Monthly Archives: September 2012

Window on the Work: Lela Aisha Jones/Flyground on 10/22/2012 at 6PM

Join the dance program for a showing with Lela Aisha Jones and Flyground in the Troy Dance Lab on October 22, at 6PM.

The dancers will be featuring some excerpted work from the STREET GRACE SERIES. This Flyground Series is a contemporary collection of movement performance works that cleverly blur textual and bodily memories as they are uncovered in the histories of African/Afro/Black diasporic shared experiences in the US.  Currently the Series includes Native Portals of Lynching and Love, which is an abstract cultural narrative that transforms our relationship with the noose as an active agent in lynching through jolts of comedy and intensity.  It puts the image of the noose front and center for everyone to work through in their bodies and systems.  It starts internal and external conversations based on what has been missing or excluded as a part of our historical education in theUS—namely visibility, accountability, and healing.

*Lela Aisha Jones* is a native of Tallahassee, Florida and is at home when creating.  While in movement she found her entry point as an artist, she cannot be defined by one discipline or practice; her experiences have lead to a more nomadic existence. She is the founder of FlyGround—her creative home, co-founder of The Requisite Movers, and development coordinator as well as member of Mascher Space Co-op. Lela walks with her transitioned as well as living family; she is humbled and so thankful for all those who have nurtured her, especially her grandfather, mom, dad, and sister.

*FlyGround* experiences are in a genre of their own but never too far from home. Since 2009, it is a movement performance company that artistically archives and rethinks the intersecting lineages of the African/Afro/Black diaspora and US black lived experiences through abstract, physical and cultural narrative.  The work is a spiritual sanctuary that asks hard questions in safe spaces and honors the body and embodied experience as real landscapes that know life.  We walk coherently through cultures and traditions meeting where we can and realizing where we are varied.  We are grounded in native US vibes.  We are home grown traces of many.  We are consciously here.

Tavia Odinak ’09 in NYC with “Meaning Irregular Volumes: Study III”

Tavia Odinak ’09 will be showing some of her new, in process material Measuring Irregular Volumes: Study III on Friday, September 28, 2012 @ 8PM at 100 Grand St., New York, NY. The evening will also include the work of three other choreographers: Gemma Peramiquel Borjas, Lindsey Drury, and Megan Byrne.

Tavia writes, “This Study is a taste of my work in it’s research stage. I would love to hear feedback, so if you are able to come and have thoughts or questions after the showing, please feel free to share them with me. I hope you will join me! ”

www.taviagrace.com

Katia Lom ’06 in London at the Art Cellar

If you’re in London, check out Katia Lom ’06 in a group show: http://www.theartcellar.co.uk/

Staged by a pop-up gallery that will include a mix of artists but also chefs, mixologists and musicians, the show will run next week from Wednesd

ay 3rd October to Friday 5th October everyday from 6pm to 11pm at:

“The Art Cellar”
41a Farringdon Street
London EC4A 4AN

Tickets are £9 and include one free drink. Food and drinks inside are £5 or under. The majority of artwork will be priced between £100 and £2000.

Window on the Work: Christopher Fleming 9/16/2012

Join the Swarthmore Project of the Dept. of Music Dance in a WINDOW ON THE WORK with CHRISTOPHER FLEMING

Where: Boyer Studio

When: 3PM, Sunday, September 16

Established in 2012, the newly formed BalletFleming has quickly emerged as an innovative and exciting new dance company. In creating original works by choreographer, writer and director Christopher Fleming, the group explores innovative approaches to storytelling, musical theatre and symphonic expositions.

As a member of the New York City Ballet, Mr. Fleming danced Principal roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins. He also headed a group of soloists and principals from New York City Ballet, which toured Europe with his choreography as well as that of George Balanchine. With Mr. Balanchine’s encouragement he embarked on a career as a choreographer and received a fellowship from the National Choreographic Institute under the Direction of Barbara Weisberger.  Mr. Fleming served as the Artistic Director of the Compañia Colombiana de Ballet at the Teatro Colon in Bogota, Colombia from 1985 to 1990. He was named Artistic Director of Bay Ballet Theatre in Tampa, Florida in 1993. For ten years he served as Assistant Director and Resident Choreographer for The Rock School for Dance Education, in Philadelphia, PA.

Faculty Lecture: Kumudini Lakhia 9/20, Scheuer Room

Kumudini Lakhia will lecture on Dance in India on September 20 (4:15-6PM) in the Scheuer Room, Kohlberg.

Indian dance is an important artistic expression of India’s cultural heritage.  This audio-visual presentation by visiting Cornell Professor Kumudini Lakhia will chart the contemporization of classical dance traditions.  She will present a brief history of Indian dance and then focus on Kathak , a north Indian classical form,  to show how the body is molded in the Kathak technique.  She will illustrate this by using her own choreographic innovations and discuss her motivations for breaking out of the traditional repertoire.  She will conclude with her contributions to the modern development of Kathak as a concert dance form and its increasing relevance in India and its diaspora.

Kumudini Lakhia, the visiting Cornell Professor in the Dance Program, is one of the most accomplished and highly recognized artists in India, in the field of dance and choreography.   Her innovations in the field of Kathak, a classical Indian dance from North India, are equivalent to innovations by trail blazers such as Martha Graham.  She founded Kadamb Center of Dance and Music in Ahmadabad, Gujarat in 1967.   She is a pioneering figure in the Indian contemporary dance movement and her works set in motion what is known now as contemporary Kathak.  Her choreographies are landmarks in the annals of Indian dance and they range from contemporary choreographies to some of the iconic creations in Bombay films.  Kumudini is the recipient of some of the highest civilian awards in India such as the Sangeet Natak Academy award, Padma Shri and Padma Bhusan.  She is one of the most sought after teachers and choreographers in the world, working and collaborating with international dance stars such as Akram Khan.   Her life and work are the focus of the book “Movement in Stills: The Dance and Life of Kumudini Lakhia” by Reena Shah.  Her students are also internationally renowned dancers and choreographers such as Aditi Mangaldas, Daksha Seth, and Prashant Shah.  Apart from teaching at Kadamb, she holds regular workshops and classes in the U.K, Canada, and USA.   She carries the message that tradition and innovation are not oppositional ideas, but that tradition can be the springboard for creativity and innovation.

Kate Speer ’08 with STICKS AND STONES in the 2012 Fringe

Sticks & Stones opens this weekend in Philly!

virtual high five!
send to your BFF!
Philly Fringe Festival
September 2012
Fri, 7th 7:30pm
Sat, 8th 4pm
Sat, 8th 7:30pm

Location
Mascher Co-op
155 Cecil B. Moore
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Tickets
$15 General Admission
$10 Student + 25 & younger*
$8 DancePASS**

For tickets, contact the Festival Box Office at (215) 413-1318 or visit www.livearts-fringe.org . Tickets are also available at the door (cash/check only).
*Student + 25 & younger discount ONLY available in person at the Festival Box Office or at the door. Must provide valid I.D.
**DancePASS discount ONLY available at the door.

Ticket Deals
Save money and still see our show!!!!

2-for-1 Deal
Friday, September 7th buy two tickets
for the price of one. Available only at the door!

Children get in FREE!
Kids apparently love our show, so make it a family night, because 12-and-under get in for free!

Visit www.katespeerdance.org for more info.
Kate Speer ’08
695 Manhattan Dr, #203 Boulder , CO 80303

Math + Dance = Where Patterns Collide

Sponsored by Bryn Mawr College Department of Mathematics and Swarthmore College Dance Program. Supported by the Mellon Tri-College Creative Residencies Program.

A New Mathematical Performance Work with Dr. Karl Schaffer

Final Showing of Residency

Wednesday, September 26, 4:30 to 6:00 PM

4:30-5PM Participatory workshop of concepts

5-6PM Informal presentation of the work

Swarthmore College, Troy Dance Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center

*********

Where Patterns Collide: Math & Dance
Mathematics and dance are linked in many beautiful and surprising ways: the geometry of the moving body, the symmetries of dancers arrayed across the stage, the rhythmic patterns of dance phrasing, the complex connections between dancers, the varied paths through space. In this interactive workshop we will examine the ways that choreographers employ mathematical concepts, both consciously and unconsciously, and see how mathematical questions sometimes arise within a dance. All are welcome.

 

Karl Schaffer is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble, which has toured throughout North America since 1988. They have received five National Endowment for the Arts grants for their artistic and educational work linking dance and mathematics. His most recent concert, “The Daughters of Hypatia” celebrates the lives, work, and struggles of great women mathematicians.  He teaches mathematics at De Anza College in California when not dancing. Contact KarlSchaffer:  karl_schaffer@yahoo.com.