Give your junk to Sarah Maxfield

Here's a message to you all from the resourceful Sarah Maxfield. I wish I'd known about this before I recycled a collection of dance, theater and museum tickets--three year's worth!--and the usual annual assortment of press kits and programs! Oh, well... Sounds like a wonderful project. Get involved!

Hello dear friends,

I need your old junk.

I want to include your stuff in an exhibit of performance ephemera. The exhibit will be part of a public event I'm developing for The Chocolate Factory in March. I'd like the exhibit to include as many things as possible (from as many artists as possible), which represent our collective performance past in New York City. Do you have some things you would be willing to share for this purpose?

I'm particularly interested in collecting things like programs, postcards, tickets, fliers, and other things which include information that can be understood and recognized by relative "strangers" to the "performance community," as well as by the denizens of our little world. I'm less interested in costumes, props, etc., unless it is something relatively iconic (i.e. would be recognizable to your audience as well as those who were in your rehearsal room).

If you have some stuff to share, please let me know, and we can coordinate pick-up. Everything will be returned to you, unharmed.

I'm also collecting the following information for the project, so, even if you don't have any physical stuff to share, please consider emailing me your response to the following questions:

1. What is your favorite place in the City to meet someone for coffee?

2. What is your favorite place in the City to meet someone for a drink?

3. What is your favorite public place (street corner, park, crosswalk, etc.) in the City?

Thanks for considering these requests, and feel free to forward this on to your friends.

Cheers,

Sarah Maxfield (sarahmaxATgmailDOTcom)

sarahmaxfield.wordpress.com

Prominent Chinese artist's studio destroyed

Prominent Chinese Artist’s Studio Torn Down

by Edward Wong, The New York Times, January 12, 2011

Dance films at NewFilmmakers

NewFilmmakers presents three dance documentaries.

Wednesday, January 6 (6pm-7pm)

at Anthology Film Archives

Joshan Esfandiari Martin's Next (2010, 6 minutes) is a short film about a young dancer. Utilizing its own edit technique (roll edit), the images are in constant lateral flow, connecting her dance with a unique personal life.

In Christine Kellogg's Dancing the Tide (2010, 11 minutes), when the isolation and sorrow of life take over, it's the love, laughter, and support from others that brings us back into the dance. 

Noriko Sakamoto's The Heron and The Geisha: A Life in Dance (2009, 37 minutes) goes behind the curtain and into the studio of a Japanese dance grandmaster. Yoshie Tachibana, the third in a line of traditional dancers, lives in the center of an ancient world made up of admirers, disciples, and artisans. 

An elegant woman in a flowing silk kimono holds a pose, while flower petals gently fall around her. This is the figure of the grandmaster of traditional Japanese dance, Yoshie Tachibana. The graceful poses and gorgeous costumes are what her public fills theaters to watch.There is another side to the mysterious world of classical arts in Japan, and The Heron and the Geisha: A Life in Dance goes behind the curtain and into the studio of a Japanese dance grandmaster. Yoshie Tachibana, the third in a line of traditional dancers, lives in the center of an ancient world made up of admirers, disciples, and artisans. Her students kneel before her, taking her harsh words with stoic calm even as tears run down their cheeks. Her wigmaker, a Tokyo artisan who makes wigs for Kabuki actors, patiently smiles as she instructs him. Her kimono salesman recalls the days when even as a young girl, Iemoto Tachibana had her kimonos custom made for special occasions. Iemoto Tachibana shows what it means to be fully committed to an art form, and how after decades of practice a person becomes a dancer. Her words and her dance reveal an art form, and a view of art, that even the most dedicated connoisseurs can never get to see. (More information on this film)

Admission: $6 for the full evening, which also includes a short film program at 7pm and a feature--Hassan Ildari's dark comedy, Small Potatoes--at 8pm. For complete information on these other films, click here, scroll down to January 26 and click Film Notes.

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at Second Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Singer Margaret Whiting, 86

Margaret Whiting, Clear-Voiced Singer, Is Dead at 86

by David Belcher, The New York Times, January 11, 2011

NYCB touring troupe opposed by union

Dancers Union Objects to City Ballet's Plan for Touring Troupe

by Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, January 11, 2011

Workshop: Dancing to taxim

Aszmara’s Dancing to Taxim Workshop
with master musician Souren Baronian

Saturday, January 22 (3-6pm)

Anahid Sofian Studio
29 West 15th Street, 6th Floor (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan

Clarinet, Kaval and Dooduk - these instruments cry, laugh, wail, and inspire madness! Dancing to these instruments with their specific qualities and voices are explored in this very special workshop. What a rare treat for dancers to have master musician Souren Baronian joining Aszmara as we find new ways of listening and understanding the taxim form, work on improvisational skills, connect with the musician’s voice, and to express ourselves in the emotional notes of the music.

15 participants maximum
Fee: $60. Pre-registration required. Deadline: January 20
To register: Aszmara@Aszmara.com or 914-318-8605
For full information, please click here.

Kovgan: images of Nora

Alla Kovgan: Shoemaker

Nov/Dec Journal Part III, Dance Films Association

Filmmaker Alla Kovgan talks about the making of NORA with dancer-choreographer Nora Chipaumire