The Turning World (42)

Rule Change Would Permit Weapons in National Parks
by Jim Robbins, The New York Times, May 30, 2008

"24 x 4 x 4" by 1

Written for the Movement Research 2008 Spring Festival blog:

This morning, from my friend Serge in Paree, I receive the following wonderful explanation:

"Esprit d'escalier (meaning: what comes up in your mind (when you leave where you've been) while you're going down the stairs--what you should've said, I have those alot, I try not to take elevators, walking up and down is good for you, but I'm getting off track here, oh, well)."

So, what was my esprit d'escalier as I walked up and down the stairs between dance pieces at Movement Research's 24 x 4 x 4 show last night?

After Piece #1 (do these things even have titles? can I get a list of the hastily-read-off names of participating choreographers, please?): "I thought maybe the tunnel would go on forever." Security guards in sunglasses in the car was the best part. Or maybe the mimicking of those iPod silhouette poster boys and girls. A video of dance that largely happens inside a car. Talk about creative constraints!

After Piece #2: Serial beer-swilling by the Frigidaire light, killer voiceover, and that image of a figurine of a flower-bedecked cow projected just beneath Judson's rose window? My winner. Let's see this again!

After Piece #3: Hmmm... Maybe not. After standing outside the gym's closed door and watching strobe lighting flash through the cracks while all sorts of banging and strange vocal sounds leaked out, and then watching the door open part way, harsh light crashing over the people closest to it, I wanted something more earth-shaking to be going on inside.

After Piece #4: Prop- and sound-driven. Requires some assembly. Best visual/sonic element: cylinders made of rolled-up sheets of aluminum foil walked across a couple of taut strings spanning the space. Best thing here: Everybody's very musician-like, task-focused cool.

If you were teamed up with three other artists (chosen at random) and given 24-hours to concoct a performance, what might you do? Does that sound scary? Does it sound kicky? Does it sound like something that should happen more often?

An appeal from the NYC Arts Coalition

The New York City Arts Coalition's lease will not be renewed at the end of July, and I am really becoming very anxious.

I have been looking for space for two months, and find brokers uninterested because the space is so small, and we don't have a lot of money.  We need about 550-600 sq feet of useable space and we need some of that space to be private office space. However, I am as flexible as we can be.

Locale: flexible, but anything that is on the western side of Manhattan is far easier transportation for everyone working here.

I need to keep the rent around $1600-1800 per month, unless it includes cleaning and security, in which case I can go a bit higher.

A two-three year lease is OK.  We have been subletting since 2000, and we are accustomed to sharing.   (We make good neighbors.)

This is a real plea for help.  All efforts deeply appreciated.

Norma

Norma P. Munn
Chairperson
New York City Arts Coalition
351-A West 54 St.
NYC  10019    212-246-3788
npmunn@nycityartscoalition.org

Dancing at the Crossroads

Dancers Responding to AIDS, in association with the Times Square Alliance, presents Dancing at the Crossroads, a free performance, June 8, 4:30-6:30PM.

Times Square Alliance
Dancers Responding to AIDS

Staged on Military Island in Times Square, where Broadway meets 7th Avenue at 44th Street, the program will feature over 200 dancers from 20 dance companies, including:

Martha Graham Dance Company

Buglisi Dance Theatre

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

the cast of Broadway's Cry Baby

Rioult

Pilobolus

STREB

Kegwin + Company

Balam Dance Theatre

Darrah Carr Dance

Feliciano Dance Company

The United States Dance Team

choreography of Wendy Seyb

R. Evolucion Latina

Bollywood Axion

Akjun Ballet Theatre

Revolution Sweat Dance Rock and Roll

David Dorfman Dance

Drew Jacoby

Farmingham Dance Company

Monroe Dance Company

and others!

Dancers Responding to AIDS is the ongoing, committed response of the American dance community to an urgent worldwide health crisis. DRA is a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), the nation's leading industry-based AIDS funding and grant-making organization.

The funds raised are distributed to seven programs of the Actors' Fund of America and as grants to over 500 AIDS and family service organizations across the U.S. Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has distributed over $140 million for critically needed services for people with AIDS, HIV, or HIV-related illnesses.

Dancing locally, thinking globally

The World Dance Alliance's 2008 Global Meeting will be held July 13-18 at the University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Representatives of all three World Dance Alliance-affiliated regions--the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe--will attend to discuss dance around the world.

The theme of the conference this year is "Dance Dialogues: Conversations Across Cultures, Artforms and Practices."

Activities include:

* Dance dialogues with internationally renowned cultural thinkers and performers

* Master classes with leading dance practitioners and choreographers

* Choreolab conducted by Lloyd Newson, Artistic Director of DV8, and Boi Sakti, Artistic Director of Boi Sakti Dance, Theatre of Indonesia

* International conference with papers and performances from 23 countries

* Evening performances by Expressions Dance Company, Queensland Ballet & Reel Dance (on screen)

* World Dance Alliance Global Congress

World Dance Alliance serves as a primary voice for dance and dancers throughout the world, and encourages the exchange of ideas and the awareness of dance in all its many forms.

The five networks of WDA are:

Creation and Presentation

Education and Training

Management and Promotion

Research and Documentation Network

Status and Welfare Network

Additional information about the Global Summit

World Dance Alliance

The Turning World (41)

Where Breathing is Deadly
by Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, May 25, 2008

The necessary wild

A Wilderness, Lost in the City
by William C. Thompson, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The New York Times, May 29, 2008

I was delighted to be introduced to Ridgewood Reservoir by dancer-choreographer Jennifer Monson who is devoted to keeping it as a wild, natural preserve. I ran into her last night at Susan Rethorst's (wonderful!!!) show at Danspace Project, and we were both excited about this op-ed piece in the Times. But Ridgewood Reservoir is not the only "teeming wildlife preserve" in New York City. One of my favorite city haunts is Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, located in Queens, just off Cross Bay Boulevard, about a 10-minute walk from the A train's Broad Channel station. Having access to nature is as necessary to me as the food I eat and the dances I witness!

We are family.
Canada geese at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Photo by Eva Yaa Asantewaa
(c) 2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa


Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, May 26, 2008
Photo by Eva Yaa Asantewaa
(c) 2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Save Ridgewood Reservoir

Riverkeeper

iLand--Interdisciplinary Lab for Art, Nature and Dance

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge