Stories from the Somerville-Tiznit Sister Cities (part 4)

by karen Krolak

Part of a continuing series on Karen and Jason's trip to Morocco with 28 other people from Somerville...including Mayor Curtatone.

I am a fan of texture
and I find my G1 phone (thanks again, Richard)



captures great snippets of graffiti




&


intriguing layers.

to be continued...

To comply with recent legislation regarding blogging, I should mention that my trip was sponsored by University of the Middle East project, The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in concert with Sister Cities International, the City of Somerville, the City of Tiznit and the Moroccan American Cultural Center. My G1 was a birthday present from a dear friend and loyal Monkeyhouse supporter at Google. Readers should know that my experiences would not be typical for anyone else.

Stories from the Somerville-Tiznit Sister Cities (part 3)

by karen Krolak

I was feeling fairly droopy by the time we boarded our Royal Air Maroc flight to Casablanca and was not in the mood for the seat swapping chaos that erupted in our row. As soon as everyone settled in and snapped on their seat belts, I curled up for a nap. My eyes were shut before the overhead bins were. Thankfully, the scent of steak tips drew me out of my slumber. As I unfolded my tray table, the woman who had won the window seat next to me began to chat. I wasn't fully conscious when she introduced herself so I can not recall her name.

As I pulled the foil off my meal, she explained that she was looking forward to spending three weeks with her family in Liberia. Nine years ago, she had moved to Amsterdam and she described the awkwardness of being a bridge between these two cultures. "Luckily, I write," she proclaimed. "I have lived through a lot. When an unpleasant thought or memory comes into my head, I write it down so that I do not have to remember it," she continued.

Although she had never heard of Tiznit, she was extremely curious about the Sister Cities project. When I told her about Monkeyhouse in the middle of lunch somewhere over France, we unfortunately found that friction between traditional and contemporary art forms. Her eyes glanced down as she confided that she had never heard of a choreographer before she arrived in Holland. "I never realized that there were people who made the dances." she admitted with a tinge of embarrassment. I, however, was equally mortified by my ignorance of African dances and other cultures where dances were proudly passed down through generations.

We found common ground, though, once we started talking about choreography as moving with meaning. As I began describing projects Monkeyhouse has done with at risk teens, her broad smile beamed. She had a fifteen year old daughter who was finally able to join her in Amsterdam four years ago. Apparently, the culture shock had been much harder for her daughter. "If it hadn't been for her dance therapist, I don't know how she would have survived," my seatmate announced. "You should see what happens to her when she dances. I write but she can only express herself in movement. I wish women in my hometown had help like this but they would never go to therapy," she said.

At the time I wasn't sharp enough to respond. I have been wondering since then, however. Do you think social dances provide a cultural form of dance therapy? Do specific dances help people to express certain emotions or wordless ideas? Any thoughts?

to be continued...


To comply with recent legislation regarding blogging, I should mention that my trip was sponsored by University of the Middle East project, The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in concert with Sister Cities International, the City of Somerville, the City of Tiznit and the Moroccan American Cultural Center. Readers should know that my experiences would not be typical for anyone else.

Stories from the Somerville-Tiznit Sister Cities (part 2)

by karen Krolak



Part of a continuing series on Karen and Jason's trip to Morocco with 28 other people from Somerville...including Mayor Curtatone.

With our flight delay, we only had a four hour layover in Amsterdam. Jason and I figured this gave us just enough time to dart in to Amsterdam Centraal station for a taste of Dutch culture. Being from Boston, we were not worried by the snow flurries as we landed. Unbeknownst to us, though, Holland was in the midst of its largest snowstorm in 10 years. We didn't realize that the public transportation systems were ensnared in chaos until we crowded into the throngs of tourists waiting at Schiphol station. By the time we snagged a train and entered Amsterdam Centraal, we had less than 55 minutes to explore the area.

As we strolled around the harbor, I pulled a luscious ball of brown alpaca out of my pocket and started crocheting. It is a habit that began during my work on mapping movements as part of my Somerville Arts Council Fellowship. Sometimes these airy fiber tangles evolve into cowls or lacy snoods which are surprisingly warm. The brown alpaca ball was not content in my pocket, however. Jason kept noticing when it lurched into the slush and would chase after it. Cyclists who whizzed by us must have been fairly amused by our odd tourist dance.

We turned down a bustling street lined with shops eventually but we did not have the inclination or time to pop into most of them. Having been a fan of Wasik's Cheese Shop in Wellesley for decades, though, we did check out the local cheese monger. (I have included the above photo for one of my fabulous students at Impulse Dance Center. She told me that all she wanted for Christmas was cheese. Really, how many teens are that sassy?)

Though our return train was delayed, we were blissfully unaware of how lucky we were to get back to the airport in time for our flight. According to Wikipedia,

In the Netherlands, snowfall on 17 December led to a shutdown of Utrecht Centraal, by far the largest rail hub in the country. Problems arose in early afternoon, followed by heavy delays. Eventually, almost all scheduled train services were cancelled, as a means of maintaining those that were running Meanwhile, on highways in the Netherlands snowfall on 17 December led to the busiest morning rush hour of 2009, with a total of 671 kilometres (417 mi) of traffic jams. On the A12, there was an 84-kilometre (52 mi) traffic jam.

In the line for customs, I recognized a few faces from our earlier flight. I asked if any of them were with the Sister Cities program and that is how we met half of the educators from Somerville who were traveling with us. They had also ventured in to the city and were giddy with stories of their transit adventures. After getting our passports stamped, Jason and I rushed through a duty free shop for some tulip bulbs for my father and arrived at our gate as the plane was boarding. Our next stop was Casablanca.

to be continued...

To comply with recent legislation regarding blogging, I should mention that my trip was sponsored by University of the Middle East project, The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in concert with Sister Cities International, the City of Somerville, the City of Tiznit and the Moroccan American Cultural Center. Readers should know that my experiences would not be typical for anyone else...especially those resist the urge to crochet in snowstorms.

Getting to Know Jane Weiner, Part 1 -- The Pink Ribbons Project

by Nicole Harris

This fall I lost my mind a little bit, bought a Jet Blue “All You Can Jet Pass”, sublet my apartment and spent a month traveling around the country. It was a wonderful adventure filled with friends, family, lots of walking, art, beautiful weather, and a lot more walking. (Oh yeah, and a very large quantity of airports and airplanes.) I went to nine cities in those thirty-one days (eleven if you consider I went to Baltimore, Annapolis and DC all in one stop), took thirteen airplanes, knit five scarves, visited (at least) eight museums/galleries, read two books, sent innumerable postcards (Hey, someone has to keep the USPS in service. I’m just doing my part!), went on one underground tour and spent time with people I haven’t seen in months, years and in one case even a decade! While I could spend the afternoon regaling you with tales of my trip, what I am really here to tell you about is one woman I met for the first (and hopefully not last) time on the first stop of the adventure, Houston, TX.

Before I started out I spent some time looking up choreographers to interview while on the road. Now, as some of you may know, my family does a lot of work regarding cancer research fundraising. My mother has participated in countless fundraising walks and races, was the chairperson for the American Caner Society’s Relay for Life in Natick for three years, held fashion shows and dart tournaments all to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research over the last ten years. Not only is this a passion of my mothers, but something that has spread throughout my family. You wont find a Pam Harris event that doesn’t also have her husband, daughters, siblings and in-laws doing their parts. So when I discovered the first Houston choreographer I found also dedicated her life to raising money and awareness, I knew that Jane Weiner was a woman I wanted to meet.

Jane had spent ten years in New York dancing for Doug Elkins (just one of many of my favorite choreographers that came up during this interview!) when her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"She had a nine month old baby and a lump that was in her body for eighteen months. The only way I could respond, aside from wanting to shoot the doctor who she told three times that she had a lump, was art with cause. So I started with Robin Staff (of DanceNOW), David Parker and Sarah Hook and we started the Pink Ribbons Project. All of us were affected by it. We had a little performance at DTW for two nights. David Webb was still there at the time and he gave us the place for free and we made $10,000 over the two nights."

The Pink Ribbons Project donated that money to NABCO (National Alliance for Breast Cancer Organizations) who went to DC and and presented seven women with stage four cancer to the FDA. Clinton was president at the time and he was working on fast tracking a series of cancer drugs. Three of those drugs were passed and immediately put on the market.

"Six months later my sister had a recurrence. We thought her cancer was done, she’d washed her hands of it, gone on her merry way then she had metastatic cancer go into the bone and the only drug that was available was this new drug that had just been fast tracked due to these seven women. So that was kind of was this snowball effect. She ended up getting a stem cell transplant and I moved to Houston to help her. I think I’m in about my 12^th year here and the Pink Ribbons Project grew. Houston has very deep pockets. People are very aware of the cancer situation. In the meantime, I started Hope Stone. Eventually we got the point where we needed to separate. We had two boards together, Hope Stone and Pink Ribbons so we separated them out. Eventually it got to the point where I couldn’t be the executive director of both so my sister stepped in and they’re going gangbusters."

Cool NYC Dance Festival Updates

Just wanted to let everyone know that Monkeyhouse will be performing in
Program G of the Cool New York Dance Festival on
2/5 @ 7:00 – 8:30 PM & 2/6 @ 9:00 – 10:30 PM
along with
Jessica DiMauro DiMauro Dance
Fluid Edge
Kate Corby & Dancers
Jessica Chen/J. Chen Project
project: Smith
Amanda Hinchey
Sue Bernhard Danceworks

All performances are Free and are
at WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater,
located at 25 Jay Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn.
We hope to see you there!

Stories from the Somerville-Tiznit Sister Cities Delegation (part 1)

by karen Krolak

Alas, the henna on my hands and ankles is really starting to fade. Though I had hoped to post photos and share our adventures from Tiznit, Morocco, our delegation's schedule left barely enough time for longish naps at night and our cell phones suffered from data connection issues. To be fair, though, this was a paltry price to pay for such an incredible experience.


Now that we are back in Somerville's snow dusted streets, I will attempt to cover some of the highlights of this amazing journey. I am so thankful to all the people in both cities who organized this project.

Even with my lavender and rose filled neck pillow, I found it difficult to sleep on the first leg of trip. Fortunately, our plane had individual movie monitors and I was able to watch a fluffy Bollywood extravaganza before dinner was served. Although the romantic plot line was predictable, the film's theme of people seeking to balance ancient cultural traditions with contemporary life reverberated through many of my later conversations in Morocco. Besides, I am a total sucker for Bollywood's sprawling dance scenes.

After dinner Jason and I synced up our screens to watch Pixar's UP together. Having seen some of Pixar's earliest projects at Siggraph conferences with my father in the late 80's, I was once again impressed by their artistic evolution. One of my favorite students from my days of choreographing musicals at Dover Sherborn High School, Najeeb, now works for Pixar. Even though I am not exactly sure how he was involved with this film, I was still rather proud of him.

Of course, since I selected to view UP in French in a last minute effort to brush up on my rusty speaking skills, I will need to see it again. Madame Witzberg would be so disappointed by how infrequently I grasped snippets and phrases.

The overwhelming majority of our group is composed of educators. As I bumbled through the movie's dialogue, I was repeatedly reminded of how much I have benefited from my relationships with teachers and students in ways that extended far beyond a class' subject matter.

Who would have guessed that in-flight movies would hit on two major topics at the heart of this trip to North Africa?

to be continued...

To comply with recent legistalation regarding blogging, I should mention that my trip was sponsored by The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in concert with Sister Cities International, the City of Somerville, the City of Tiznit and the Moroccan American Cultural Center. Readers should know that my experiences would not be typical for anyone else...especially those that studied French more diligently in high school and college.

Monkeyhouse Artists in Diplomatic Delegation to Morocco

Monkeyhouse's Artistic Director, Karen Krolak, and Production Manager, Jason Ries, are heading out to Tiznit, Morocco today as part of a diplomatic delegation organized by the University of the Middle East Project (UME). They will be meeting with artists, business leaders, and educators as part of the The Civic Participation And Leadership Initiative. This program is sponsored by The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in concert with Sister Cities International, the City of Somerville, the City of Tiznit and the Moroccan American Cultural Center.

In 2008 UME began facilitating a “Sister City” relationship between Somerville and the Moroccan city of Tiznit, with which UME has a long-standing relationship. This partnership is integral to UME’s mission to promote cross-cultural understanding between the US and the Middle East and North Africa. The Civic Participation and Leadership Initiative (CPLI) hopes to strengthen the partnerships between these two communities, linked as Sister Cities. Through this workshop, participants will design a collaborative change process that they would like to see in their communities. In addition they will initiate personal and professional relationships that will contribute to a lasting bond between these cities.

Keep your fingers crossed. If they have packed all the correct electrical adapters, they will post photos and insights as they travel.

Sneak Peeks from Dance'N Feet Part 1

by Karen Krolak

Monkeyhouse loves Peggy Wacks for oodles and oodles of reasons. Whether she volunteers in the office, emails us information about dance festivals, or attends events, she is always assisting our programs.

When we presented the pilot project of Dream to Dance at Any Age in 2008, we brought copies of Gaby Mervis' interview with Peggy to handout to audience members. Pictures of Peggy standing on her head with other members of Dance 'N Feet inspired many of the residents at the Assisted Living centers where Monkeyhouse appeared. All the members of Dance 'N Feet are between 58 and 70! Knowing how excited people were about Dance 'N Feet, we thought we would try to catch up with Peggy and find out more about their current project.

karen Krolak: I heard that Dance'n Feet was performing recently. Were you presenting a new piece?
Peggy Wacks : We are just still learning our new number for this year so we are did our number from last year. It's the same one we did at May Fair to Cher's shoop shoop song (It's In His Eyes).

kK: When do you think Dance'n Feet's newest piece will be ready?
PW: Ready to learn (i.e. all steps choreographed) - in a few weeks; ready to perform, not before March at the earliest. It takes us many weeks of practice to learn and many more to perfect a new piece as we only practice once a week.

kK: Can you tell us anything about this new project?

PW: It is a joint effort between Nancy Simcock, who is our major choreographer and who teaches us the acrobatic/gymnastic "tricks" and Kathy Coppell, another member who occasionally choreographs. They are getting additional help by Adele Chang, another group member and any of us who come up with good ideas. This one is to a lively song - "Let's Get Loud".

kK: When we spoke earlier in the year, you were taking a choreography class. Do you have any plans to present something of your own?

PW: Truthfully, although I took a choreography workshop, I found it excruciatingly difficult and challenging. It seems the only time I come up with anything slightly original and fresh is when I am just dancing around to music. I will do something spontaneously, sort of unconscious choreography, and then it is so hard to reproduce. I don't think I"ll be contributing anything much to this project. Also, the choreography we did in the class was modern dance, and what we are doing is more like jazz.

kK: Thanks Peggy for taking the time to do this.

PW: You know, you might want to talk to the choreographers as well. Perhaps either Nancy or Kathy would be willing to answer more of your questions.

Once again, Peggy had a helpful suggestion and was able to put me in touch with Kathy Coppell. Check back tomorrow and read my follow up interview with her.

Monkeyhouse heading back to Cool NYC Dance Festival

Monkeyhouse will kick off 2010 in Brooklyn at the Cool New York Dance Festival. We are still waiting to hear about exact dates and time of our performances but the festival runs January 28 - February 7, 2010. All performances will take place at WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater, located at 25 Jay Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn.

WHITE WAVE will be hosting and producing the Cool New York 2010 DANCE Festival (CNYDF), celebrating the 7th consecutive year of the company's annual winter dance showcase. About 60 contemporary companies and choreographers will be presented in over 19 performances during this two-week long extravaganza of cutting-edge dancemaking. Kicking off the celebration is a special Opening Night performance with a wine and cheese reception, all other festival performances will be presented to the public free of charge.

Karen Krolak featured in Northwestern Magazine

Monkeyhouse's Artistic Director, Karen Krolak, is featured in The Upside of the Down Economy, the Cover Story Winter 2009 issue of Northwestern Magazine. In the section titled, Tough Times are Business as Usual, she describes how arts training prepares people to survive in a recession.

Special thanks to Penny Penniston for recommending Karen to Elizabeth Canning Blackwell. In addition to being an amazing friend to Monkeyhouse, Penny's book of dialogue exercise for screenwriters, Talk the Talk, was just published and her newest play, Spin, will premiere at Theater Wit's new building in 2010!