Carlos Santana finds a universal tone

Carlos Santana: 'I Am A Reflection Of Your Light'
Michel Martin, Morning Edition, NPR, November 4, 2014

Beverly Blossom, 88 [UPDATE]

Beverly Blossom
(photos by Beatriz Schiller)

Announcement just received from dance publicist Audrey Ross:

Dear Friend:

It is with great sadness that I note the passing of the celebrated dancer/actress Beverly Blossom (August 28, 1926 - November 1, 2014)

A true original, Beverly was born Beverly Schmidt in Chicago and studied dance, piano, and elocution as a child.   Her first dance appearance seems to have occurred when she was five years old, when she participated in a huge spectacle at Soldier Field with many other children, "probably one of the government-sponsored W.P.A. art projects of its time, since it was during the Great Depression of the early 1930's," she recalled.   While attending Carleton College in Chicago, she met and studied dance with Nancy Hauser, and after receiving a Bachelors Degree from Roosevelt College in 1950, she moved to New York City to continue her dance training.   In New York Beverly joined Alwin Nikolais Dance Company and performed with them from 1953 to 1963.   In 1957, she took a leave of absence from the Nikolais Company when she was granted a Fulbright Fellowship for a year in Europe to study with Mary Wigman in West Berlin.

Returning to her home state in the late 1960's, Beverly served as professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1967 to 1990 and, after retiring, had Professor Emeritus status at the University of Illinois.

Beverly continued to produce numerous concerts of her own dance/theater works in New York starting in the 1960s.  A Beverly Blossom concert was always a highlight of the New York dance season, delighting audiences with her unique theatricality, wit, and a one-of-a-kind personality.   Her works were funded by the National Endowment for the Art and the New York State Council on the Arts, among others; she was awarded a Bessie for sustained achievement in 1993, and received the 2009 Martha Hill Award for lifetime achievement in dance.

Blossom was married in the late 1960s to late actor Roberts Blossom and is survived by a son, Michael Blossom, owner of the Floradora women's boutiques in downtown Chicago.

Update: A New York Times obituary was published on November 3:

Beverly Blossom, Solo Dancer With a ‘Voice,’ Dies at 88
by Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times, November 3, 2014

For Carmen de Lavallade, the dance goes on

Carmen de Lavallade Still Captivates Onstage at 83
by Danielle C. Belton, The Root, October 30, 2014

Artists needed for International Human Rights Day

Dancing While Black

in partnership with

the Human Rights Project 

at the Urban Justice Center

announces

OPEN SEASON

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Open Season is an event that combines art and creative conversation with nationally recognized experts about race and the culture of policing in America. The inaugural session will be held on December 10, 2014—International Human Rights Day. The Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center, in partnership with Dancing While Black, is pleased to offer an opportunity for performance and visual artists to become a part of this immersive experience.

WANTED: Imaginative, provocative visual and performance art on the topics of community, confinement, race and gender. We encourage submissions that address these themes in a creative and expansive way.

ELIGIBILITY: Artists of color who are working in dance, performance, photography, multimedia installation, animation, illustration, painting or drawing. Performance work should be performance ready in a small or unconventional space, no longer than five minutes, require minimal setup and technical support. For visual art submissions, please send up to ten images saved as a pdf portfolio labeled with your lastname_firstname.

We encourage submissions from artists who have personal experience with the criminal justice system, including people who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated and their family members.

SUBMISSION: Please prepare a PDF portfolio of no more than 10 images and/or a link to a 5 minute performance you would like us to consider. Include:

    a 150 word description of the work and why it should be included in Open Season;

    a resume and 150 word bio;

    Performance Artists: A list of technical requirements;

    Visual Artists: List of images by number that includes artist name, name of work, medium, dimensions, and date.

DEADLINE 

November 12, 11:59pm

Complete submissions should be sent to:

OpenSeasonSubmission@gmail.com

No shame in their game: Mosley troupe readies premiere of "CAKE"

Autumn Scoggan, Candace Thompson and Kimberly Mhoon in
The Window Sex Project film, choreographed by Sydnie L. Mosley
(photo: Keevan Girdharry)
This month, Mosley's troupe will premiere CAKE.

Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, a Harlem-based troupe noted for its focus on women's activism through the arts, presents the world premiere of CAKE as guests of The Victory Dance Project on Sunday, November 9, 2pm, at Actors Fund Art Center. In Mosley's words,

CAKE questions the definition of respectability, and considers how doing away with shame around the female body can enliven those bodies to create new, free realities.

Get tickets here.

Actors Fund Art Center
160 Schermerhorn, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Margaret O'Sullivan, Weidman dancer and educator, has died

Margaret O'Sullivan

An announcement from Robert Kosinski, President, Board of Directors, The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, Inc.

It is with great sadness and a broken heart that I tell you Margaret O’Sullivan – dear friend, mother, grandmother, dancer, teacher, colleague, and Co-president of the Board of Directors died Tuesday October 21, 2014. The cause was cancer.

Margaret was a member of the last generation of dancers to dance with Charles Weidman in his theater dance company in the 1970’s. She appeared in Mr. Weidman’s works including the Christmas and Easter Oratorios, Lynchtown, Brahms Waltzes, Opus 51 Opening Dance, Bargain Counter, the Thurber Fables, The War Between the Men and the Women, and others. Margaret was a member of the CWDF Board of Directors since 1989 and was involved in the production of our award-winning documentary Charles Weidman: On His Own. She also participated in The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation’s presentation of our Humphrey-Weidman Gala at The Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York in 1994. Later Margaret was instrumental in arranging, staging, coaching, and teaching Mr. Weidman’s works in our educational outreach initiative at several institutions including New York University, Montclair State University, and the José Limón- Professional Dance Program. With Janet Towner she staged excerpts from the Easter Oratorio at NYU that was performed in New York City at the 92nd Street Y Legacy Series in 2010. In 2011 Margaret staged Brahms Waltzes at NYU while coaching MSU students in Lynchtown. Both dances were performed at the 92nd Street Y for the 110th anniversary of Charles Weidman’s birth, the 75th anniversary of Lynchtown and the 50th anniversary of Brahms Waltzes. Margaret staged Lynchtown for Nimbus Dance Works, which was performed at the Alvin Ailey Theater in 2012 and all over the Northeast for Nimbus’ Lynchtown/Thistown Project in 2013. She had been tireless in her dedication to the legacy of Charles Weidman and The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation. We will miss her dearly.

I want to express how heart broken I feel as a result of the loss of my dear friend and colleague. Margaret and I were not only members of the CWDF board, we were members of Charles Weidman’s Theater Dance Company and performed together at the Expression of Two Arts Theater on West 29th Street in New York City. We would often reminisce about the Sunday night performances Charles gave 52 weeks a year. Margaret and I “starred” as Mary and Joseph in the Christmas Oratorio. During the recitative describing their plight in Bethlehem looking for a room, there would be a pause in the dancing. Then Margaret and I would make our way, on our knees, around the perimeter of the stage miming a knock on the door of the inns – then being turned away by the innkeeper. Sometimes, with our backs to the audience, we would kibitz with each other while making our way from inn to inn. After each performance Charles would always invite us back to his living quarters in the back of the studio where we would talk about the performance and the audience reaction and any flubs we made during the performance – Charles spotted everything. We worked hard in class and during rehearsals, but those Sunday night performances were worth all the sweat and hard work. Margaret always remembered them fondly. She liked to tell the story of her first visit to Charles’ studio. On her first day she arrived a little early and climbed the stairs to the second floor. She knocked on the door and was flabbergasted when Charles himself opened the door and welcomed her in. After introductions, Charles showed her the “dressing” room, which was a small alcove near the front door separated from the studio by a white sheet – the men and women dressing rooms were separated by another sheet. A few more words were exchanged and as Charles headed back to the living quarters he turned to Margaret and said “And by the way, you’re very pretty!” And so shall she remain to me.

Robert Kosinski, President

Board of Directors

The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, Inc.

The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation would like to invite all who knew Margaret to send us your remembrances of her, whether through dance or not, which we will post on our website, Facebook page, and blog. We want to do this to pay tribute to her dedication to Charles Weidman and the Charles Weidman Dance Foundation and to celebrate her life. Send your remembrances to:

charlesweidman@gmail.com

 or to our mailing address:

The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, Inc.

340 East 64th Street #10N

New York, NY 10065 

While we will miss Margaret dearly, we know that she would want us to continue to carry out the Foundation's mission. In the words of Charles Weidman, we will "carry on." Visit the CWDF's website to learn more about our efforts and initiatives for 2014-2015.

Herb Schapiro, 85

Herb Schapiro, Playwright Behind ‘The Me Nobody Knows,’ Dies at 85
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, October 31, 2014