David Parker Awarded 2013 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowhip

By: Elyssa Berg

Congratulations to David Parker who has recently received the John Simon Guggenheim fellowship this year for his creative accomplishments! Every year, out of 3,500 - 4,000 applicants, there are 200 fellowships awarded to those who have demonstrated exceptional creativity in the arts. This fellowship provides a block of time in which the recipient can work with as much creative freedom as possible to continue to develop their work. Applicants include "advanced professionals" such as writers, scholars, scientists, composers, artists, choreographers, and more.


David Parker is choreographer and founder of, The Bang Group. This is a company that is strongly based on the focus of rhythmic potential in the body. You may know David for his comedic take on choreography that will be sure to keep you laughing and entertained. He is sure to push the comedic limits with pieces full of concepts that you may have never seen before. David expresses himself through this comedy as he is able to instill messages in his choreography that people are likely to take with them, along with a few laughs.


The Bang Group has internationally toured and also spent an ample amount of time at Summer Stages Dance Festival in Concord, MA for their past 12 seasons. You may know The Bang Group for their performance of Nut/Cracked ( a comedic take on the holiday classic Nutcracker) or Showdown. Through The Bang Group you can see everything from men on pointe shoes, to bubble wrap choreography, and even thumb sucking duets. David's creative mind will never fail to allow you into a world of his own; full of entertainment, laughs, and lots of rhythm.

Add Some Dance to Your Summer!

Here are a couple places you might run into us or some of the other great performers we know in the near future!  This is just a small selection of performances available this summer.  Visit Jacob's Pillow & Summer Stages for even more Massachusetts performances!

07/09-08/04 -- FELA on Broadway
If you asked us to list our favorite choreographers almost all of us would likely have Bill T. Jones in the top five.  Don't miss his amazing show, FELA, as it returns to Broadway for 32 performances only!

07/12-07/14 -- TapTheYard
Join David Parker & Michelle Dorrance as they bring together some of their favorite rhythm makers (including Blogger in Residence Ryan Casey!) during the first tap and rhythm festival at The Yard on Martha's Vineyard.
 
07/16-07/19 -- Boomtown Festival
Monkeyhouse loves everyone over the the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge and we're thrilled that this year Princess Pamplemousse will be dancing it up with the one and only Marty Allen (of Uncle Monsterface AND Sock Puppet Portait fame)

07/25-07/29 -- Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Speaking of Bill T., don't miss his company at Jacob's Pillow!

Friday 07/27 @ 9pm -- Tyranny of Dave in Brooklyn!

Join Monkeyhouse supporter, collaborator and long time friend David Wechsler as he performs at Freddy's Bar and Backroom in Brooklyn!  You might even hear a few songs you recognize!

Saturday 07/28 @ 12pm -- David Parker & the Bang Group! 
FREE!!
Check out David and all your favorite Bang Group dancers for FREE!  Bring the family!

Saturday 07/28 @ 3:30 -- Summer Stages Choreographer's Project Showcase

While you're at the ICA checking out David Parker stick around and see works by Sean Curran, Mariah Steele, Teresa Fellion, and Annie Kloppenberg!

Sunday 07/29 @ 10pm -- Pinataland in Brooklyn!

While you're in Brooklyn, check out Dave's band and fellow Monkeyhouse supporters at Barbes!  You don't want to miss this!

Friday 08/10 @ 4pm -- Physical Poetry from Imperfect Bodies w/Karen Krolak

Join Karen at the Cultivate Festival in Bethlehem, NH for this exciting movement workshop!

Sat 08/11 @ 2 & 4pm -- 24 Hour Choreo-Fest

Jason Ries, Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch and a few Monkeyhouse guests will be locked in the Dance Complex overnight to create a new piece as part of Luminarium Dance's new project, 24 Hour Choreo-Fest.  Check out what they come up with!

Saturday 08/11 @ 7:30 -- Cultivate
Head on up to Bethlehem, NH to see the premier of Caitlin's new solo, Disarmed, performed by Nicole as part of the Cultivate Festival!

08/22-08/26 -- Doug Elkins' Fraulein Maria!

If you like David Parker you're LOVE Doug Elkins.  You don't want to miss this fabulous show at Jacob's Pillow!

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.

Richard Colton & David Parker Mentor SSD Choreographers' Project

by karen Krolak

Last week, we covered a few of the opportunities for choreographers in the Boston area. Here's another one that is open to folks all over the country, the Summer Stages Dance Choreographers' Project Fellowship.  Summer Stages Dance in Concord, MA, is celebrating their 15 season with a gaggle of amazing artists. Who wouldn't want to spend three weeks surrounded by David Leventhal,  Risa Steinberg, Dan Wagoner, David Parker, Richard Colton, and Sean Curran?

Choreographers’ Project Fellowship
Applicants must be at least 21 years old.
Applications Due: April 2, 2012
Notification of Awards: April 16, 2012

The Choreographers’ Project gives promising emerging choreographers the opportunity to develop new work in a supportive environment. Fellows select a cast of dancers from the Summer Stages Dance Workshop and have access to rehearsal space in the evenings and on weekends. David Parker and Richard Colton mentor the fellows daily, and the weekly Choreographers’ Project Seminar class provides an additional forum for feedback on developing work. The fellows’ work is presented in the Choreographers’ Project Showcase, a professionally produced evening performance that is open to the public.

Fellowship awards include the following opportunities:

• Mentorship by workshop faculty and resident artists
• Access to all Summer Stages Dance classes and select performances
• The opportunity to bring one dancer/collaborator
• Studio space and rehearsal time with dancers drawn from the Workshop
• Weekly seminar classes that include informal showings of the new work, and culminate in a dialogue about the developing work with faculty and guest artists
• Open rehearsal and a fully produced public performance of work created during the residency
• Subsidy for housing and meals

Since the program’s inception thirteen years ago, fellows have been drawn from the professional dance community or are graduates from leading dance programs at colleges and universities, including Barnard, Bennington, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton, Sarah Lawrence, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Yale.

For more information on Choreographers’ Project fellowships, call 978.402.2339

David Parker on Mentoring

This July,  David Parker will be influencing choreographers all over Boston. He's mentoring the Echoes, Emerging Artists Concert at Green Street Studios this weekend, and then he will scoot over to Concord to guide Summer Stages Choreographers' Project. He seemed like the perfect man to kick off our series on mentoring. Monkeyhouse's Nicole Harris shot off one tantalizing question. Just reading his well- crafted response reminds me why I emulate him so.

Nicole Harris: Unfortunately, it seems that lately so many programs like the Green Street Studios Emerging Artists Program are having to fold due to lack of funding, lack of resources or simply a lack of understanding as to why they are so important. As someone who has supported programs like this in the past I was wondering if you could take a minute and send me your thoughts on mentoring and why it is important to keep these programs alive. 

David Parker: I serve as mentor to dancers and choreographers on many levels.  Being a mentor, as I understand it, goes beyond teaching and extends to providing opportunities and strategies for success including more personal things like how one speaks, dresses and carries oneself and assessing what kinds of psychological barriers may be providing interference. It’s a much more intimate role.

I learned how to be a better person, a better man, from my mentors rather than just how to make my dances better.  I try to offer the same to those I mentor in my own company.   I want their presentation of self to reflect the best values we all share which is why we are a company and not a pick-up group.

Choreographic mentorship like at Green Street Studios or at Juilliard where I serve as mentor to selected Senior choreographers is a bit more discreet. I try to uncover where their actual aesthetic values lie and to make them aware of what it is they’re really doing and what potential it has. I also try to evaluate how successfully they are doing what they do and provide them with a means to get closer to what they’re doing.


As a teacher of dance composition I do different things.  I try to give them choreographic strategies and structures that they would never normally use on their own.  I don’t need to know their actual aesthetic values, I only need to give them more.  I try to expand their range of choices available to them by giving them assignments which challenge and stretch their own preferences even to the point of contradicting them.  This is, in some ways, at odds with mentorship but there is some overlap.  In a mentor-mentee relationship the mentee is offering something of this own and the mentor is using it and extending it. My mentoring of my own dancers is good for my art and my company. In teaching, I’m at once more controlling and more at the student's service.

2 Chances to Develop Dances with David Parker

by karen Krolak

If you are a choreographer in the Boston area, now is the time to polish up your resume. Get cracking because you have two upcoming opportunities to create work under the auspices of David Parker, one of my favorite dance artists roaming the planet. David is the Co-director of The Bang Group (TBG) out of New York and he is currently on the faculty of Julliard, Barnard, and the Ailey School. TBG has toured to 13 countries and 21 states. Their repertory exudes wit and grace even after repeated viewings. Do not be intimidated by David's credentials, though, he is refreshingly gregarious and amazingly supportive of young artists.


Applications are due on March 4th for the next Emerging Artist Concert at Green Street Studios mentored by David and Lorraine Chapman. Selected choreographers receive 40 hours of rehearsal space, mentoring sessions, and a fully produced concert of their new group piece on June 10 and 11.

Then on April 1st, you can submit your materials for the Choreographers' Project at Summer Stages. Richard Colton and Amy Spencer developed this fabulous program where three choreographers set new works on Summer Stages students. This year, the resulting pieces will be presented at the  ICA's magnificent stage. The Bang Group has been in residence at Summer Stages for over a decade and they work closely with the Choreographic Fellows. Oh, and choreographers also get to attend daily technique classes with Dan Wagoner and other Summer Stages teachers.

Guest Artist At Dancing Arts Center

by Karen Krolak

If you are out in the suburbs of Boston today searching for an artistic adventure, I highly reccomend dropping by the Dancing Arts Center in Holliston, MA. At 4:30 and 6:30, students will present a diverse selection of Ballet, Modern, Jazz, and Flamenco pieces created during the 2009 summer session. For the last three weeks, I have been a guest artist for the Elementary Intermediate level Modern classes. In addition to my work, the concert will feature works by Karyn Edison, Wayne Stewarte, Erica Drew, and Adrienne Hawkins .

My piece, Infinite???, was inspired by text messaging and two tracks off of a CD included in the July 2007 issue of the Believer Magazine. With only 15 hours of rehearsal, I began with improvisations to develop vocabulary that would be familiar to this group. Having been mesmerized by David Parker's 10th anniversary performance at Summer Stages Dance the Thursday before I started, I borrowed one of his favorite exercises. Just using the phrases that the girls created with it, we whipped the first section together in five days. Now I understand why David is so fond of this choreographic tool.

Even though these dancers are classically trained, they have been very willing to embrace my rather unorthodox teaching methods and the slapstick style of this piece. I am looking forward to seeing how it kicks off the concert.

Updates from the Cool New York Dance Festival

by Karen Krolak

Hey, we had a weekend of full and enthusiastic houses at the Cool New York Dance Festival. I was really impressed by how many people skipped the Super Bowl to attend on Sunday. There will be 9 more performances this weekend so scoot on over if you are in New York.

White Wave's stage is a funky little space with glorious, wide beam floors. You have to climb down a ladder to get to the dressing rooms which made it feel like you were going into a curious little tree fort.

After our tech rehearsal on Thursday, David Parker took Jason and I out for drinks and snacks at Cowgirl. He confided some of his ideas for his 10th Anniversary performance at Summer Stages in July, with us and now I am even more curious to see how it evolves.

While I did not get to see most of the pieces that were on the programs with Monkeyhouse, I did catch Program A before our show on Saturday night. What a fantastic way to get psychologically warmed up! Belinda Mc Guire's solo, Hex, blended balletic grace with sharp gestures that seemed to repel and attract the audience at the same time. Her gossamer silk dress added an unusually buoyant quality to her tense muscularity.

Donlin Foreman's duet, Not our Only Life, sparked with a magnetic humanity that somehow remained soft and inviting. It was a balanced counterpoint to Idan Sharabi's ready to boil duet, ADAR. Each time John Bessant III flung Belinda McGuire through the air by her neck, I gasped. Even though I could guess the mechanics behind this illusion, the powerful image still shocked me with each repetition.

Both of Young Soon Kim's pieces, SSOOT II: On the Wall (an excerpt) and What IS ???, profited from regular rehearsal in the space. They seamlessly integrated the scenic landscape and animated the architectural quirks. The excerpt from SSOOT II was exquisite and may lure me down to New York MAY 13 - 17 to see the full length production.

Gratitude and a Goodbye to Daniel Nagrin

by Karen Krolak

I just heard that one of my heroes, Daniel Nagrin, passed away on December 29.

Oh, there are just too many reasons to admire him. Really, read his bio. For seven decades he did it all: dance, choreograph, teach and write. When I first discovered his book, How to Dance Forever, his unflinching insights profoundly changed my approach to class, choreography, and my career.

Although he lead a choreography workshop at the American Dance Festival when I attended in 1992, it filled before I could enroll. However, whenever I had the opportunity, I would sneak into the balcony around that studio and listen in to his concise critiques.

Eleven years later, I finally found a chance to participate in one of his Master Classes on Improvisation at Summer Stages Dance in Concord, MA. It is difficult to describe the formidable intensity of being in a room with him. Dubbed "the great loner of American dance." by Dance Magazine, his sparse utterances seemed to have their own unique gravitational pull. Being his student was slightly intimidating and yet wonderfully exhilarating. His New York Times obituary aptly described him as "craggily innovative", and that phrase captures a great deal of his mysterious charisma.

You can imagine my surprise when he approached me after class to cryptically remark that he "admired my courage." I was too stunned to ask exactly what he meant before he left but it is a moment that I refer back to whenever I need to cut through the noise of artistic doubt.

When he returned to Summer Stages Dance again in 2006, he was gracious enough to let me interview him for about an hour on the arc of his career and his thoughts on choreographing. Below is a brief segment from that conversation that seems particularly pertinent today:

KK: How did you get started choreographing?

DN: How did I discover it?

kK: Yeah..

DN: Well, I went to concerts and I knew if you were to be respected you had to make your own dances. In early modern dance, the dancers had less respect than the choreographers.

kK: Interesting...very interesting. And when you began did you just go into a studio and start moving or did you study it? How did you start the process of it?

DN: I never studied choreography. The closest I came to studying choreography were the years I spent working with Helen Tamiris.

kK: Okay.

DN: She was my adviser in my own work and she conducted classes which I never attended. We spoke a lot. I never discovered a method. Well, I did and i didn't. I saw how she worked and it made a lot of sense to me and I always did it.

kK: And when you began choreographing, did you mostly choreograph for yourself or did you set work on other people.

DN: [points to himself]

kK: When you started did you work with mirrors? I know in class that we cover the mirrors.

DN: I have always hated the mirror.

kK: [laughes with a sense of recognition]

DN: Whenever I looked in the mirror I was shocked. I wasn't entranced with what I saw. I wasn't entranced when i saw myself dance and I wasn't entranced with my face. Something about it always put me off. I always felt much better without looking. So I didn't look.

kK: It is curious that you didn't like the way you looked dancing, and yet you would choose to be the medium for your choreography.

DN: It never occurred to me that was wrong if it didn't look good. In the choreography that I did and that I taught, the important thing was what you did on stage not what you looked like.

Thanks for inspiring so many of us!

Daniel Nagrin 1917 - 2008