"Spirituality of the Body" with Charmaine Warren and guests, December 1

As curator for Gibney’s upcoming Arts + Action Talk: Spirituality of the Body (Tuesday, December 1, 7pm on Zoom), I’m truly excited to hear from a panel of artists whose work illuminates spiritual ideas and values, where the body is the site of spiritual expression and practice. We will welcome Laurel Atwell, Shamar Wayne Watt, Ogemdi Ude, and iele paloumpis, along with moderator Charmaine Warren, for a conversation that I hope will be the first of many--in Gibney’s digital space and beyond--exploring this rich topic. I spoke with Warren--a beloved veteran dancer and creator/host of the popular YouTube series, Black Dance Stories--about her experiences with spirituality and her hopes for the evening’s get-together.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa: How have you experienced dance as a means of expressing or practicing spirituality?

Charmaine Warren:  Many years ago, I was introduced to Ashtanga yoga, and this young dancer would run to a full day of rehearsal after my early morning yoga class. Someone pointed out the difference in my dancing, and then I started to pay attention. The light of acknowledgement doesn't go off right away but, with time, as I grew old and began to "own" my practice, I knew that it was the inner reckoning; my opening to spirit that brought my two loves together. Later, too, learning more about my Jamaican tradition and spirit in the African way has further helped me wake each morning and give time to my own spirit before I share the day with anyone else.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa: As you see it, especially as a dancer, what is spiritual about the body? Or what is the role of embodiment in spiritual practice?

Charmaine Warren:  Again, I have to acknowledge growing older and experiencing life as the answer. I dance now because I feel ready inside, and being ready inside means that I am one with my spirit. I work to be one with those around me before we "move" together. I work to be one with the space that I will "move" in. That may mean holding hands, doing sun salutations or taking time to breath together--and, now, land acknowledgements!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa: What do you hope for this gathering of artists?

Charmaine Warren: Mostly that we have an audience that will be willing to listen, but that we will share tools that we all use to stay connected to spirit during these trying times.

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Come join us!

RSVP now for Arts + Action Talk: Spirituality of the Body here. It’s FREE!

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

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Artist Reach Out: Charmaine Warren

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Charmaine Warren

Charmaine Warren
(photo: Tony Turner)

Charmaine Warren (performer, historian, consultant, and dance writer) is the founder/artistic director for "Dance on the Lawn: Montclair's Dance Festival," and curator of dance at The Wassaic Project. She is the Producer of DanceAfrica, has curated for E-Moves and danced with david roussève/REALITY. Charmaine is on faculty at  Empire State Colleges, and is a former faculty at Ailey/Fordham, Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College and Kean University. She has been published in Dance Magazine and Amsterdam News and served as a panelist for Robert Battle's New Directions Choreography Lab.

Charmaine holds a Ph.D. in History/Howard University, a Master’s in Dance Research/City College, and Bachelor Degrees (Dance/English)/Montclair State College. She is a 2017 Bessie Award Recipient for Outstanding Performance as a member of Skeleton Architecture Collective.

Charmaine Warren
(photo: Tony Turner)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

Sadly, this year, 2020, was to be my first live DanceAfrica as the newly-hired Producer. Like other presenting organizations, BAM was closed, and we were all directed to follow the shelter-in-place directives. With the support of my many colleagues at BAM, most especially Coco Killingsworth, we created and presented Digital DanceAfrica.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

So many years ago, I was introduced to dance as an 8th grader, preparing for high school in Montclair, NJ. The school system was to begin a performing arts program at the high school, and one could take dance instead of gym. I signed up quickly.

It was this introduction to dance in Montclair, at the high school--then Montclair State College, now Montclair State University, just a bus or train ride to New York--that opened up the world of dance to me. I will name Andrew Jannetti with whom I began dancing through my college connections, but later I spent many years as a member of david rousseve/REALITY.

Those were great years of learning, performing and fellowship which I still hold dear. Now, most of my time is spent as an administrator (Founder/Artistic Director, Dance on the Lawn: Montclair's Dance Festival; Producer, DanceAfrica), but I cherish my time as a member of the improvisational group Skeleton Architecture, begun by Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

Four members of Skeleton Architecture Collective
in a 2018 appearance at Danspace Project.
Left to right: Angie Pittman, Melanie Greene,
Charmaine Warren and Jasmine Hearn
(photo: Ian Douglas)

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

I always had a daily practice, but now I'm giving more time to it. I practice Ashtanga yoga. I practice French through the Duolingo app.  I'm also thinking of how best to support African-descended artists beyond check-in phone calls.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

My yoga practice helps me to stay centered and allows time to truly think about next steps, because I sometimes move too fast. ;-) I highly recommend that some form of self-care is embraced.

I began French in high school and continued in college. As the Producer of DanceAfrica, I want to be as adept in the language as possible for those visits to francophone Africa; I want to be able to speak easily with my brothers and sisters there.

Lastly, it has always been my charge to support African-descended artists, so I am determined to find a way to do so from afar. I'm close to knowing what that thing is...very close.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

My yoga practice (stillness), my French lessons (connecting), and my commitment to African-descended artists is what keeps me strong; it keeps me centered; it helps me to know that there is truth in what we have done, what we do now, and what we will continue to do--MAKE ART!

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

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It's time to E-Moves again at Harlem Stage

Kyle Marshall
(photo: David Gonsier)

Spring's here and, with it, a fresh new season of E-Moves at Harlem Stage, featuring commissioned works by "emerging, evolving and established" choreographers of color, as writes E-Moves series curator Charmaine Warren.

Running from Fridays and Saturdays only, March 31 to April 8, the programming spans a range of interests--iconoclastic approaches to ballet to an innovative blend of Indian and contemporary dance. Choreographers include Francesca Harper ((y)ourstory : Chapter one, a work in progress), Parijat Desai (JustLikeThat), Kyle Marshall (Colored) and Leyland Simmons (Traffic).

E-Moves 18 also promises nightly “Pop-Up” performances by renowned artists such as tap dancer Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards and dancers from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.

“Pop Up” artists:

Friday, March 31: Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards: Tap solo created & performed by Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards

Saturday, April 1: Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE: SHE IS HERE (2016), Choreography: Ronald K. Brown, performed by Annique Roberts.

Friday, April 7: Dance Theatre of Harlem: Movement 3, Love from VESSELS (2014), choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie, performed by Alison Stroming and Francis Lawrence.

Saturday, April 8: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: VALLEY COTTAGE (1980/1981 revised in 2011)(excerpt), Choreographers: Bill T. Jones &  Arnie Zane, performed by Antonio Brown and I-Ling Liu.

E-Moves 18 schedule

Friday, March 31, 7:30pm

Saturday, April 1, 7:30pm

Friday, April 7, 7:30pm

Saturday, April 8, 7:30pm

Each program is approximately 90 minutes. For tickets & more information, click here or call (212) 281-9240 ext. 19 or 20.

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at West 135th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)


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Upper Manhattan's dance advocates speak out

Look who's speaking out for dance!
Above: Nia Love
Below: Charmaine Warren

47 notable leaders and local residents of Upper Manhattan--including choreographer Nia Love, Yuien Chin of Harlem One Stop, Mikki Shephard of the Apollo Theater, Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation--tell what they value about the art of dance in Dance/NYC’s NEW YORKERS FOR DANCE video campaign.

Here are a few samples from the series: 

Nia Love

Charmaine Warren

Mikki Shepard

All videos are now live on DanceNYC.org website and YouTube channel.

"Dance Criticism in New York" -- Thank you so much!

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

T H A N K  Y O U !

to everyone from Gibney Dance, especially Craig Peterson,  Margaret Tudor,  Julia Vickers,  Paul Galando and the entire team

to my esteemed panelists--Rose Anne Thom,  A Nia Austin-Edwards,  Jaime Shearn Coan,  Siobhan Burke,  Charmaine Warren and Marissa Perel

and to all who attended or participated online

Dance Criticism in New York was an unqualified success with our six panelists sharing diverse experience and perspectives, each speaker demonstrating professional commitment to honest, responsible work on behalf of this art that we all love. We can all agree that our writing thrives on the dynamic energy of multiple worlds--our immediate, one-to-one encounter with artists and their work; our own histories and inner landscapes; and our life OUT THERE in our communities with readers who value dance now or might recognize its worth through our special insight and passionate example.

Moving on, we need to look at the power we invest in dance criticism, who claims access to that power and to what ends, who is denied access and the consequences of that exclusion. We need to create alternative, but adequately supported, venues for dance writing, and we need to value and compensate the dedicated time, skill and labor of that writing.

I hope our conversation will continue in many forms, generating new ideas and collaborations. Please reach out to me with your thoughts and suggestions. I am ready to partner with you.

If you missed this event or its livestream, you can access the recording here.

In the meantime, here is the text of my introductory remarks.

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In his 2002 essay, “The Perfect Dance Critic,” Miguel Gutierrez wrote, “The perfect dance critic does not exist.” [http://www.miguelgutierrez.org/words/the-perfect-dance-critic/] And then Miguel went on to tell us the many, many qualities, abilities, tendencies and working conditions that would make it possible for that mythical unicorn, The Perfect Dance Critic, to exist.

But, perhaps, what we should be looking for in dance criticism is progress, not perfection.

Convening tonight’s panel is my way of asking, Can we get a little progress here in New York, a city that remains of great importance in dance’s history, its growth and innovation and, I trust, its future? A little progress, if not perfection?

Can we, as critics, be a meaningful part of this community? Or do we stay at the sidelines? Do we, as dance critics, have a meaningful place out in the world beyond dance? A world of beauty and also a world of inequities and injustice? Can we bridge the gap, bringing that world in, bringing dance out to that world?

Rather than perfection, can we seek humanity?  Rather than cool and lofty distance from the artist, can we respond to art and to artists with empathy?  Can we meet the poetry of dance with the poetry of words?  Rather than complacency, can we have insurgency? Provocation? Transformation? Shamanism? Can we value the diversity and complexity of a changing world in which we do not fear those changes nor fear how they require us to rigorously examine ourselves, to question our assumptions and to evolve? Can we foster communion, perception, intuition? Can we honor deep and broad experience and knowledge without resisting new questions, new tools, new pathways?

Do we truly love dance enough to give it the respectful attention and witness that it deserves?

I’m wondering. I’m hoping. And that is why we are here tonight.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

(c)2015, InfiniteBody

[UPDATE] "Dance Criticism in New York" panel at Gibney

Dance Criticism in New York

Tuesday, May 12 -- 6pm to 8:30pm

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway, Manhattan

Above, l-r: Charmaine Warren, A. Nia Austin-Edwards and Marissa Perel
Below, l-r: Rose Anne Thom, Jaime Shearn Coan and Siobhan Burke

Do dance critics play a useful, integrated role within New York’s dance community? How well do they serve the field and its audiences? How can dance writing and its presentation evolve to make the most of changed and challenging economic, social and technological environments?

Listen to insights from writers A. Nia Austin-Edwards, Charmaine Warren, Jaime Shearn Coan, Marissa Perel, Rose Anne Thom and Siobhan Burke, with moderator Eva Yaa Asantewaa, followed by a frank and lively discussion of your own ideas on dance criticism in New York.

Free admission

RSVP here

Note: As of Monday, April 13, we are at capacity for this event, but we will be livestreaming!

CLICK HERE: http://www.danceandnewmedia.org/live

Also, we'll be taking questions for the panel via Twitter! All you have to do is tweet @GibneyDance with #AsktheCritics.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Hold the date! Tuesday, May 12: Dance Criticism in New York

Dance Criticism in New York

presented by

Gibney Dance Center

280 Broadway, Manhattan

moderated by

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

InfiniteBody

Tuesday, May 12 

6pm to 8:30pm

Free admission

(RSVP information to come)

Do dance critics play a useful, integrated role within New York’s dance community? 

How well do they serve the field and its audiences? 

How can dance writing and its presentation evolve to make the most of changed and challenging economic, social and technological environments?

Listen to insights from our panel of dance writers--

A Nia Austin-Edwards

Charmaine Warren

Jaime Shearn Coan

Marissa Perel

Rose Anne Thom

and

Siobhan Burke

--as they respond to these questions as well as "The Perfect Dance Critic," an essay by Miguel Gutierrez. Brief presentations will be followed by a frank, lively community discussion of your own ideas and strategies around dance criticism in New York.

How about a little less Bill?

Actual listing for Bill Chats

from TimeOut.com, February 13, 2014:

Bill T. Jones sits across noted artists in a series of talks.

Last Sunday evening, I attended Bill Chats: When did the avant-garde become black?--a two-hour panel discussion hosted and moderated by Bill T. Jones at New York Live Arts. Since then, I've largely kept my own counsel as I sorted out thoughts that progressed from ambivalence to outright dismay.

From these "chats" to Jones's ambitious Live Ideas event series--last year, inspired by Oliver Sacks; this time by James Baldwin--it's clear that Jones intends to place his singular mark on the entity now known as New York Live Arts. He's steering it out into broader, deeper, more intellectually heady and political waters and aims to attract a sophisticated audience not necessarily affiliated with contemporary dance. I think good things can come of this for dance as well as for those smart newcomers to the art, although it has the potential to rattle and possibly alienate the more tightly focused folks in our dance community.

I do like this potential encounter and overlapping of worlds; it mirrors my own interests. I'm even more excited about the Baldwin programming for Live Ideas than I was about the Sacks series, but what I saw of Bill Chats worries me.

I'll step out in front of this and just say it: It's not a "chat" if you're hectoring your guests and some of your audience members. It's not a "chat" if you invite the following extraordinary panelists--

Ishmael Houston-Jones
Bebe Miller
Adrienne Edwards
Dianne McIntyre
Charmaine Warren
Ralph Lemon
Brenda Dixon Gottschild

--each of whom is a living archive and then get so caught up in your own button-pushing agenda, your own history, and your own sense of being stereotyped or slighted that you rarely take time to tap the considerable knowledge that your guests possess. That's a Murderer's Row of experience, scholarship and sensibilities just sitting around you, Mr. Jones, hardly utilized.

How useful is this self-declared role of "provocateur"--everything "said with a wink and a 'fuck you' smile," as Jones would have it--in the long run? Curtly dismissing Ralph Lemon's analysis in his opening statement--why? because there wasn't enough "feeling" in it?--was not cool and felt disrespectful. Suddenly putting John Jasperse on the spot, as a white choreographer sitting in the audience, really wasn't cool either. Cryptic shoutouts to the soon-departing Carla Peterson--"I'm doing it right now, Carla!"--sound just ill-tempered. These behaviors don't actually advance discussion of complex issues. They are merely showy and rude.

A chat is also not a performance. A performance is not a chat.

In other words, it is so not about you.

For future Bill Chats, please let the panelists breathe. Give them room to stretch and run. You cannot choreograph their voices, and you should not try.

We show up because we want to hear what they have to say.

Bill T. Jones asks "When did the avant-garde become black?"

Bill T. Jones

Bill T. Jones 

and New York Live Arts

invite you to

Bill Chats

When did the avant-garde become black?

at New York Live Arts

Sunday, March 23, 5pm

In this talk, noted panelists including Ralph Lemon, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Adrienne Edwards, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Diane McIntyre, Bebe Miller and Charmaine Warren will inquire as to when it became acceptable for a person who defines themselves as avant-garde to also say “I’m black.”

Admission: FREE

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
212-924-0077
(map/directions)

Bill Chats will be live streamed in collaboration with live streaming startup 2ndline.tv.

Souleymane Badolo's "Benon" premieres at Danspace Project

Souleymane Badolo
(photo by Peggy Jarrell Kaplan)

In a manner of speaking, Benon, the new hour-long duet from Souleymane Badolo at Danspace Project, has a foot in one world and another foot entirely elsewhere. Yes, Badolo, originally from the West African nation of Burkina Faso, flourishes at an intersection of strong cultural tradition and searching innovation. He has done so for a few decades within his own choreography as well as the work of Nora Chipaumire, Reggie Wilson and other artists. But what I'm thinking about now has nothing to do with what's age-old and what's contemporary but rather the crucial difference between what's extraordinary and what's merely ordinary.

The title of the piece alludes to the harvest celebrations of Badolo's homeland. But the piece begins not with displays of abundance and communal joy but with the ominous sight and grating sound of discarded commercial plastic. Crates crammed with empty spring water bottles occupy polar corners of the space. Scrunched-up lengths of plastic trash bags form a vest-like mesh around Badolo's bare torso, and he clutches a stack of plastic cups in his arms. Charmaine Warren wears a full, flowing hooded cape of translucent plastic with a trailing skirt made of black trash bags, a costume of surprising regal beauty. She wears it well. With Warren firmly attached to his back and following his every move, Badolo gravely treads the space, dropping or tossing cups onto the floor.

This, then, is our harvest, our plenitude. The thought arises: "You will reap what you sow." Badolo has turned the idea of harvest upside down and ventures into the realm of the prophetic, the extraordinary.

Warren's extended solo work in this duet is indeed extraordinary, her severe manner and gaze perfectly recalling Symbolist portraiture. From the placement of her feet to the raptor-like expanse and dry, decisive swirls of her arms, she brings focus and grandeur and a compelling weirdness to each movement in the space and each moment. And the returning Badolo, donning braces of blond straw that extend from his back like a body halo, seems ready to set a new, solemn phase of action and meaning in motion.

But as the work continues, the spell breaks. Once broken, there's no return. Badolo appears to move farther from his purpose and farther from the extraordinary into a regrettably ordinary plane.

Why walk up and stare into an audience member's eyes, as Badolo does, twice? Those stares should pack more power than they do here. The gesture recalls the way a ritual dancer, possessed of a god or spirit, might transmit the energy of that ethereal being to the gathered assembly. But here the jump of electricity from dancer to watcher goes missing. We don't feel it. We don't learn from it. We merely wonder, Why did he do that? What does it serve?

Overall, the presence and contributions of saxophonist Jeff Hudgins do not appear to be well defined. Why layer his bleats and honks over recordings of Burkinabé songs? Why, as the dance moves into its later passages, have him drift into the space and around the dancers? He is not dancing, nor is he adding anything to the dancing. This maneuver, in itself not especially fresh, reveals no significance unique or essential to Badolo's project.

Benon's initially tight coil loosens, and--rather than presenting a definitive ending--the end dancing becomes engulfed by darkness in a way that suggests an artist's resignation rather than choice.

Lighting: Carol Mullins
Costumes: Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya
Set design and construction: Tony Turner

Benon concludes tonight at 8pm. For program and ticket information, click here.

Danspace Project

131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue), Manhattan

(directions)

Race barriers in classical ballet: A conversation at NJPAC

Ballerina Ashley Murphy
(photo by Matthew Murphy)

Black Ballerinas: 

Breaking the Boundaries of Classical Ballet

Thursday, January 16, 7-8:30pm

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

1 Centre Street, Newark, New Jersey

Free admission

In 2007, The New York Times asked, Where are all the Black Swans? An urgent dialogue sparked by that question has caused leading dance institutions nationwide to examine the rarity of African-American women among their ranks.

A conversation about raising the profile of the black ballerina, and the economic opportunities for diversifying and expanding audiences, will be held on January 16, the evening prior to a performance by Dance Theatre of Harlem at NJPACs annual tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Moderator:

Charmaine Warren, dance journalist

Announced panelists (as of January 8):

Virginia Johnson, Artistic Director and a founding principal dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem

Michelle Gadson-Williams, Head of Global Diversity at Credit Suisse

Map/Directions

New Web site from Charmaine Warren

My esteemed and richly talented colleague Charmaine Warren is debuting her Web site. Visit and learn more about her multifaceted practices--dance, dance education, arts consultation, yoga instruction and writing on dance. Click here!

And more joy...Ailey students!

Ailey School students with Dr. Charmaine Warren (far right, in brown) and Brian McCormick (center, peace signs) (c)2011, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

A very fond thank you to Dr. Charmaine Warren and students of her seminar at The Ailey School for welcoming me and my colleague Brian McCormick today, for your thoughtful and fun questions about dance criticism and your superb attentiveness.

Please let me encourage you, once again, to bring your fierce passion, vision and unique selves to everything that you do out in the world! We need you! Bring it!