At the Center

The Center for Performance Research (CPR) has more than a catchy acronym to offer--it's a space for dance in Brooklyn. More specifically,  CPR "provides affordable space for rehearsal and performance, innovative arts programming, education and pedagogical engagement with the communities of New York City and abroad." Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the 4000 square feet center is "L.E.E.D. certified green." 

Tonight, Tuesday, June 15th @ 7pm , Caras El Puente Ensemble will be at CPR to share their "choreographic process of workshop"; something which the blurb promises is" ideal for teaching artists working with dance, diverse youth populations, or addressing socially engaged themes."

There is a reasonable $5/$10 suggested donation for all CPR events, and the glorious details are below:
 

Choreographing The Last Layer

Tuesday 6/15 @ 7pm

Where: CPR, 361 Manhattan Avenue (at Jackson), Williamsburg, Brooklyn,
11211. L train to Lorimer

Workshop/Demo with CARAS El Puente Dance Ensemble and Rozz Nash
Ensemble director Rozz Nash and young dancers address and demonstrate
the group's choreographic process; how culturally specific dances
and backgrounds of the troupe members inform the creation of
contemporary works such as their most recent, The Last Layer.

Rozz has an MA in Performing Arts Administration from NYU, and has been
teaching in New York City schools for 17 tears. Rozz founded CARAS in
2009.

For more information : www.cprnyc.org

Artists in Communities

The University Settlement's Performance Project cultivates new audiences for live performance by reaching out to those who have little access to the arts, and providing opportunities for community members to engage with working artists.

Teaching artists at the Settlement's relatively new Houston Street building, facilitate arts workshops in a variety of disciplines including visual arts, dance and theater.

The Performance Project also has a Curated Rental Program. Selected productions are marketed as part of the organization's season.

The application process for both the Artist-in-Residence Program and the Curated Rental Program is below:

• Mail or send an email to the arts program curator, Alison Fleminger at afleminger@universitysettlement.org
• Please include the lead artist(s) bio, resume and one page description of your current project. Highlight how you use the arts to engage with diverse communities.
• Please provide either links to performance footage or a DVD of a past performance.
• Please be sure to follow up with a phone call to Ms. Fleminger at 212.453.4532

Quiet Riot

When I am in need of thoughts on meaning-making education, the arts and/or social change, I visit Unlocking the Classroom, because it is written by a teaching artist who does just that.

This week, the third post in a series on love, and a Zora Neal Hurston qoute introduces a documentary on dance.

Most wonderful.

Good Teaching

As I've told you repeatedly, VSA Arts is in the business of creating a world where people with disabilities can "learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts."

Visitors to their terrific website will find resources galore and some non-free things too, including this 5-module magic-box called "Express Diversity"; which encourages children to "ask questions, engage in discussions, and work toward a better understanding of each other." The program costs $75 plus $12 shipping. Surprisingly, $87 is more than many TAs make for a workshop.

(pause)

You could ask your employer to buy one for the office.

Here's the order form (PDF.)

Also: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange - Ferocious Beauty: Genome

The Dance Teacher

Merce Cunningham has died. He was 90 years old and he trained a couple of generations of dancers.

In an old article by Gus Solomons Jr. in Dance Magazine, Cunningham's approach to teaching dance is discussed:

Mary Lisa Burns, director of the Cunningham School and longtime teacher there, says, "Merce thinks of dancing as being an enlargement of everyday movement…”

So, the technique involves principles rather than just combinations. It teaches the dancer "how to do something," as he puts it, instead of teaching the dancer how to move like the teacher.

Even when he was still dancing, Merce would often explain instead of demonstrate a phrase. "Rather than show the movement, if you explain it, the students have to think it through differently."

Here is one of his creative collaborations with John Cage. This was 40 years ago. I am certain people thought they were out of their minds.

Fire Starter

Since 1976, Liz Lerman and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange have been asking and answering four essential questions:

Who gets to dance?

Where is the dance happening?

What is it about?

Why does it matter?

Well, there's a conversation that could go on for awhile.

Also: Andre Gregory & Wallace Shawn - My Dinner With Andre

The Lights

The LA Times bills its blog Culture Monster as "ALL THE ARTS ALL THE TIME" and they are not messing around.

Headlines, now, even now. include:

A review of a new musical about the super-sized life of musical legend Johnny Cash.

An essay about President Barack Obama and the Arts, including a link to a video of the recent Whitehouse poetry slam.

An article about the ancient and wonderful Merce Cunningham who is busy making plans for his imminent departure.

I love LA.

The Center

Next stop on our thrilling tour, ARTSEDGE, a terrific multi-level site coming out of the Kennedy Center. 

Explore:

ARTSEDGE — the National Arts and Education Network — supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance the K-12 educational experience. 

ARTSEDGE empowers educators to teach in, through, and about the arts by providing the tools to develop interdisciplinary curricula that fully integrate the arts with other academic subjects.

ARTSEDGE offers free, standards-based teaching materials for use in and out of the classroom, as well as professional development resources, student materials, and guidelines for arts-based instruction and assessment.

Perhaps most importantly, ARTSEDGE is free.

Free lesson plans, and national arts learning standards, all in one place.

Heaven.

Lesson Plan spotlight:

Dancing the Elements Karl Schaffer, Erik Stern, and Scott Kim This list of elements is presented to jump-start non-dancers’ thinking about the art of dance. Space. The parts of the body can be used to create shapes of many different levels, usually divided into low, medium, and high. The levels are relative, though medium usually refers to the height of the body as we walk normally. The body can also move through space, creating directions, paths, and floor patterns. All of these aspects of space involve dimension: the movements may occur in a line, along a flat plane, or curve through space. Keep reading...

At the Ballet

On Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama came to New York City to promote the arts.

Here she is being introduced by Caroline Kennedy at the American Ballet Theater Spring Gala.

Mrs. Obama said  that the arts “define who we are as a people.”

Also: Billy Elliot - Possibly NSFW profanity.

Soul

Soul Deep: A New Artist for a Renewed Society is the title of Urban Bush Women's 2009 Summer Leadership Institute. The gathering will take place from July 31-August 9, in New Orleans.

As the title suggests, the theme of the event is renewal and participants should expect to find a supportive community of other artists, daily dance classes, dialogues and trainings on a variety of topics.

Find more information about the institute on the organization's website.

Move

Sometimes you need to rent space because you need to dance. 

Also, sometimes you don't have a lot of money.

Search: NY City Dance Spaces

Festival

I have a postcard for Catalan Days, a multidisciplinary festival featuring artists from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

"Produced by the Institut Ramon Llull, the festival includes dance, film, literature, classical, jazz and electronic music, plus world famous Catalan cuisine, and is held in partnership with the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jazz Standard, Lincoln Center’s Film Society, PEN American Center World Voices, Carnegie Hall, and the CUNY Graduate Center."

There will be a program of FREE events at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

FREE.

May 2 (Sat) at 8:00PM - THEATER
The Time of the Doves (La plaça del Diamant) by Mercè Rodoreda
Performed by Jessica Lange
Directed by Joan Ollé

The Time of the Doves is the most acclaimed novel by Mercè Rodoreda (1908-1983), one of Catalonia’s most beloved authors.

Reservations are required: 212-279-4200 / www.ticketcentral.com

For information about Catalan Days festival events occurring at other venues, please visit: www.llull.cat/catalandays.

Also: In this Lesson Plan (PDF) from the Salvador Dalí Museum, in Florida, students are introduced to art history terms and learn to identify examples of Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Classicism in Dalí's art. Students also learn about Surrealist games and techniques, like Exquisite Corpse and automatic writing.

Dance Fever

Partners for Arts Education is funding the Dancewave Learning to Teach Series and it looks like a terrific professional development opportunity for Teaching Artists.

Textured Journeys: Crafting Creative Movement Lessons for Very Young Artists, a 3-part seminar led by dance educator Barbara Bashaw, is designed to help individuals learn how to craft Creative Movement lessons for 3-9 year-olds.

The seminar runs on April 19, April 26th and May 3rd from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM. It costs $125, so you may have to roll some change or, better yet, ask your employer if they'll chip in.

I know it's the depression, but I still think employers should be looking for ways to help their teaching artists afford the cost of workshops like these.

Professional Development may be expensive, but bad teaching is forever.

For more information, call Dancewave at (718) 522-4696.

Dance and Disability

Gimp is a modern dance company that confronts preconceptions about disability.

Wow.

On the Road

A notice from the Field asks "What does it really take to get your work on the road, with the financial and creative support it deserves?"

I really couldn't tell you. Luckily, they can.

On March 18th, Pele Bauch, Associate Director of The Field, will be moderating an artists' panel on the basics of setting up your own performance tours. Artists on the panel will discuss everything you need to know, including: setting it up, working with booking agents, negotiating with venues and offering educational activities in conjunction with shows.

From Grassroots to Booking Agents will be held on Wednesday, March 18th at 6:30 P.M. at Dance New Amsterdam located at 280 Broadway, 2nd Floor (entrance on Chambers Street.)

On the panel are touring veterans Alexandra Beller, Sara Juli and James Scruggs.

Tickets are $5 for Field/DNA Members and $10 for everybody else.

Work!

The New York Times reports that unemployment has hit 8.1% and we have still not hit bottom.

This may be the time to ask yourself if you are in the right line of work. If not, please step aside now, I beg of you, because I am afraid there is not going to be enough work left for the rest of us.

Also: Pina Bausche (Café Müller) is quite possibly the hardest working woman in show business.

Dance Transmission

The Ailey School, the educational wing of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is offering a summer workshop on the pedagogical techniques of dance pioneer Lester Horton who died in 1953. Before his death, Horton created and taught a modern dance technique which was complex, "anatomically corrective" and organized. He trained both Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade and dancers are still trained by his successors.

Horton may be gone, but, because they were transmitted to others, his pedagogical techniques and insights are still available.

You can access that artistic legacy for just $1175.00, which seems like a lot but is probably a bargain.

Get more information and register for the July 2009 Lester Horton Pedagogy Workshop here.

Meta-textual: Although he was the Buddha's longtime companion, Ananda did not achieve enlightenment until after the Buddha's death.

Tradition says that as the Buddha lay dying "Ananda was weeping. He walked away, to hide his tears."

But the Buddha comforted him saying:

"Do not grieve, Ananda, do not despair. Remember my words: from all that delights us, from all that we love, we must one day be separated. How can that which is born be other than inconstant and perishable? How can that which is born, how can that which is created, endure for ever?"

Read the rest of the story here.

Free, Man

The Staten Island Advance reports that as non-profits cut back, some non-profit executives are being asked to defend their perks. An article dated February 22nd says:

While budgets have been slashed at some of the borough's cultural and nonprofit organizations, honchos at some of the groups are living the luxe life, enjoying expense accounts and car allowances on top of six-figure salaries.

Also: Flavorpill posts an online guide to free cultural events in New York City, which is obviously one of the most expensive cities for an artist to live in. So why do I stay?

Also: The Economic Policy Institute reports that true unemployment rates may be closer to 10%.

Plus: Janis - "Mercedes Benz"

This Little Light of Mine

If you are an individual artist or a fearless leader struggling to find that almighty dollar, you may have noticed that you're going to need some help.

Here's some!

The renowned dance company Urban Bush Women, which is dedicated to facilitating the use of art as a means for encouraging social responsibility and civic engagement, offers Getting REAL about Fundraising by Cathy Draine. This snappy guide was originally developed to help individual artists raise the money they needed to attend the Urban Bush Women Summer Institute.

The acronym defined:

Researching – knowing what funding is out there.

Evaluating – deciding if the funding is right for you.

Asking – requesting the funding you need in a way that favors you getting it.

Listening – hearing the response you are given and responding accordingly.

I skimmed through while listening to my role model and hero Nina Simone who is as real as you can get without bursting into flame.

Getting R.E.A.L. about Fundraising (PDF)


Nina Simone!!!

Crazy

The Black River Dance Center for Performing Arts is located in Harlem, once known as an African American cultural hub and now known as a place to experience the disorienting effects of gentrification first-hand.

Black River is a terrific community asset. People are always dancing out of the door smiling because whatever they were doing in there was just too much fun. I have posted a picture on Twitter.

Right next door to Black River is the new Maysles Institute Cinema.

In case you are not a fan, the Maysles are the award-winning documentarians that did Grey Gardens, the must-see movie about Caroline Kennedy's relatives living in a decaying mansion and living out loud before our very eyes. The Maysles filmed it all, got famous and inspired this charming Broadway musical. Then they moved to Harlem, I guess so they could cause gentrification and document it simultaneously.

Both organizations have arts workshops for young people and both are located diagonally across from Sylvia’s Soul food Restaurant and Tourist Trap where Caroline Kennedy ate and ran for senator.

The circle is now complete.