Summer Stages Dance Feast

by karen Krolak

If you would like a taste of Summer Stages Dance, mark your calendar for March 25th. They have set up a smashing series of master classes and decadent dance related activities from 12- 6PM  at Concord Academy in Concord, MA.  Diverse flavors of dance, live music, and interactive activities will be on the menu, along with delicious edibles from local restaurants. The day will culminate with an all-star finale performance by Summer Stages master faculty (Psst...David Parker and the Bang Group will be performing their duet in the velcro suits!!! That alone is worth the ticket price.) and special guest artists. Best of all, you can sample as much as you wish from this smorgasbord for just $25!


Artists include:
Sean Curran, contemporary dance
David Dorfman, modern dance, and disco funk line dancing
Margaret Tracy and Boston Ballet, Intro to ballet, and intermediate/advanced ballet
Nani Agbeli, dance/drumming from Ghana with 8 drummers
Darrah Carr, Irish step and ModERIN fusion
Brandon Albright, hip hop and break dance
Catherine Gallant, Duncan technique
Gina DeFreitas, DeAnna Pellecchia and Lynda Reiman, Aerial Dance
ABADA Capoeira Boston, Brazilian capoeira
Elaine Fong, Taketina and Trash Can Taiko
South Indian bharatanatyam, Navarasa Dance Theatre
Olivier Besson, Contact Improvisation
Leslie Salmon-Jones, Afro-Flow Yoga™
David Parker and the Bang Group, Making Dancesge based movement workshop
Edisa Weeks and Delirious Hair Designs, Hair Art
Alissa Cardone, Butoh/Ima
Christopher Janney, Soundstair
Lexington High School Jazz Combo, live music and Swing dance instruction
Nell Bryer's "After Disappearance," Media Lab Experience
And more!

Tickets to this family friendly all-ages festival are $25 in advance and $30 at the door, and include all classes and activities, and admission to the final performance. Children 12 and under are $10 in advance and $15 at the door, and group rates are available.

Sunday, March 25, from 12-6pm
Finale performance begins at 5:00

Purchase tickets online.

Don't Miss Nora at the MFA

by karen Krolak

Ok, who wants to see a film about one of my favorite dancemakers, Nora Chipaumire, on Saturday morning, February 27th at 11AM at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston? I am serious. I would love to get a group together to go. Email me at monkeyhouselovesme@gmail.com if you are interested.

Nora by David Hinton and Alla Kovgan (US/Mozambique, 2008, 25 min) is a documentary that "is based on true stories of the dancer Nora Chipaumire, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965. In the film, Nora returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through some vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly-moving poem of sound and image. Shot entirely on location in Southern Africa, “Nora” includes a multitude of local performers and dancers of all ages, from young schoolchildren to ancient grandmothers, and much of the music is specially composed by a legend of Zimbabwean music - Thomas Mapfumo. "

While I have not seen this film yet, I have heard that it is stunning. Nora taught at Summer Stages Dance in 2006 and I relished every moment of her class. Her choreography melds modern and African movement vocabularies together and her fluid power is simply mesmerising.

I am a also a fan of Alla Kovgan, one of KINODANCE's core artists. Alla is a Boston-based filmmaker who was born in Russia and her films have been presented at Sundance as well as festivals around the world. Some of you may even remember that she created some films in collaboration with Alissa Cardone for a concert I curated in the spring of 2000 at Green Street Studios in Cambridge.

Nora preceded by Oslo Opera House
11 am — 12:25 pm
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Remis Auditorium
MFA Members, seniors, and students $6; general admission $7

NEA Grantee of the Day - Somerville, MA

(Part of an ongoing series that demonstrates how some of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Direct Grantees have influenced Monkeyhouse's growth.)

by Karen Krolak

City of Somerville, Massachusetts/Somerville, MA/$25,000 -
What the Fluff, indeed! You have to love a city that celebrates "the genius of Archibald Query" otherwise known as Marshmallow Fluff. Two and half years ago, Jason and I relocated to Somerville and we were lured in large part by its unusual smorgasbord of festivals and its commitment to the arts.

Somerville is one of a handful of communities in the Commonwealth that provides fellowship grants for artists and this year I was honored to be given one. There will be more on that in a subsequent post but for now I am just going to focus on a few of the ways this city inspires me on a regular basis:

1. Fruit trees and artists, e.g. Daniel Maher, and Mudflat Studios, sprout up around every major square.
2. Our mayor, Joseph Curtatone played trumpet in high school and launched a new Jazz Festival.
3. This city is teeming with talented choreographers including:Alissa Cardone, Emily Beattie, Nicole Pierce, Jody Weber, Wendy Jehlen, and Aparna Sindoor
4. Somerville Arts Council hosts Art Beat each July and the Illuminations tour in December.
5. Brass bands rule the streets during the Honk! Festival.

An Interview with Alissa Cardone

by Karen Krolak

Whether her eccentric grace appears on film or on stage or even on a crowded street at lunch time, Alissa Cardone's bold choreographic voice captivates audiences. In between earning her MA at NYU's Department of Performance Studies and working on her MFA in World Arts and Culture at UCLA, she has helped create Kinodance (Voted on of Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch for 2008), co-curated the Boston Cyberarts Festival, and launched the Critical Moves Contemporary Dance Series.

Recently, she has was invited to participate in the New England Foundation for the Arts Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) and selected for a joint residency at Summer Stages and the Baryshnikov Arts Center. She has also been awarded numerous grants (including an Artist Fellowship from the Somerville Arts Council) and has performed in Japan, Russia, and Armenia. Somehow she graciously found a few moments this week to chat with me.


kK: My word, you have been busy this week. I read on the Dance Action Network that you created a public Butoh laboratory on Wednesday in Downtown Crossing entitled, SLOW. How did people react to it?

AC: There was a fairly equal amount of aggressive commentary and curious spectatorship. Someone joked that the Puritan spirit still looms over Boston. Some homeless people joined us. As a simple social experiment it offered the possibility of another pace, another way to exist in a public space. It was incredibly transformative for the participants to have an hour in a held, structured space to move slowly and re-frame time and experiences of time.

We fill our lives with activity, productivity and forget that if you slow down there are whole new possibilities and profoundly simple discoveries and observances to be made. Awareness is vital and starts with your own body and self and the quality of that awareness is reflected in your connection to other people and things within your local environment.


kK: And this weekend you are presenting Adele Myers & Dancers, Carol Somers, Karl Cronin, Rebecca Pappas, and Talya Epstein at Green Street Studios as part of your project, Critical Moves. How long have you been curating Critical Moves?

AC: I think I did the first show in 2005.

kK: And, is there an organizing theme or connection between the works in this concert?

AC: For this particular concert, no. In the past, yes.

kK: Do you select specific pieces from each choreographer or do you let them choose what they will present?

Sometimes I go after a specific piece if I've had the chance to see it before. Ninety-nine percent of the time I'm familiar with someones work and its trajectory - I have a sense of what they're obsessed with and am interested in cultivating it. It can be risky if I've never seen the actual work before, but I trust the quality of attention that drew me to that person's work in the first place. I don't always "like" the work I present, however, a curator has to look beyond one's own aesthetics and recognize work that should be shown.

kK: So, what excites you about the choreographers that you have chosen?

AC: They are exploring and experimenting with material that is vital to them.

kK: What prompted you to start this series?

AC: A need for it and Green Street Studios openness to collaborate with me. They believed in a vision. There is such a lack of presenting opportunities for ANY dance work and this was a fully produced opportunity that could provide artist fees. I saw a benefit for curated shows vs. shared concerts where you never know what you're going to get. I also wanted to get dialogue going between artists in other cities, outside Boston, regional, international. People like Lacina Coulibaly from Burkina Faso or Luciana Achugar in New York.

I also wanted to distinguish presenting contemporary dance vs. modern dance and contribute to educating audiences about dance. I wanted to start cultivating a way for people to distinguish between amateur and professional work.

kK: How does curating these concerts relate to your own creative process?

AC: Seeing work is an engagement with meaning-making as is dance making. Dance is an international community and many of us dialogue with each other thru what we create. Some of the pieces in this particular concert deal with process, physicality, question or push form or challenge audience/performer relationship. I am interested in these ideas. Don't you have that feeling sometimes when you see work? It can inspire, clarify, annoy, piss you off but ultimately makes you ask questions. Maybe seeing work makes you ask the same questions over and over again or you find new questions. Questions are provocative. However, knowing what the right questions to ask is often the biggest challenge and seeing work can sometimes jog the brain.

kK: Thanks Alissa, I look forward to seeing the show on Saturday.

AC: Thank you, Karen.

CRITICAL MOVES CONTEMPORARY DANCE SERIES
Fri March 20, 8pm & Sat March 21, 8pm
Green Street Studios Center for Movement & Dance,
185 Green Street (Central Sq) Cambridge, MA
Reservations at 617-864-3191
Tickets: $20/$15 students & BDA
Featuring:
Adele Myers & Dancers (NYC/New Haven, CT), Carol Somers (Boston),
Karl Cronin (NYC), Rebecca Pappas (LA), Talya Epstein (NYC)

Post-performance discussions will follow both shows.

Politics are dancing (part 2)

by karen Krolak

It is odd how patterns begin to emerge some days. After learning about Rahm Emanuel's dance background last night, this afternoon I attended the The Second Annual Artists Under the Dome Event at the Massachusetts State House (where I bumped into Martha Mason who will be mentoring Green Street Studios 2009 winter Emerging Artist Program). As part of the festivities, I stopped in to see my State Senator, Patricia Jehlen. Unfortunately, the Senator was unavailable, but I did learn that her daughter is Wendy Jehlen, a well-respected, local choreographer (who coincidently performed at the Somerville Theater during Art Beat right before Monkeyhouse two years ago in a concert that Alissa Cardone helped to organize.)

Since Senator Jehlen is Chair of Elder Affairs, her aide generously advised me on some resources for Monkeyhouse's Dream 2 Dance At Age Project. She immediately understood the importance of this initiative because she has taken adult dance classes with Dicki Johnson Macy. I am so thrilled that I was able to participate in the Artists Under the Dome because I would have never guessed that there were so many dance fans in the State House.

Thanks to the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, Treasurer Tim Cahill, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the Joint Committee of Community Development and Small Business, and the Artists Foundation for creating this informative introduction to legislative resources for artists.