community news Margaret Jenkins Dance Company Announces CHIME 2019 Grant Recipients The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (MJDC) is pleased to announce the recipients of
4c. “Misty Copeland has become the compa- ny’s [American Ballet Theater] greatest audi- ence magnet, while its Women’s Move-ment is commissioning female-choreographed premieres. Still, too much rests on Ms. Cope- land’s shoulders (New York needs a choice of black ballerinas, not one black prima alone!), while certain female choreographers have suddenly been deluged with commissions. Let’s hope the next 10 years see more per- vasive reform.” I feel like Macaulay is hint- ing that there are perhaps too many female choreographer commissions—I just don’t quite know what to make of the deluge com- ment—but I wholeheartedly agree with the rest of the sentiment. Macaulay opens his article with, “Dance is about change. The body keeps altering its shape while we watch it move [ as do the bodies of the watchers, but please, go on ]. Many of the dances that were current yester- day will not do tomorrow.” Agreed. And the same goes for dance criticism. Many of the reviews that were acceptable yesterday will not do today. I’ve written some of those, so I know the shame. Here’s to a future dance criticism that follows dance’s lead, altering its shape in relation to the movement of (the) T ime(s). 1. https://www.dancemagazine.com/ballet- legs-2625634647.html 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/arts/dance/ alastair-macaulay-dance-farewell.html 3. I saw the work at American Realness in January 2018. Sima Belmar, Ph.D. , is a Lecturer in the Depart- ment of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly articles and book reviews have appeared in TDR , the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices , Performance Matters , Contemporary Theatre Review , and The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies . All best, Sima Belmar
to make dances so they don’t have to teach. And even then, many choreographers love teaching—Bobbi Jene Smith just told me so!—and though they don’t often name their techniques after themselves, they are abso- lutely tweaking their inheritance for the ben- efit of generations of dancers to come, and proud to be doing so. Macaulay can’t have it both ways— acknowledge that everyone has their own ideas about when the Golden Age occurred and claim that his Golden Age is actually the real one. So thank heavens Macaulay is wrong about teacher-choreographers, and theatrical dance can continue exerting its radicalism and creativity without worrying about what metal medal some future critic decides to hang around its neck. 4. For my last point, I’m going to jump around and share my favorite moments in Macaulay’s article, moments so delightfully diverse they don’t really constitute a single theme. Here goes: 4a. “While attending to ballet — always the thorniest of dance arts, as controversial as it is prestigious — I draw attention to two very unalike trends: one heartening, one dismay- ing. The first is the increasing penetration of George Balanchine’s choreography into national and international repertory.” I’m not a balletomane, but kudos to Macaulay for that radically apt word choice. indefensible comments about dance and dancers: “Who knows dancing who only dancing knows?” I’ve got to be honest—I’m not sure what that means. I read it in two ways: either you can’t know much about dance if all you do is dance, or you can’t know much about dance if dancing only knows you. I kind of like the latter because it doesn’t really clarify anything but rather adds a further sense of mystery. 4b. It is not surprising that Macaulay quotes critic Arlene Croce, the great defender of
Announcing Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ 2019 Living Cultures Grantees The annual grant supports cultural communi- ties and Native California tribes engaging in traditional practices which include dance, music, material arts, foodways, and story- telling. Bay Area awardees include: African Queens Dance Company, Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop, Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, BrasArte: The Damasceno Brazil- ian Cultural Exchange, Chaksam-pa Tibetan Dance & Opera Company, Dancing Ci(y)phers, Eszterlanc Hungarian Folk Ensemble, Kalin- gafornia Laga, KlezCalifornia, Inc., KSTAR- RPRODUCTIONS, La Ultima Parada, Manila- town Heritage Foundation, North American Guqin Association, Omnira Institute, Purple Silk Music Education (PSMEF), San Francisco Guzheng Music Society, The VA'V Ensemble, Theatre of Yugen. actaonline.org San Francisco Grants for the Arts Leadership Changes After almost 38 years as the Director of Grants for the Arts in San Francisco, Kary Schulman retired in February 2019. Shulman says, “The decades have flown by serving the San Francisco arts community as Director of Grants for the Arts.... Determined not to retire until the arts were once again linked to the Hotel Tax, a stable and growing source of revenue, the victory of Prop E (for which so many of you worked so hard) made it possible for me to think about retirement.” Formerly with the City's Office of Protocol, Matthew Goudeau was named the new Direc- tor of Grants for the Arts in early February. sfgfta.org
CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area 2019. For the 2019 program, founder Margaret Jenkins will serve as the CHIME mentor, working with three local choreographers over the course of the year. The recipients are: Jesselito Bie, randy reyes, and Nadhi Thekkek. mjdc.org/chime Applications due by Mon, Mar 25, 2019 CA$H is a granting program for individual art- ists and organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. CA$H was designed in 1999 by artists, for artists. The program seeks to support artistic projects that represent the many diversities of Bay Area dance community (race, genre, age, Upcoming Grant Deadline: CA$H Dance SFMOMA’s Open Space Presents Keith Hennessy’s de(composition) Tuesdays: Mar 5, 12, 19, 26, 6-9pm SFMOMA’s White Box FREE de(composition) is a four-week workshop led by the artist and activist Keith Hennessy with an opening ceremony and talk by Kanyon CoyoteWoman Sayers-Roods (Mutsun-Ohlone, California Native). Free of charge and open to all bodies, the program will focus on experi- ences, histories, and ideas to inspire composi- tion; activities will include an unpredictable mix of embodied studio practice, lecture, and discussion for artists of all kinds. openspace.sfmoma.org gender, ability, experience, location). dancersgroup.org/funding/cash
Gravity Access Services Introducing Live Audio Description For Dance and Theater Make your next event more accessible: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * www.jesscurtisgravity.org/access
ODC/Dance Presents World’s on Fire March 7 -10, 2019 YBCA Theater
“A pivotal and influential mainstay of [San Francisco]’s vibrant dance scene.” - NewYork Press
odc.dance/onfire
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in dance MAR 2019
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