Monkeyhouse Workshop @ Mass Dance Fest

The hurricane that swept up the East Coast in August, forced the Massachusetts Dance Festival to postpone its events. We are delighted that Monkeyhouse will be able to lead our partnering workshop on the new date, October 30th.

Massachusetts Dance Festival Workshop Schedule


Workshop I - 10:30-Noon

• Intermediate Ballet - James Reardon
• Classical Indian - Mouli Pal

Workshop II - 12:15-1:45

• Advanced Beginner Tap - Thelma Goldberg
• Modern Partnering Intermediate - Karen Krolak

Lunch Break - 1:45-2:45

Workshop III - 2:45-4:15

• Modern - Annie Kloppenberg
• Hip Hop - Sarah-Kay Jerome

 October 30, 2011

University of Massachusetts

Amherst, MA
The Mass Dance Festival Studios 

are in the Totman Building on Eastman Lane on the campus.

Enter in the back door off the parking lot.

Register here!

Each workshop is only $15

Monkeyhouse Master Class @MDF

by karen Krolak

Amherst will be brimming over with opportunities to explore a wide spectrum of dance this weekend when the Massachusetts Dance Festival arrives at UMASS. You can sample everything from Classical Indian to Jazz Fusion during the day and then catch an equally diverse concert that evening.

Come join me for a partnering class designed to cover the basics of weight sharing at 12:15 PM. Then, after lunch and a rousing round table discussion, you can check out Ryan Casey, Monkeyhouse's new Blogger-in-Residence, as he gets people tapping.  All workshops will be at the UMass Amherst Totman Building. For more info, scoot over to the festival website.

Echoes: Emerging Artist Concert

by karen Krolak

Yesterday's David Parker post mentioned the Emerging Artist Concert at Green Street Studios this weekend. This session was mentored by David and Lorraine Chapman, one of my favorite local choreographers. (If you attend the Mass Dance Festival in August, you can check out one of her zany creations. I am quite certain that you will be instantly smitten.)

I am most excited to see Josh Hilberman's quartet. Shannon Sullivan, who teaches with me at both Impulse Dance Center and Springstep, is performing in it. She  filled me in on Josh's process for building a tap piece in a space that normally does not allow style that might harm the stage. Also, after each mentoring session, she shared insights on the different ways that modern and tap choreographers think. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe I will coerce her into sharing these observations on the blog.

Jason and I are really curious and have made our reservations for the show tomorrow night. Perhaps we will see you there?

ECHOES

features the work by Jennifer Hardy, Josh Hilberman, Jessica Howard, and Rebecca Midler
Mentored by

David Parker and Lorraine Chapman 

Each performance will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by the mentors.

Sponsored by the Green Street Studios Emerging Artists Program:
Green Street Studios' Emerging Artists program is designed to provide infrastructure for choreographers to create new work, and to provide deep, ongoing mentorship between experienced and early-to-mid-career choreographers. For more information: GSSEmergingArtists.blogspot.com

Friday/ Saturday July 8/ 9th @ 8pm
Green Street Studios
185 Green St. Cambridge (Central Sqaure)
Tickets $20 and $15 for Students, Seniors, GSS and BDA Members.
For Reservations:
Email: info@greenstreetstudios.org
or call 617 864 3191

2 Dover Sherborn Grads presenting work at the Massachusetts Dance Fesitval

by karen Krolak

I love when little coincidences pop up. For example, when I entered the dressing room at the Massachusetts Dance Festival after Monkeyhouse's tech rehearsal this morning, I was amused to see three women pulling on striped tights and black tutus. If they had thrown a neon orange wig on, they would have been identical to Monkeyhouse's most enduring character.

The odd part was, I didn't know any of them. My quizzical expression opened up a conversation and I discovered that they were members of Bosoma who were getting ready to present a piece by Katherine Hooper.

Just then Katherine poked her head in. I took the chance to introduce myself and ask if she would be willing to be interviewed for Connect 2 Choreography. I was startled when she responded, "I would love to. I have been wanting to meet you for a long time. Didn't you grow up in Sherborn?" "No, I lived in Dover, though. Why?" I replied. Apparently, we went to Dover Sherborn together. She was a freshman when I was a senior. Our entire high school had less than 600 kids when I graduated. Who would have guessed that a such a small school without an dance program would produce two choreographers?

Does anyone else have "It's a Small World" playing endlessly in their head?

So, if you haven't done so already, get your ticket for tonight's performance. You never know who you might bump into there. Did you see June Wulff festival preview in the G section of the Globe this morning?

Oh, and lastly, be on the lookout for a more in depth post about Bosoma and Katherine's choreographic process later this week.

Massachusetts Dance Festival, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m.
(Aug. 28 and 29 at UMass-Amherst).
$25, $20 students and seniors.
Boston Ballet, 19 Clarendon St., Boston.
For information: 508-429-7577.

A Sneak Peek at Mass Dance Fest -- Part I

  

 

Anti-Ossification premiered at the Cool New York Dance Festival in February 2010.

 

 

Choreographed by Nicole Harris and Karen Krolak, it was also seen at Art Beat in Davis Square in July.

 

If you didn't get a chance to see those two shows, you'll have another chance to check it out at the Massachusetts Dance Festival!

The performance is at Boston Ballet, 19 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA, Saturday, August 21st at 8pm.  Karen will also be teaching a class at the Boston Ballet building for ages 8-12 on Sunday, August 22nd at noon!  For more information click here!

Sneak Peek at Art Beat

by Nicole Harris

Just in case you weren't already planning on joining us at the Somerville Theatre tomorrow afternoon, here are a few reasons that this is a show you wont want to miss:

1.  A Guest Performer!

Anne Howarth has been a friend and supporter of Monkeyhouse for many years now (you might remember her from the series of photos on Moving Day!) and plays the french horn with the likes of the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Portland Symphony, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.  This Spring she and Karen got together and created a very sweet new piece that involves dancing, the french horn and a rhinoceros!

2.  A Premier (or two!)

I am premiering a new duet, Fidelius, which will be performed by the ever wonderful Nikki SaoPedro and Caitlin Meehan.  I have loved working with them both and they have done amazing things with this piece.  I am so excited!  Speaking of Caitlin, she will be premiering a solo of her own!!

3.  A Preview!

Monkeyhouse will be performing at the Massachusetts Dance Festival (both in Boston and Amherst) the last two weekends in August.  We will be premiering a new quartet there that we've been building for the past year.  However, you wont have to wait until August because tomorrow we will be showing an excerpt from that quartet!

That is just a small selection of what we have in store for you tomorrow.  So, just in case you've forgotten, here's the info on Art Beat:

Saturday, July 17th
ART BEAT
Somerville Theatre
3pm

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful artists and performers that will be lining the streets of Davis Square tonight and tomorrow too!!

10th Anniversary Season Preview (Part 2)

Pssst...Monkeyhouse has been selected to participate in the inaugural Massachusetts Dance Festival. We are thrilled that we will be appearing on August 21st (Boston @ Boston Ballet) and 28th (Amherst @ UMASS) with:

Audra Carabetta and Dancers 
Bosoma 
Boston Dance Company 
Contrapose Dancers
Kinodance
Lorraine Chapman and Company
Prometheus
Sokolov Now!
Sorvino Dance Project
Static Noyze

Tickets for the concert are normally $25, but you can buy them for only $20 if you pre-order on the MDF web site before August 15th..

Don't worry, we will send out more details once we get the new office unpacked.

Kicking off a Month of Dance in Boston

by Karen Krolak

Mercy me, Boston is just bursting with dance this November. Already there are oodles of interesting concerts all over. I dropped by the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge to see Shelley Neill today. She was revving up for a month of dance that kicks off tomorrow with Prometheus' The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship.

On the other side of the river, you can catch a diverse spectrum of companies at the inaugural concert of the Massachusetts Dance Festival at the Boston University Dance Theater. Local television anchorwomen, Susan Wornick and Joyce Kulhawik, will take turns emceeing between performances by BoSoma, Chaos Theory Dance, Collage Dance Ensemble, Flamenco Dance Project, Josh Hilberman and Thelma Goldberg Ensemble, Rainbow Tribe, Snake Dance Theatre, Sokolow Now!, and Triveni Dance Company.

Back in Central Square, DancEdge presents another cross pollinating concert at the Dance Complex. An Evening of Tap, Jazz, and Hip Hop will feature DancEdge, Dance'n Feet, Hip Hop Ballerinas, Hip Hop Mamas, RapAtaPtap and all that, and Stonehill College Dancers in its lineup.

So put your plans to hibernate on hold for a few more weeks and indulge in a smorgasbord of concerts.