Davalois Fearon: dancing for C.J. and so many others

Davalois Fearon wearing a costume from For C.J.

Davalois Fearon Dance
For C.J.
BAAD!
March 29-30

When dance artist Davalois Fearon lost her nephew to asthma, she turned mourning into action. Her work, For C.J., represents a cry against the dire health outcomes for communities--predominantly, Black and Latinx people--doubly-impacted by urban pollution and inadequate health care. Fearon, a Jamaican immigrant who grew up in the Bronx, created The For C.J. Initiative to raise awareness and spur city policymakers to address these life-threatening conditions. But she also created a dance to honor her nephew, set to music played live at BAAD! by her husband, composer Mike McGinnis (wood winds), Elias Bailey (tuba) and Jeff Hermanson (trumpet). For C.J.'s resolute symbolism even carries over into instrumentation which requires expert and sustained use of breath.

Without careful reading of Fearon's program notes, it might be tricky to figure out at first look, but her performers represent not only an asthma victim (Mikaila Ware) but also the engulfing forces of her doom (Morgan Anderson, as the medical system, and Njeri Rutherford as the environment). The minute you grasp it, though, the symbolism feels heavy and obvious. All three are dressed in extraordinary wearable art--like hair-coverings made of whole and broken plastic hair rollers--and glittery makeup, blurring distinctions between high and low, pretty and poisonous. The set, unusual costuming give the work the heightened aura of tribal ritual.

The audience gets drawn in, too. Before the piece begins, we're invited to inscribe the names of deceased loved ones on cut-out leaves and tie the stems to ropes that play a significant part in this dance. Those leaves, then, will accumulate and remain for all future performances of the piece.

Like the visual display--including Ware's grotesque, bulbous headdress constructed of something mysterious and, frankly, nauseating--choreography alternates oddity with poignancy. We end with the vision of Ware's body folded forward in yoga's child's pose, covered in a glittery, earth-dark wrapping that now kills her.

To lift the energy, then, the choreographer and her dancers return to celebrate the life and spirit C.J. with the exuberance I remember of forceful, high-flying Fearon dancing for choreographer Stephen Petronio.

Concept, choreography and artistic direction: Davalois Fearon
Collaborating dancers: Morgan Anderson, Njeri Rutherford and Mikaila Ware
Costumes, wearable sculptures and makeup: Jasmine Murrell
Set Design: Myssi Robinson

For C.J. concludes this evening with an 8pm performance. For information, click here and scroll down.

BAAD!
2474 Westchester Avenue, The Bronx
(map/directions)

******

DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Maleek Washington brings family memories to BAAD!

Dance artist Maleek Washington
(photo: Whitney Brown)

Last night in the sudden chill, the mist-veiled, almost-full moon rode high over St. Peter's Episcopal Church, its landmark chapel, Foster Hall--home to Bronx performance space BAAD!--and its cemetery. Approaching from nearby Zerega Avenue station felt like stumbling onto the set for Michael Jackson's Thriller, a feeling intensified at first sight of signs directing visitors to enter not through the usual chapel doorway but by a side path within inches of massive gravestones.

For the opening section of Shadows of Heaven: Bronx Blues, dance artist Maleek Washington took over the familiar, modest allotment of space inside Foster Hall's entrance. So his audience had to wait downstairs in BAAD's office--stocked with refreshments and brightened by disco classics--before being let upstairs, carefully, in groups of five. I lined up, walked up and found myself in cramped quarters with a ring of people, some of whom, clearly, were family and friends of Washington. How did I know this? Well, he had strung up several mobiles to which old family snapshots were clipped. People were touching them, oohing and ahhing and wow-ing and OMG-ing at the sight of people they knew--or themselves!--so much so that they appeared to completely ignore the dancer's presence and performance.

I kept shifting--dodging these folks, trying to stay out of Washington's way, too, as he coiled and spun or abruptly darted back and forth with photos or photo albums in his hands. I admired how he managed the continuous reconfiguration of his space as people entered and moved about. I wondered if he improvised his ductile maneuvers according to whatever space was presented to him at any given moment.

There was something...a sudden lighting change, if I recall...that signaled the next phase. Filing past large painted portraits (by Sophia Dawson) and reflective "portal" paintings (by Chet Gold), we transferred to BAAD!'s theater space and, gratefully, its usual seating. "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" was in the air, and dancers--a man and a woman--posed behind huge painting frames on either side of an empty frame. A disco ball twirled, and Chic's "Le Freak" came on, which made the dancers groove, and then Smokey Robinson's "Ooo Baby Baby," which took their story further. In just the space created by two songs, you could grasp how different they are--her powerful self-possession; his sweetly easy-going, if less-focused, nature. As I type that now, I realize how stereotypical it looks--the Strong Black Woman; uncertain, emasculated Black man. But this seems drawn from personal life, Washington's history, a couple of actual portraits, and Washington is at his best, in this work, as a portraitist.

Although a first-rate dancer with extensive technical background and range, I find my attention not fully engaged with the solo material he has made for himself. I think we're meant to understand him to be the son of this couple long separated, apparently, by the man's incarceration--a story that ultimately fascinates me much more for its sensitive and moving depiction.

Performers: Danielle Mills, Sophia "Wet Paint" Dawson, Chet Gold and Maleek Washington

DJ: DTTONYMONKEY (aka Antonio Brown)

Writer: Niya Nicholson

Mentors: Sidra Bell, Francesca Harper

Shadows of Heaven: Bronx Blues (closed) was a presentation of Pepatián and BAAD!'s joint Dance Your Future: Artist & Mentor Collaborative Residency and a feature of BAAD's BlakTinX series (on through November 18).

Dance Your Future programming continues 

with the following performances:

Tatiana Desardouin / Passion Fruit Dance Company

Friday, November 10

Beatrice Capote & Miguel Aparicio / The Sabrosura Effect

Friday, November 17

Click here and scroll down for information and tickets.

BAAD!
2474 Westchester Avenue, the Bronx
(map/directions)

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Dancer Kayla Hamilton up close at BAAD!

Dance artist Kayla Hamilton
(photos: Travis Magee)

She moves through the world with a chronic illness that has left her with sight in one eye, loss of peripheral vision, double vision, blurred vision, and difficulty seeing in low light.

 --from publicity for Nearly Sighted by Kayla Hamilton

My experience of Nearly Sighted, Kayla Hamilton's solo performance at BAAD!, actually started before I reached the theater. Coming off the #6 train at Zerega Avenue, I ran into a group of people--including some I knew--heading for the show, all in good spirits. We walked together past the churchyard and, once inside BAAD!, were warmly greeted by more people we knew. While we waited for Hamilton to perform, we watched a wonderful video compilation of interviews and studio scenes with the much-loved choreographers, all Black and women, who contributed work to this evening--Francine E. Ott, Nia Love, Christal Brown, Crystal U. Davis and Jaimè Dzandu. Fond co-workers and at least one grateful student of Hamilton spoke up during the post-show discussion. Yes, that kind of evening. More like a family gathering than most anything you'll find at your typical New York dance concert.

Clearly, Nearly Sighted is the place to be. And you're lucky if you can get a ticket. Yes, BAAD! is not the largest venue in town, but even so.

For the suite of dances, which is surprisingly short--maybe 45 minutes at most--Hamilton has woven together material from the choreographers as well as video artists Sammie Amachree and Drake Creative.  Each member of the audience is encouraged to wear an eye patch through most of the performance, giving us a small taste of how Hamilton's vision disability alters her perception of and relationship to her surrounding environment. To work with this, I left my distance glasses off and, given the intimacy of the space, did not need them. I adjusted to the eye patch over time.

If you've ever seen Hamilton dance, you know she brings presence, passion, momentum and juicy fluidity. In her program notes, she calls herself "thick."

"Thick not as in muscular, but thick thick." She adds, "I rarely get to see a thick-bodied disabled person on stage...."

She is a thick spinning top, a thick blossoming flower, a thick burst of fire, a system of thick coursing energy. She is also Black and female all day and embodies Nia Love's words: "It's the way that you stand, the way you sit...the notion that all that you are is all that's right and powerful and good. That's dignity." Her work is a healing gift.

Nearly Sighted was two years in the making. It was fun to talk in our small discussion groups about it and hear Christal Brown tell us none of the choreographers had previous exposure to the finished work. They had no idea how Hamilton would turn their individual material into a this tapestry. The performance, then, was a revelation for everyone.

Nearly Sighted concludes this evening with a performance at 7:30pm. It is sold out, but if you want to try for a last-minute, unclaimed ticket, click here for information.

BAAD!

The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance

2474 Westchester Avenue (Westchester Square), Bronx

(map/directions)

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Women comics being BAAD!

Javon Egyptt presides over Women Laugh Back,
a comedy night at BAAD!
(photo: Charles Rice-Gonzalez)

You'll rarely find me in a comedy club. It's not that I don't like to laugh. I do. I love, love, love good comedy as well as humorous elements in any of the arts I enjoy. But with everything else I cover as a critic or attend as a fan, comedy clubs are just not something I make time for.

So, I don't have hard evidence on this, but I doubt your usual comedy club features straight, queer and trans women--particularly, women of color--all gracing the same evening. No, for that, you have to hop the #6 up to the Bronx and visit BAAD!

Left to right: Elizabeth "Macha" Marrero, Robbyne Kaamil,
Javon Egyptt, Lisa Harmon and Katrina Goodlett
(photo: Charles Rice-Gonzalez)

It's Women's History Month and, while we all pray Ben Carson has nothing to say about that, BAAD! has launched its annual BAAD!ASS Women Festival. Friday night's stand-up comedy show, Women Laugh Back--MC'ed by the ebullient Javon Egyptt and her many wigs and costumes--showcased the talents of Robbyne Kaamil, Lisa Harmon, Katrina Goodlett and award-winning performance artist and BAAD! favorite, Elizabeth "Macha" Marrero in a brisk-paced if sometimes uneven lineup.

Kaamil, above all others, won me over by the very act of scraping my last good nerve. She opened her set--unexpectedly, inexplicably--by belting and emoting her high-pitched way through "Tomorrow." Yes, that "Tomorrow." The one in which "the sun will come out." And then her irritating persona just took off, never letting us catch her catching a breath while, for instance, she pressed home the shaky argument that Annie was "a little bitch from Bed-Stuy," and check that hair if you have doubts. A curious preoccupation with Black women's first names ended in the bright idea that the National Weather Service should give Black women's names to weather threats. Do that, and you won't have all these fools thinking they'll just stay put and ride out the storm! I had to bow to Kaamil's way of putting herself--and it all--together, coherent and unrelenting. Later, in an aside about our toxic politics, she counseled, "Don't be quiet, because when you're quiet, nobody pays you no fucking mind." Kaamil will never have this problem. And if she ever did, she will never have it again. "If they don't do right, kick them the fuck out."

You GO, Kaamil!

BAAD!ASS Women Festival 2017 runs through April 8 with a variety of programs showcasing the creative work and activism of "fierce women and transwomen artists." For schedule and ticketing details, click here.

BAAD!

The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance

2474 Westchester Avenue (Westchester Square), Bronx

(map/directions)

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How to be a BAAD! badass

Above: poet Pamela Sneed
(photo courtesy of the author)
Below: dance artist Jasmine Hearn
(photo: Scott Shaw)

Comedy, dance, poetry, good company and more: BAAD! has it all in the month of March celebrating Women's History Month in full Bronx style.

Comedienne Robbyne Kaamil
(photo courtesy of the artist)

Check out BAAD!ASS Women Festival 2017, running March 9 through April 8 and featuring the creative work and activism of "fierce women and transwomen artists."

For schedule and ticketing details, click here.

BAAD!

The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance

2474 Westchester Avenue (Westchester Square), Bronx

(map/directions)

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Three Open Call dancemakers take wing in the Bronx

This fall, the South Bronx arts organization Pepatián will present evening-length works by three emerging choreographers from its 2016 Open Call residency program in partnership with BAAD!.

All three artists--Fana Fraser, Jasmine Hearn and Alethea Pace--will have received free rehearsal space and mentoring in preparation for this paid performance opportunity. Their Open Call mentors include Aileen Passloff, Dr. Marta Morena Vega, Ni'Ja Whitson and Alicia Diaz.

I asked Fraser, Hearn and Pace to write about where they locate the soul of their creativity, how that's best expressed through dance, what they're currently obsessed with--within or outside of dance--and how they view the value of mentorship to their practice.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

FANA FRASER

Fana Fraser
(photo: Marisol Diaz, 2016)

I often daydream myself into bizarre, delightful and problematic scenarios. As I piece together these fragments, I am finding recurring plots that blend underbelly tempos of the Caribbean--the place where my navel string is buried; assumptions and anxieties surrounding femininity; dying, death, decay; and the nurturing of newness. More and more, I am listening as my body reveals these stories to be from a seemingly endless source of experience. My performance work harnesses dance and theater to create a playground where histories and future tales are rigorously re-imagined compassion, wildness and power. I am conjuring a space for performer and witness to negotiate ways of being.

I am just beginning to unearth my creative process. My dancing body serves a vital role in unraveling the idiosyncrasies of a character or the inner life of an idea. Guided by intuition and sensitivity within tightly constructed frames, my movement research straddles narrative, abstraction, ritual and tradition. It seems that the more specific, intimate and rigorous my work, the more accessible it becomes to a wide cross-section of people. I revel in that connection.

These days I am obsessed with illustration. You can create any universe you want. I’ve been spending hours doodling and drawing odd little characters, imagining them living rich, complex lives in fantastical realities.

Suddenly and more than usual, over the past couple months, I’m craving intimate and even unsettling exchange between myself and performers. I’m remembering how much I love to serve as witness, however glorious or exhausting that might be…and I’m hooked.

Aileen Passloff and Dr. Marta Moreno Vega are my mentors through Open Call. It is wonderful to have mentors in differing fields. With them I can share ideas, voice my thoughts, and gain valuable feedback and insight. My mentors are an added support system as I find my way through figuring out the work. And hopefully, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship!

PERFORMANCE: NOVEMBER 19

JASMINE HEARN

Jasmine Hearn
(photo: Marisol Diaz, 2016)

The center focus of my creativity is the listening that needs to happen for when I should need to call on it.

My creativity is best expressed through dance because of how involved the body needs to be with the mind and the spirit to be open and prepared for the complicated work at hand.

Outside of dance, I busy myself with nesting, reading and baking granola. With dance, I am currently obsessed with taking my time.

I believe that having a mentor---someone on the outside that you can trust is so important. I am so curious and glad to have Ni'ja Whitson and Aileen Pasloff as mentors and guides during our residency.

To have inter-generational conversations about what is being found and explored through practice and performance is a rare and wonderful opportunity to have especially as young and emerging artist.

PERFORMANCE: December 7

ALETHEA PACE

Alethea Pace
(photo: No Longer Empty, 2015)

Questioning is central to my creative process. Right now, I'm asking questions that relate to identity, how it lives in both our personal and cultural history, how it is experienced through our senses and how it is manifested in our bodies. The answers are less important than the questions, which can be continually refined and can open up more possibilities.

I'm obsessed with my working on my piece! I go to sleep at night thinking about it and wake up in the morning doing the same. My present focus is researching the Rhinelander case of 1925. Alice Jones, a mixed-race woman, crossed the color line when she married Leonard Kip Rhinelander, a white aristocrat from one of New York's wealthiest families. Leonard’s family disapproved and forced him to annul the marriage on the grounds of fraud. Prosecutors claimed that Alice had portrayed herself as a white woman and had duped Leonard into marrying him. Much to the prosecutors surprise, her defense team did not attempt to prove her white ancestry and instead acknowledged her blackness. Alice won her case and, after some appeal, was awarded spousal support until her death in 1989. The case was tabloid fodder in its day because it challenged notions of how race is perceived in a way that still has relevance today.

Alice was voiceless throughout the trial, never taking the stand in her own defense. She was objectified by the court, which argued that her race was a “material fact.” She was even forced to strip down by her own attorney to prove that she was unmistakably of color. Her experience lends itself to a movement exploration that relies heavily on perception through the eyes of others.

I am so thrilled to have two amazing mentors, Alicia Diaz and Aileen Passloff, as part of this process. Embarking on this creative journey, my first time making an evening of work, can feel overwhelming at times. Mentorship provides the guidance and support to help realize my vision. I'm being challenged in the best ways and feel myself growing as an artist and a person.

PERFORMANCE: NOVEMBER 6

*****

ABOUT 
OPEN CALL

Open Call helps stir up the dance and performance scene happening in the Bronx with support for emerging dancers/choreographers of color and/or emerging Bronx-based artists. We are thrilled to house this opportunity in the Bronx and to help keep the Bronx what it already is--an incubator and site for works that challenge, and provoke, and offer audiences places to imagine and consider possibilities in the world.

Pepatián began the project in partnership with BAAD!/Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance n 2014  with funding from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Bronx Council on the Arts, and individual contributors to Pepatián. Open Call is now substantially funded by the Jerome Foundation, and in 2016, received a boost of support from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Currently, the project provides artists with over $2500 each, in addition to free rehearsal space, mentors, video/photo documentation, and other support. I'm currently researching and contacting other funders to continue to grow the project (online donations are warmly welcomed! www.pepatian.org)

Artists have been selected for this opportunity by a committee of established artists, managers, curator/producers; among them: Arthur Aviles, Christal Brown, Susana Cook, Caleb Hammons, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Merian Soto, and Marya Wethers.

Artists alumni include Awilda Rodriguez Lora (2014); Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, Richard Rivera, Milteri Tucker (2015), and mentors have included Susana Cook, Jorge Merced, Charles Rice-Gonzalez and Merian Soto. All the participating artists have additionally benefited from the experienced input of Arthur Aviles.

In 2015 and 2016, artists participated in creative process workshop with Merián Soto.

BronxNet has also been supportive of the project, hosting artist interviews on OPEN with Rhina Valentin and covering performances.

All artists who applied received specific committee feedback on their proposals. I also forwarded other residency and workshop opportunities. We want to help support artists who sent in their applications to keep growing their work and encourage them to apply to Open Call again next year. I also want to keep growing the community of artists around this residency opportunity--all of the projects' alumni, for example, were invited to attend Soto's creative process workshop as well as the final performances.

Open Call is for artists hungry to create, envision and realize full evening-length works with opportunities to showcase in the "Bronx Artists Now: Showcase & Conversation" APAP event that I've been producing in the Bronx in collaboration with local theaters (BAAD!, Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, Pregones Theater-PRTT) for the past six years.

Open Call supports artists and the community that is inspired by their work and their dedication to creating new work.

Pepatián is a South Bronx-based organization dedicated to creating, producing and supporting contemporary multi-disciplinary art by Latino and Bronx-based artists. www.pepatian.org

The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance creates, produces, presents and supports the development of cutting edge and challenging works in contemporary dance and all creative disciplines which are empowering to women, Latinos and other people of color, and the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community. www.baadbronx.org

~ Jane Gabriels, Ph.D., and Director, Pepatián

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In their skin: BAAD! presents works by men of color

Jonathan González
(photo courtesy of the artist)

Benjamin Lundberg
(photo: Jeca Rodríguez-Colón)

In Our Skin--a one-evening show presented at BAAD! with Pepatián for the 2015 BlakTinX Performance Series--offered a rare and important opportunity. The event focused on works by young male choreographers and performance artists of color--Benjamin Lundberg, Gentry George (who showed several short pieces), Alvaro González Dupuy, Eduardo Fajardo and Jonathan González. The run-on format--two hours with no intermission--should be rethought as it became tedious, poorly serving works presented late in the program. Why not distribute the lineup of artists over at least two evenings of reasonable length--say, no more than 90 minutes--allowing breathing room for both these artists and their audiences?

In a program ranging from Lundberg drawing vials of his own blood to mix with dishwashing liquid as a painting medium (Limpieza de Sangre) to queer chatterbox Fajardo charmingly singing and dancing along to a cumbia hit he later questions for its misogyny (CABARET), George's solos and duets stood out for conventional polish--the look of Ailey crossed with contemporary ballet--and the remarkable facility of their performers. In Our Skin certainly could not be faulted for lack of variety in approach to performance.

Chilean, New York-based Alvaro González Dupuy was, for me, the strongest discovery and pleasure of the evening. In Dame la Mano and i give you my elbow--his duet with equally vivid Emily Smith--stream-of-contact, genial roughhousing and audience involvement yielded unexpected freshness. I would welcome the chance to see more from this mind.

Jonathan González's curious deep divine shows him to be a clean, feline mover with an interest in engaging the possibilities of his environment and messing with the way we understand sound, lighting and the body in theater space. Sorry to say, by this point, the lengthy evening found me feeling captive, low in energy and unprepared to give my best attention. But González--recently seen in Patricia Hoffbauer's Dances for Intimate Spaces and Friendly People at Gibney--has some new projects coming up in 2016. Worth getting on your radar.

Closed. For information on remaining BlakTinX Performance Series programs (closing November 21), click here.

BAAD!
2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx (map/directions)

Paloma McGregor builds her net...for us

Yesterday, I started thinking about how dance artists should market their genius for adaptability, for doing more with less. I've also been watching dance in fairly small spaces lately--not always a bad thing. Then Paloma McGregor brought Building A Better Fishtrap/Part 1 to BAAD!, premiering an evening-length version of work explored, over the last four years, in various venues. At BAAD!, this beautiful and moving ensemble piece is danced across a shallow strip of floor. It's a big burst of heart, and the dancers dance the hell out of it. If you sit in the front row, as I did, watch that your feet don't get trapped like fish.

McGregor, a native of St. Croix, draws spirit and imagery from, as she writes, "the vanishing fishing tradition of [her] 89-year old father." The work feels like a danced bedtime tale with dreamy happenings and archetypal, beloved characters who shapeshift form with ease. Indeed, like a cozy bedtime tale, it works best by leaving ample room for your own imaginings and feelings.

Empty chairs speak of separated or departed loved ones, the ever-present past. A "road" materializes when a young lady--bearing a modest, old-fashioned suitcase and a vision--strides forth while others hustle to pave the air with a row of chair seats continuously arranged below her advancing feet. As our loving storyteller, McGregor proffers not too much information, just enough--articles and spare gestures that suggest spearing, sorting, stirring; a wheel gently held aloft like a mystical symbol or used in the clever pantomiming of a family excursion; long spliced and braided cords that, when swept across the breadth of the space, evoke both the act of fishing and the foamy rush of Caribbean tide.

Now and again, a voice floats into the space, words suggesting identity and deep nourishment from which one can never be entirely separated. (I have been here before, maybe as a tree...The water is the Grand Queen of us all.) Still, dancers like Christine King and Audrey Hailes don't need words to connect when playful, girlish body language spins clear, universal "conversation" and inclusion.

That inclusion includes us, too, in a literal, ingenious and necessary way that I will not reveal here. Building A Better Fishtrap prepares and invites its audience, casting a spell that inspires trust. Last night, we fell into McGregor's welcome with gratitude.

Performances by Christine King, Audrey Hailes, Stephanie Mas, Erica Saucedo, Ricarrdo Valentine
Scenic Design: Paloma McGregor
Costumes: Kym Chambers

Lighting: Susan Hamburger
Soundscore: Everett Saunders
Text: Ebony Noelle Golden

Building A Better Fishtrap/Part 1 continues tonight at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. For information, click here, and for tickets, click here.

McGregor continues to build her fishtrap. Over the next two years, her Building A Better Fishtrap project moves on to BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange and to sites in Red Hook and along the Bronx River. "With each iteration," McGregor writes, "the hope is to deepen the connections collaborators and audiences have with one another's legacies and the future of our embattled water spaces." Keep up with McGregor's progress at Angela's Pulse.

BAAD!
2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx
(map/directions)

Free screening: Dee Rees's acclaimed "Pariah" at BAAD!

Friday, February 6

at BAAD!

5pm -- screening of Pariah

6:30pm -- open mic

8:30 -- dance contest

This free event begins with the powerful coming out/coming-of-age film about a 17-year-old African-American woman quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian and living with her parents and younger sister in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. She strives to love, be loved and get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity. Directed by Dee Rees and executive produced by Spike Lee.

The screening will be followed by an open mic/open stage for youth and all to express themselves and a dance contest with a $50 cash prize.

Click here to view Pariah's trailer.

BAAD!
2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx (map/directions)
718-918-2110
BAADBronx@gmail.com

Dancing Through the Bronx series launches in August

Dancing Through the Bronx is a Bronx-positive traveling festival of free, public site-specific dance performances by Larry Keigwin, James “Cricket” Colter and Bronx-based choreographers Arthur Aviles, Toni Renee Johnson, and Ni’Ja Whitson Adebanjo.

Venues include:

Wave Hill

Hayden Lord Park 

Owen Dolen Park

Dancing Through the Bronx

Wednesday, August 13 through Saturday August 16

For a complete schedule of shows

and additional information, click here.

We're Dancing While Black. And we're golden.

Were you at BAAD! last night for Paloma McGregor's Dancing While Black panel (Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Greg Tate and cultural anthropologist Aimee Cox with moderator Shani Jamil) and the amazing performance that followed? If so, I'm sure you walked out of there with more inspiration, motivation and energy than most people would know what to do with. And I'm hoping you know what to do with it, because we all benefit when you do. Live your life like it's golden.

If you didn't get there last night, you might miss a chance to buy a ticket for tonight's repeat of the performance. It's a smallish space, and clearly the artists know lots and lots of supportive folks. But give it a try.

The set features developing works by emerging dancemakers

• Adia Tamar Whitaker and Brian Polite
• Ebony Noelle Golden

and Rashida Bumbray's right shout Run Mary Run

Also, today, BAAD! hosts a full day of Dancing While Black master classes. Click here for information or call BAAD! at 718-918-2110.

Dance it out at BAAD!

BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), in its brand new home at Westchester Square, invites you to dance your hearts out this month with two new class series:

CAPOEIRA: Moses "Bronx" McCarter

Moses "Bronx" McCarter leads a class for dancers of all levels in capoeira, an amazing and energetic folk dance from Brazil that ritualizes movement from martial arts, African dance and acrobatics.

Fridays, February 7, 14, 21 and 28 (6-7pm)
$5 (special rate)

BOMBA: Milteri Tucker

Milteri Tucker, director of the Bronx-based Bombazo Dance Company, leads the all level class through the basics of Bomba, a joyous Afro-Puerto Rican dance and music style that is a communal activity celebrating the relationship between the dancer and the drummer. Class includes her skirt technique open to women and men. Bring your practice skirt and practice skirts will also be provided.

Sundays, February 9, 16, 23 (4-5pm)
$5 (special rate)

Get information on all BAAD! programming here.

BAAD! 
2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx
(map/directions)

New Bronx digs for BAAD!

Dance artist Arthur Aviles, artistic director of BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) sent this update on the the organization's move from its longtime Hunts Point location to a new home at Westchester Square.

Charles Rice-Gonzalez and Arthur Aviles
in front of their new arts building
on the grounds of St. Peter's Episcopal Church
(photo courtesy of Arthur Aviles)

BAAD! has been through a beautiful storm this summer.

First, I want to share that we have officially moved from our beloved Hunts Point. Through all the challenges this has posed for our organization, one of the shining silver linings has been the people and organizations who have stepped up, and in, to help us.

Since, Taconic/Denham, Wolf our current landlord, let us know about a year ago that they wouldn't be giving us a long term lease, and would only consider a one year extension at twice the rate of our current lease, we began our quest to find a new home. We have been humbled and uplifted by the support that has come our way.

After Taconic/Denham, Wolf created the conditions that forced us to leave, the Banknote. Denham, Wolf showed us a space and led us to believe that we'd be let out of our lease, we entered into a lease negotiation with St. Peter's Episcopal Church. As I sought help to raise money for a move that was not in my budget, St. Peter's offered a month of free rent and I asked Taconic for help with a free month or two. Instead, Taconic co-CEO, Charles Bendit, stated that since two years were on the lease, we needed to pay them to let us out. After being clear on our financial position he then brought that down to one year. (There is also precedence of Taconic/Denham Wolf paying a tenant to leave and finding them a space with Bronxworks led by Carolyn McLaughlin at that time, but for reasons I'm sure they have, they didn't extend that to Charles and me.)

Although being a small ($300,000) arts organization we would have preferred to be let out of our lease and paying double rent will be crippling to us (and they have a full understanding of that), they have the law on their side, and since we want to abide by the law, they have agreed to give us a lease termination with the conditions of paying them a maximum of 6 months rent, on a month by month basis, unless they find a tenant for our space before the six months are up.

There are many aspects to our story, including the classic David and Goliath one, with BAAD! being a small budget arts organization and essentially grappling with the multi-billion dollar Taconic Titans, as the media has called them, and although moving from Hunts Point and leaving the space we've built over 14 years has been difficult, to say the least, we decided to be as strategic as possible to keep providing a space to serve our artists and audiences.

We will be located at 2474 Westchester Avenue in Westchester Square in a gothic revivalist building on the grounds of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. It's a fully equipped theater.

As you know in the Bronx, several other groups have lost their spaces including the Rebel Diaz Art Collective and Casa Atabex, it's one of the ways progress in the borough is manifesting itself.

Charles and I know we can call on the Bronx Dance coalition community for help.  So we count you among our champions here in the Bronx. We have also gotten great support from other community members and audience who have said where you go, we will follow.

So, off we go to Westchester Square, to build a new temple for dance and the arts, and to expand our audience and make new inroads, and help make Westchester Square a cultural district (along with BCA and it's new building).  Although, we didn't wake up one day and decide to move, finding a wonderful new place to land has been exciting.

Charles and I hope you can visit our new home soon.  We are having an open house on Sunday, October 27 from 1pm to 6pm and will kick off our BlakTina Performance series on Saturday, November 2 at 8pm with a dance tribute to Whitney Houston called Love Will Save the Day.

We will have a few more events to invite folks into the new space and will keep you posted.

With respect, admiration and deep appreciation,
Arthur

Bronx ideas--and dance artists--needed for new projects

Members of the Bronx dance community are invited to a brainstorming forum at BAAD, convened by Arthur Aviles (Director, Bronx Dance Coalition) and Aviva Davidson (Executive and Artistic Director, Dancing in the Streets) to discuss issues of anti-gentrification and prospective collaborative projects offering opportunities for local dance artists.

The gathering is scheduled for Thursday, May 9, 5:30pm. For more information, contact Aviles at arthuraviles[at]gmail[dot]com or 718-842-5223.

Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD)
841 Baretto Street, 2nd Floor, the Bronx
(map/directions)

Women, spirituality, healthy relationships: a talk at BAAD

I'm happy to announce that I've been asked to give a talk at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD) on the topic of spirituality and healthy relationships, specifically for queer women and transpeople.

Sunday, February 17 (5:30-7:30pm)

Admission is free, and this informal, interactive talk will be followed by a free screening of Cheryl Dunye's film, co-written with Sarah Schulman, Mommy is Coming ("a sassy, raunchy, romantic sex comedy set in the edgy underground of Berlin where love and taboo affairs collide.")

Light refreshments will be served.

Click here to RSVP or call 718-482-5223.

BAAD
841 Baretto Street, The Bronx
(map/directions)

Summer (Donna, that is) into fall with BAAD!

BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) seeks choreographers who love to love Donna Summer for a special evening devoted to the late disco diva. Here's their announcement:

BAAD! is honoring Donna Summer as part of the 2012 BlakTino Performance Series by putting together an evening of dance at BAAD! on Saturday, October 13 at 8pm. We hope you can join the group of Bronx choreographers influenced and inspired by her music genius.

BAAD! can offer you an honorarium of $125 for a ten minute -->or less piece<---- (aprox.) as well as 4 free hours of rehearsal and discounted tickets. (2 complementary tickets and 10 $10 tickets)

Please indicate which song you will be choosing, below is the list of taken songs in an effort to not repeat songs.

We love originally mixed tracks and remixes also. Just let us know what you are thinking of.

McArthur Park

Love to Love You

I Feel Love

Works Hard For The Money

Could it be magic

Medley of love

State of Independence

Carlo Quispe
Project Manager
BAAD!
718-842-5223
carlobaad@gmail.com

Charles Rice-Gonzalez here, there, everywhere

And speaking of BAAD...

I wanted to link you to author/playwright Charles Rice-Gonzalez's calendar of readings (in support of his debut novel, Chulito: "about a tough, sexy hip hop-loving, young Latino man, coming out and coming of age in the South Bronx") and events, but I see that his site is not updated. Ahem...

Okay. So I'll just do a little copy-n-paste from his email announcement.

There's a lot here. So take your pick.

Wednesday, June 27 at 6:30pm
Reception, Reading, and Signing for Love, Christopher Street: Reflections of New York City edited by Thomas Keith
Hosted by Out Professionals and OP-LYNX
Essays about LGBT life in New York City, with Mark Ameen, Christopher Bram, Martin Hyatt, Fay Jacobs, Michele Karlsberg, Rev. Irene Monroe, Charles Rice-González, Bob Smith & Judy Gold, and Charlie Vázquez.
The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., room 410
($10 general admission; $5 for Out Professional Members)

Thursday, June 28 at 6:30pm
MNN – Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Queers of Color: Visions, Transformations, and Journeys
This unique community dialogue features artists and activists in conversation about making change, current work and future goals.  Featured are Charan P. Morris, Poet and Spoken Word Artist;  Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Author of CHULITO and Co-Founder and Director of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance; and Claudia Sofia Garriga Lopez, Activist and Artist, among others.  Free Event.

Friday, June 29 at 6:30pm
CHULITO reading and book signing
HAF - Hispanic AIDS Forum’s Latino Youth in Action
Charles Rice-Gonzalez is the guest speaker and will read from CHULITO.
HAF - 213 West 35th Street, 12th Floor - New York, NY 10001

Monday, July 9 at 6-8pm
Macondo Fellows at La Casa Azul Bookstore
Join NYC residents Charles Rice-Gonzalez, poet Ron Drummond, and Toni Margarita Plummer, with a special guest appearance by Levi Romero, Centennial Poet for New Mexico. This is a rare opportunity to hear all these Macondistas* together as they read poetry and prose and sign books. (*Fellows from the Macondo Writers’ Workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros.) La Casa Azul Bookstore is a new spot for literature and community events in El Barrio.  La Casa Azul Bookstore, 143 E. 103rd Street, New York, NY 10029 (Free event.)

Thursday, July 12 at 6:30pm
CHULITO reading and book signing
San Antonio Public Library – Mission Branch
Charles Rice-Gonzalez will read from CHULITO and sign books.
Mission Branch - 3134 Roosevelt Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78214 (Free event.)

July 15 - 21
Therapy of the Soutl for Men Who Love Men
Arnie Vargas (LCSW) leads this weekend of exploration and celebration in your tribe as a man-who-loves-men. The group will approach discussions from personal stories, drawing from political, sociological, psychological, and spiritual theories to discover who we are, where we are, and where we want to go. Instructors include Charles Rice-Gonzalez.  Retreat is in Provincetown, MA.  Visit http://ajvargas.blogspot.com/ or call Arnie Vargas at 1-800-314-7618.

August 31- September 3
Easton Mountain's Annual Labor Day Retreat
Charles Rice-Gonzalez will lead a writing workshop in this annual retreat that offers men space to take the risk of sharing their deepest inspirations and aspirations in large and small group activities that draw from personal inner beauty to create in a supportive community. Other workshops will include breath and movement, poetry, different expressions of art and playfulness. To register or for more info visit http://www.eastonmountain.com/programs/120831LaborDay.html

Save the date!
Sunday, September 23 (time TBA)
Brooklyn Book Festival
Borough Hall

Una Noche de Prosa y Poesia

Las Buenas Amigas joins Bronx Acadeny of Art and Dance to promote the creative expression of Latina Lesbian and Latina Queer women with a creative writing workshop.

Una Noche de Prosa y Poesia (A Night of Prose and Poetry)

June 28, 7-9pm
Admission: Free

All works will be displayed and the installation shared with community members. In order to create the dynamic of Woman Space, this will be an exclusive workshop for Latina Women, Cis-Gender and Trans-Gender. Refreshments will be served. 

Noche de Prosa y Poetry para la Latina Lesbiana y Identificada Queer, Junio 28, de 7PM a 9PM. Este Taller de Poesia es exclusivo para Mujeres Latinas Cisgenero y Transgenero. Las esperamos! 

Abre las puertas a tus talentos creativos y artisticos.  Este es un Taller rico para Todas Nosotras en la comunidad!

BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

841 Barretto Street, 2nd Floor, Bronx
Information: 718-842-5223

(directions)

What's moving downtown, moving the Bronx

Look sharp!

There's dance moving all over town... 

La MaMa Moves Dance Festival

Chamber Works 1--featuring Dark Matter by Juliette Mapp; present.tense (progressive) by Maura Donohue; and So be it--not a piece--miniatures for five by Vicky Shick. May 11-13. La MaMa’s The Club, 74A East 4th Street, 2nd Floor.[information and tickets]

Beauty--Jane Comfort and Company. "...a gimlet-eyed look at the extremes women go to achieve impossible beauty." May 17-20, 7:30pm La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East 4th Street, 2nd Floor. [information and tickets]

La MaMa
[map/directions]

Dancing While Black: Voices from the Bush
a presentation of BAAD!'s 2012 Boogie Down Dance Series

Thursday, May 17, 8pm

Featuring current and former dancers from Urban Bush Women--Maria Bauman, LoveForte (Marjani Forte and Nia Love), Paloma McGregor and Samantha Speis--who present their own brazen dance works as part of Dancing While Black, "an artist-led project/initiative that explores many questions including what does it mean to be a Black artist today in order to shift the power of contextualizing work and articulating aesthetic values into the hands, and bodies, of black dancers themselves."

For more information on this and all Boogie Down festival events and to purchase tickets, click here or call 718-842-5223.

BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance
841 Barretto Street, 2nd Floor, Bronx
(map/directions)

Charles Rice-Gonzalez talks about "Chulito"

Charles Rice-Gonzalez--known to many of us as an activist and Executive Director of BAAD!--discusses his new novel, Chulito, about a young gay Puerto Rican man living in the South Bronx, in this wonderful interview with Maria Hinojosa of NPR's Latino USA.

Tough Love (12:03)