Monkeyhouse Returns to Cool New York Dance Festival

Hooray! Monkeyhouse will head back to the Cool New York Dance Festival in Brooklyn in January 2011. Mark your calendars as we will be a part of three different programs at the festival. We will be performing in:

A Day for the Family (Sat. 1/29 2pm) with Amanda Hinchey & Dancers, Theodora Boguszewski, Satu Hummasti Dance, WHITE WAVE Kid’s Can Dance, York Dance Works

Program B (Thurs. 1/27 9pm & Sun. 1/30 4pm) with Tipsy Point Project, Lindy Schmedt Dance Collaborative, Angelo Dance Project, Liz Piccoli, I-Fen Lin, Cori Marquis, Next Reflex Dance Collective


& Program D    (Fri. 1/28 9pm & Sun. 1/30 6pm) with Jennifer Phillips, ALENKA CIZMESIJA/ART DECONSTRUCTED, Jessica DiMauro/DiMauro Dance, Barbara Mahler Makes Dances, Jessica Danser/dansfolk, Spark Movement Collective

Look out for more details about these shows soon!

Monkeyhouse @ First Night Fun Fact of the Day

Monkeyhouse @ First Night 2011 Fun Fact of the Day:

Hoot, hoot! Anne Howarth will add a French Horn twist to the newest incarnation of Firk, Firk 1.4, for our performances at First Night. While Anne regularly plays with Radius Ensemble and Vento Chiaro, we have lured her into a more improvisational piece. Oh, and she will also bring back The Dream of the Rhinoceros for those of you who missed it at ArtBeat.

Monkeyhouse @ First Night 2011 Fun Fact of the Day

Monkeyhouse @ First Night 2011 Fun Fact of the Day:

Kwaq7aj', Monkeyhouse's canine choreographer, often feels the need to assist Caitlin Meehan with her stretches. This artistic bond prompted Kwaq7aj' to develop some of the movement vocabulary for Caitlin in Firk 1.2, which premiered at Endicott College in October.

Creative Movement with Karen Krolak @ Springstep

by karen Krolak

My, my, my, we are just bursting with exciting new projects as we transition into 2011. For example, I will be teaching a Creative Dance class at Springstep on Saturday mornings from 10 - 10:45AM. It is open to kids between the ages of 4 -7 and will start on January 22nd. We are going to have a blast building movements from stories, playing games, and bouncing around to a fabulous assortment of music for kids.

Psst...and for all you adult dancers who are debating trying a class at Springstep, jump to it. Bloomspot  is offering a huge discount for first time Springstep participants - $50 for a 6 or 8 week class! (That's up to a $110 value.) You must snap up this offer by Wednesday, December 22nd.

Ok, my break at Impulse Dance Center is almost over and I need to grab some dinner before my Advanced Jazz class.

Monkeyhouse @ First Night 2011 Fun Fact of the Day

Monkeyhouse @ First Night 2011 Fun Fact of the Day:

Although she will not be performing with us on December 31st, Monkeyhouse's canine choreographer, Kwaq7aj', has been rehearsing with us. We captured this photo of her during our warm up on Saturday.

Double Falsehood

by Nicole Harris

After a very eventful afternoon of trying to get myself ready for Christmas (I just bought six rolls of wrapping paper.  I've never owned this much wrapping paper in my life.) I am sitting down to a quick dinner before heading over to Harvard Square to see a staged reading of Double Falsehood that Jason Ries directed. 

It has come up in conversation a few times recently how similar choreography and directing can be and it made me realize that a number of us here at Monkeyhouse have taken an interest in directing recently.  (You might remember that Karen was the Assistant Director of Othello at Actors' Shakespeare Project in March.)  I am excited to see what Jason has put together!

Whether you're interested in Shakespeare (Double Falsehood has recently been added to the Shakespeare canon), a fan of Jason's, or just looking for somewhere to stay warm come join me at Fire & Ice in Harvard Square!

6:00 - 7:00pm Hors d'oeuvres & cash bar
7:00 - 8:15pm Reading of Double Falsehood
8:30 - 9:30pm Q&A with cast & mingling!

Monkeyhouse @ First Night for the 5th time!

by karen Krolak

 

Mercy me, this weekend is going to be jam packed with creative endeavours. Tomorrow, Monkeyhouse will be at Springstep re-setting Ramfeezled, one of our funniest and best loved pieces, for our fifth appearance at First Night Boston. Then Jason, kwaq7aj', and I will skedaddle down to New York to wish Ralph Farris (genius viola player and the composer for one section of our performance for Dance in the Fells) a fabulous 40th birthday. Sunday afternoon, I will scoot over to Union Street Dance in Brooklyn to start a piece featuring Eva Dean...also for First Night. Then Jason and I will get a sneak preview of Three Pianos, an OBIE winning music-theater event written, arranged and performed by Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and Dave Malloy. According to our invite, we should be prepared for "compositional mayhem, shifting rivalries, and some unfortunate butchery of the German language."

Oh yes, so here are the details about Monkeyhouse's First Night performances. Please note that we will be in the Hynes Convention Center this year. To celebrate their 10th Anniversary season, Monkeyhouse is mixing and mashing the old with the new and tossing in a guest artist or two. Humor flows through their slightly surreal dance theater world as they tackle topics from flirting, rhinoceros fantasies, and re-gaining the rhythm of a relationship. Be on the lookout for Anne Howarth on French Horn and New York City's Eva Dean in a sassy smorgasbord of pieces by Karen Krolak, Nicole Harris, and Amelia O'Dowd.

 Friday, Dec 31, 2010 at  8:15PM and 10:00 PM

First night button $18, children under 4 are free

Psst...and I just heard now that Twink has given us permission to use one of their songs for one of our premieres! Thank you Twink.