporary dance is about life...and that (especially for dancers maybe) includes social dancing. Disco may have been close to the hearts of dance artists who lived through the era. In our current, retro era, disco is still, or again, part of club culture...sans some of the bad stuff that went with it back in the day, hopefully.

EYA: The book surveys the rise of disco culture in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. What methods did you use to conduct your research?

LO: I inteviewed many dancers, DJs and clubgoers. I went to some of the revival scenes, Hustle festivals, and remembrance parties, and I met people from different cities at these gathering places. People at these parties were generous with me. I was lucky to research disco at a ripe point in time, around people with lucid memories. I was literally attending reenactments! I also saw about forty movies made in or made about the era. Of course I read the material out there, the great books and classic articles of the day as well as later research. I photographed the dancers. As a visual person, this helped me understand the movement better. I took a basic Hustle series at You Should Be Dancing and some introductory classes at Dancesport.

When I first started, in 2008, I found very little information. I found my first interviewees through HARO (Help a Reporter Out). Gradually, I found more information on the Web as the Web itself grew, and disco seemed to be coming back into favor.  It was most helpful listening to the music, frequenting the vintage record stores, and reading the liner notes. NYPL's performing arts collection had growing clippings folders. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture had books I couldn't find at the performing arts library. As the project continued, more and more You Tube and VH1 videos were posted. A complete Soul Train DVD came out.

Whenever I told people about my project, many had a disco story they were more than happy to share. I joined the circles of dancers in a peripheral place. I have to say that it was not all peaches and cream. There were also people who felt proprietary about their memories and practice and resented the intrusion. I met with resistance from some. I'd love to be out there with them dancing, but alas, I'm here typing.

EYA: Did your research lead you to new information or insights, anything that surprised you?

LO: I was surprised many times over. I was surprised at how beautiful the Hustle dance can look on those that have put in the work of perfecting it. I was surprised that there is a very organized contingent of Hustle dancers who continue to refine and perform it. Although these dancers, along with the general public, rejected the term disco, it didn't die. 

Journalist Lori Ortiz

EYA: Were you a fan of the music in the '70s? Did you go to the clubs? If so, is there anything that you miss about that time?

LO: John Travolta, aka Tony Manero, went to my high school. I was a Deadhead (I liked the Grateful Dead). After college I moved back to New York. No, as a painter just starting out, I did not go to Studio. People I knew curated art shows in Limelight and other clubs, I showed in them and went to the openings in the 80s. I don't miss that, but I'm grateful for any experience I had of it.

EYA: As with any pop music, you'll find some schlock as well as some unforgettable classics. When you were writing your book, did you pull out old LPs and cassettes?  Any personal favorites to share with us?

LO:  I had a Jackson Five album as a teen. I had nothing when I started this project. I had to collect it all anew. I loved it. It was very moving to hear Grace Jones sing "Tomorrow." Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" is a major VH1 classic. That song is inseparable from Jackson's performance. I went to sleep and woke up with "Blame It On The Boogie" in my head. The video of Sheila Reid skating to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is absolute legend. I'm truly grateful to Bobby Viteritti, Ronald Ramdell and Billy Carroll— DJs who spent hours sharing music and stories with me. I bought Disco Box with wonderful liner notes by Brian Chin. I highly recommend this encyclopedic Rhino set.

EYA: Disco music and culture came under attack in the late '70s. Talk about that period and the reasons that an anti-disco movement arose in the US.

LO: Drugs, AIDS, crime, greed on the part of the club owners and the music industry--these associations enveloped disco, to name a few of the reasons. The word started to leave a bad taste in people's mouths. New pop music came to take its place. It became embarrassing to like disco AND dangerous. There were death threats!

EYA: The disco phenomenon eventually receded, but you detail the ways in which it still influences popular music. Tell us about some of them.

LO: DJs like to sample disco classics in new songs. You could say that "turntabling" started with disco. The art of the DJ developed in the disco era. The party atmosphere, the romance, has not died. Lady Gaga, Horsemeat Disco, and other performers and groups are directly building on disco. The ways are a bit different, but disco is music made for dancing. There are people out there on the floor. The interchange, the mixing, the dancing never died.

EYA: What kinds of readers will most benefit from Disco Dance?

LO: The series is a library reference for high school and college kids. But disco suffered from erasure, so there is still a lot for most people to learn about the era, the dancing, and the music.  I talk about the gay liberation movement. That may feel too basic to some readers but, for context, that story needed to be retold in the book. I couldn't assume that the reader knew about Stonewall. I came across a wonderful NYPL exhibit on it. I also found a collection of Saint posters at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center here in New York. One was composed of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs. That's in the book. I found a group of skaters in Central Park. A lot of this was discovery for me. Since there are so many facets within disco, more than likely, anyone who picks it up will find a lot they didn't know. No other book looks at disco dancing from this particular catch-all perspective.

*****

Publisher's information
Disco Dance on Amazon.com
ReadingDance.com, the Web site of Lori Ortiz

Save the date: Lori Ortiz, author of Disco Dance and publisher of ReadingDance will talk in a Galapagos Art Space "Get Smart" event,  August 11, 8pm, in DUMBO! (information and tickets)

City Opera move threatens endowment, say unions

Unions Attack New York City Opera Over Use of Endowment
by Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, July 18, 2011

"Alice" in The House of Eminence

NewFest and HarlemStage present

a screening of filmmaker Sheldon Larry's

Leave It on The Floor

Monday, July 25, 7:30pm

Leave It On the Floor tells the story of Brad, our hero, who is thrown out of his dysfunctional home by his mother, Deondra. He steals his mother's car and travels into Los Angeles where, through a chance encounter, Brad, a little like Alice in Wonderland, stumbles into a noisy raucous, chaotic event and meets the ragtag members of the struggling House of Eminence. Initially only looking for a place to sleep(and perhaps someone to sleep with), Brad ends up engaging with the colorful members of the house led by the indomitable house mother Queef Latina, herself an aging ball-legend and the fierce protectrice of her family. Laughter, tears, sex sirens, and butch queens up in pumps ensue and remarkably, Brad ends up finding an extraordinary home and loving, caring family in this, the strangest of places.

Watch the trailer.

Buy tickets.

HarlemStage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue
at West 135th Street across from Aaron Davis Hall
(directions)

The Bessies visit Harlem, October 24

Bessie Nominations to Be Announced
by Adam W. Kepler, The New York Times, July 17, 2011

East Village: Goodbye to all that

In the East Village, Waiting for the Wrecking Ball
by Cara Buckley, The New York Times, July 15, 2011

China's ethnic minorities rocking out

Ethnic Music Tests Limits in China
by Jonathan Kaiman and Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times, July 16, 2011

Jump back into that box!

Remember that wonderful advice about thinking outside the box? You do?

Well, forget it.

Creativity researcher Jacob Goldenberg, Ph.D. says creativity flows more freely, more effectively, within a "closed world."

"Getting outside of the box is not a useful idea," says Dr. Goldenberg, professor of marketing at the School of Business Administration at Hebrew University, Jerusalem and visiting lecturer at the Columbia Business School. "It could be used as a metaphor for a creative idea but not for the creative process itself. There is a box--the closed world--and the solution is inside it, not outside of it."

Solutions to practical and aesthetic problems can often be found within the problems themselves, he says. Constraints actually increase creativity because they restrict unnecessary distractions that can take us far off track or a myriad of choices that can confuse us. What's more, the popular practice of brainstorming with others actually generates fewer original ideas than do individuals working alone because of the likelihood that an individual's ideas will be ignored or discounted before they have had a chance to develop and show their potential.

While Dr. Goldenberg's interesting presentation at 92Y last Wednesday drew on examples of inside-the-box innovation within commercial product development and marketing--from Betty Crocker instant cake mix to the iPod Shuffle--a few writers in attendance questioned how his ideas could be applied to the creative arts.

This is clearly not Dr. Goldenberg's area of concern and expertise. But the questions made me think about poet friends and teachers who greatly enjoy working forms like sonnets or haiku or villanelles or the various game-like OULIPO structures. (Here's a fun OULIPO example.) The closed world of formal structure and technique obviously holds great significance in dance--from ballet to sacred hula and salsa dancing--and provides firm ground, to varying degrees, for the flow of creativity in movement style and performance.

So, here are a few questions for contemporary artists who work outside of traditional technical or cultural structures:

Have restrictions ever enhanced the creativity and effectiveness of your solutions? What constitutes your closed world? What structures do you like to have in place for creativity to flow?

Feel free to drop your comments below!

For information on upcoming events at 92YUptown click here. For 92YTribeca, click here.