Published by Dancers' Group, In Dance is discourse and dialogue to unify, strengthen, and amplify.
MAY 2018
Nunamta Yup'ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers, part of the Ethnic Dance Festival, Jul 6-22, p.4 Photo by RJ Muna
Liz Duran Boubion , May 11-12 Photo by Su Pang
Tomorrow, I get to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. I will do this with my niece and her three young children, ages seven, five and two. Selfies will be captured, and a bridge- dance will spontaneously happen that both embarrasses the kids and makes them laugh. This bridge-dance—like many dances—has the ability to instigate more dances while recall- ing silly and grand moments with family. Tomorrow, we walk hand in hand along a bridge that inspires movies, songs, paintings and of course a dance or two. Our experience of traversing a steel span that is known world-wide, whose color is international orange, bordered by the vast Pacific Ocean—an awe-inspiring vista that includes fog, salty air and seagulls galore—amplifies our shared expe- rience that will be fondly remembered and talked about for years to come. And tomorrow’s moments will soon be layered upon oth- ers that likely lead to a place unforeseen. They will become memories, each timelessly stuffed with flashes of knowing and not knowing—and in memories’ dream-like trances exist the beauty of none of it needing to be right. It occurs to me that the need to be right continues to impact personal and global issues. From mundane concerns about who said what in the midst of an argument to grander platforms where the need to be right has charged conversations on politics, afford- able housing, homelessness, abortion, gun violence, climate change, and so much more. Life quickly shifts these days from play to protest. How might the continued building of bridges help us deepen con- nection and understanding? Writing, reading and listening are age old methods to process the myriad machinations found online, in person, in print and on the media. Welcome by WAYNE HAZZARD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
This expanded and expansive issue of In Dance provides ample opportunity to connect. Highlights include Sima Bel- mar’s conversation with former New York Times dance critic Claudia Lo Rocco, now the Editor-in-Chief of SFMOMA’s online and live interdisciplinary platform Open Space. Belmar describes how Lo Rocco’s current gig “initiates from this question of intimacy in relation to performance criticism, and it is this always questioning, ever experimental approach that reveals criticism, history, reporting, and documentation as aesthetic practices in their own right.” In Marie Tollon’s piece, Bay Area-based choreographer Byb Bibene reveals how a visit to a museum in Paris provided the opportunity to connect with carved wooden objects called nkisi nkondi that originated from his native land, the Congo. Erasure of history through colonization turned into “the start of a personal revolution” for Bibene. And in this new work he is asking questions like “What would have happened if people had held on to their beliefs and their healing practices? What if people didn’t embrace Christianity?” The many images and articles within are shaped by their own sense of time, place and memory, which guide us toward a path. Yet what I often observe is that there’s not a single route to take but medusa-like forks in the road – maybe they are metaphors, or talisman, for potential. The reality of multi-pronged directions quickly becomes folklore and shared history and with the sharing and retelling the observer learns something new and is reminded that there is no wrong path to take: just bridges to find and cross. Roam these pages to engage with artists, experience new work, while enjoying images and ideas that are reflective of divergent and diverse practices.
Vidhya Subramanian , May 18 Photo by Swagato Basumallick
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IN PRACTICE: Claudia La Rocco: Distance and Intimacy
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by SIMA BELMAR
journalism faltering as a vehicle for criticism, perhaps a silver lining is that we can finally abandon this idea of the critic as objective, thumbs up thumbs down, non-implicated witness.” From what I’ve seen, Open Space with La Rocco at the helm initiates from this ques- tion of intimacy in relation to performance criticism, and it is this always questioning, ever experimental approach that reveals criticism, history, reporting, and documenta- tion as aesthetic practices in their own right. Asked to describe her writing and editorial practices, La Rocco says she tries to follow in the footsteps of exemplars of the poet-crit- ic tradition like Frank O’Hara, and Bill Berk- son, who wrote “as a way of marking one’s consciousness through time”; radical, politi- cal experimenters like Jill Johnston; dance artists like Simone Forti, “whose movement and writing and drawing and speaking im- provisations are all mixed up”; and editors like Artforum ’s David Velasco, “who has that magical blend of structure, sensitivity, and intelligence, who pushes me to experiment but also tells me ‘Hey, you think you’re being experimental but you’re actually writing self- centered drivel that I can’t understand.’ Not that he would ever say it that meanly. But I can send something that I think might be a mess and I trust him to save me from myself or to say, ‘This works.’ He’s a collaborator in the best way.” La Rocco met her partner, Oakland-based musician Phillip Greenlief, in 2013 at a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts, where she assembled her book, The Best Most Useless Dress (Badlands 2014). An “embedded writer” position with the Hatch- ery Project, a partnership between Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, Vermont Perfor- mance Lab, The Chocolate Factory, and Philadelphia’s RED Arts Project, supported by major grants from the Mellon Founda- tion and the NEA, enabled La Rocco to leave The Times against the advice of “several colleagues who told me I was an idiot.” Free from daily journalism’s grind, “restless and itchy,” she moved to the Bay Area, and took the position at Open Space. As Editor-in-Chief at Open Space, La Rocco isn’t writing as much criticism as she used to. Rather, she is out “identifying the people that I think should write.” Along with Managing Editor and poet Gordon Faylor, and in line with the vision of Open Space founder Suzanne Stein (another poet), La Rocco seeks to produce an artist-centric publication with strong voices that repre- sent aesthetic, geographic, and sociocultural diversity. This is not hard to come by in the Bay Area, but locating diversity of political viewpoint presents a challenge: “The public discourse is so hardened right now. We don’t know how to have good disagreements in public. I’m trying to figure out how to have contrarian viewpoints not for the sake of them but to find smart gray areas. I’m really interested in Open Space being a balance of art, art criticism, and arts reporting. And I want it to be a place where people can really play with different types of writing, where they can take a risk on something that could be a total failure.” This sort of rigorous openness means you’ll find criticism, performance, poetry, and all manner of digitally supported cultural production at Open Space, all subject to La Rocco and Faylor’s deft editorial eyes. And you will find dance there too: “I’ve always
THE INTERNET threatens to ruin every radio voice for me. Terry Gross, Marco Werman, Ray Suarez, Rose Aguilar—none of them looks like they’re supposed to! But then again, when I think about what faces I expect to match these voices, I can only see vaguely gendered avatars in silhouette. In other words, I expect no sort of face at all, so any face would be surprising and somehow wrong. Same thing with bylines. Here it’s the liter- ary voice that meets with a shadow image, looking like no one and everyone at the same time. Take Claudia La Rocco for example. Many a theater usher experienced cognitive dissonance when the curly-haired, bright- eyed, twenty-something sought to take the seat with her name on it: “I would routinely sit in seats reserved for The Times and ushers would say, ‘No, that’s reserved for Claudia La Rocco.’ I think they expected a 60-year- old. I don’t know if that was because I was writing like a 60-year-old or if The Times just ages a gal. I think it might be the latter. I hope it’s the latter.” La Rocco, now 40, and neither looking nor writing like a 60-year-old (but with 60 being the new 40, who’s to say?), became the Editor-in-Chief of SFMOMA’s online and live interdisciplinary platform Open Space in 2016. From January through April of this year, Open Space organized Limited Edition , a performance programming/arts writing collaboration between CounterPulse, The Lab, ODC Theater, SFMOMA, and Z Space. The program encapsulates La Rocco’s com- mitment to understanding all art practice— whether Palestinian Dabke or a Keith Hen- nessey/Gerald Casel collaboration on Ocean Beach—as community-based. Community members make performances and commu- nity members witness performances—why shouldn’t community members write about them as well? “We’re just trying to get more smart context around contemporary perfor- mance and to look a bit at the ecosystem of these spaces.” La Rocco and I spoke over coffee at Alchemy in Oakland. I wanted to know the whole story of how she became a dance writer. And I got it. And it’s great. And all you need to know is: • Just because you major in English, and choose to study “super lucrative” genres like contemporary poetry and Middle English, doesn’t mean you’ll never make a living • If you get hired to write about, say, bio- tech for a tech publication, don’t be afraid to ask if you can write a book review column instead (yes, she did that, and they let her) • Writers learn on the job, so forgive them their trespasses, i.e. being dicks in their early reviews (how gratifying to learn that I am not the only critic “horrified” to look back at old reviews) • Even New York Times dance critics can feel like frauds between a work of art, an individual experience, and the surrounding culture.” –CLAUDIA LA ROCCO “I’ve always thought of criticism as a triangle
La Rocco is an accidental dance critic, who began writing about dance for the Arts Desk at the Associated Press. While at AP, she wrote for various arts publication including Art on Paper and Art News , mostly about visual art and books: “Dance wasn’t in my experience. My best friend growing up was a committed ballet dancer and I saw her perform a few times. But mostly I played ten- nis. I read books.” Her first foray into dance writing was to cover Baryshnikov in Eliot Feld’s work at the Joyce: “It was terrifying. I went with a very good friend of mine who is a dancer, Kathryn Enright; she was my se- curity blanket. It was a good deal: she would get free tickets and I would get somebody to be like, you can do this.” La Rocco says she got her start because of a lack of value and literacy around dance: “You can say well here’s a smart young kid who has no experience, we’ll throw her in, whereas you wouldn’t say, you don’t know about politics, but hey you’re twenty, let’s have you be the political correspondent.” This lack of cultural literacy around dance also allowed her to get to know and own her personal tastes: “At first I was going to the more traditional houses: City Center, Lincoln Center, The Joyce, the usual circuit. I just thought I don’t like dance, or I must not understand it because if I understood it I would like these shows. Then I stumbled into DTW [Dance Theater Workshop] one night, and that was a game changer. I started writ- ing more and more about ‘weird’ stuff that to me didn’t seem weird. It seemed smart and layered and akin to how I think about the world.” La Rocco became a stringer for The New York Times in 2005, where she wrote about dance until 2013, leaving the newspaper for good two years later: “I stopped writing for The Times about dance because at that point I had been doing it for 10 years as a daily critic, in that treadmill of you see 5-7 shows a week, you write about 2-5 shows a week. I began to feel like I was overly intimate with and exhausted by the form of the 300- to 900-word overnight review. And I just didn’t think I could say something else within that form about Sleeping Beauty or about Revela- tions . If you’re a Times critic you have to survey the field and it’s no good to walk into something and be bored. It’s not good for the readers, it’s not good for the writers, it’s certainly not good for the art form.” But burnout was only half the story. La Rocco is a poet and a performer, who in 2008 founded The Performance Club as a “real-time and web-based” space for “criti- cism that is also, or at least aspires to be, art” (claudialarocco.com/the-performance- club/). Interviews and conversations with dance artists led to friendships and artistic collaborations, which led to an ever-expand- ing list of artists she could no longer “feel comfortable writing with honesty about in The Times from the position of The Times and its conflict of interest policy”: “In many ways in our culture we value intimacy: If you don’t know it how can you write about it? If you don’t know this person, if you can’t em- pathize with her, how can you put yourself in her shoes? But journalism really wants this separation. So when we think about daily It is [an] approach that reveals criticism, history, reporting, and documenta- tion as aesthetic practices in their own right.
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CONTENTS
ON THIS PAGE / In Practice:
Claudia La Rocco by Sima Belmar 3 / Bringing the Minkisi Home by Marie Tollon 4 / San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Celebrates 40 Years 7 / Summer Workshop Guide 12 / May Performance Calendar 14 / Jo Kreiter: Artistic Activist/Activist Artist by Rita Felciano 15 / SPEAK by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
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BY MARIE TOLLON BRINGING THE MINKISI HOME
IT WAS UNEXPECTEDLY and on foreign land that Byb Bibene encountered a nkisi nkondi for the first time. During a visit at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, where he was on tour in 2006, the Bay Area-based choreog- rapher was taken by the power of a wooden sacred statue, which he learned was a nkisi nkondi ( nkisi is loosely translated as ‘medi- cine’, nkondi as ‘hunter’) and originated from his native land, the Congo. He had never seen nor heard about it back home. Carved in wood, minkisi (plural of nkisi ) were found in the kingdom of Kongo, which was located in West central Africa, in what is now known as northern Angola, Cabi- nda, the Republic of the Congo, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the southern part of Gabon. The kingdom was mostly an independent state from the 14th to the 19th century, until it was broken apart by colonial Portugal, France and Belgium. Independence was re- instated in the 1960s, although by that time, years of foreign domination had caused dev- astating damages throughout the Congolese culture, politics and economics. In pre-colonial time, minkisi were power figures activated by a nganga or healer at the request of an individual, a family or a community to help with public or private matters such as sealing a contract, resolving a conflict, curing a disease or casting off evil spirits. The nganga would activate the nkisi by placing spiritually charged substances inside its hollows, thereby calling the divine spirits to inhabit it and offer their guidance. Minkisi came in various shapes, mainly anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures, but also vessels or shells. The nkisi nkondi stands out among other minkisi , as one in which the nganga would insert and leave a sharp object – nail, blade, shard – for each request made to the spirits. Deemed as superstitious ‘fetishes’ by Christian missionaries, minkisi were for the most part destroyed during colonial times. Those that were spared were looted and later reappeared in private collections and museums, primarily in Western Europe and the United States. In addition, by imposing their language and education onto the native populations, colonists systematically eradi- cated traces of indigenous practices. This is why Bibene, although born and raised in the Republic of the Congo, never knew about minkisi . An economist by trade – he holds a BA in finance – Bibene only started to pursue dance as a formal study in college: “In Congo dance and music are part of everyday life. I grew up surrounded by traditional ethnic
Kiandada Dance Theater / photos by Jen Phillip
dances, social dances like rumba or ndom- bolo , as well as American hip-hop. But it was not until I went to college that dance and acting became a big part of my life,” Bibene shared. He started a company in Brazzaville, the country’s capital, and in 2005 it was se- lected to compete in a dance competition in Paris. He won two prizes and began to travel frequently, mostly in Europe and the United States, where he relocated in 2009. Encountering the nkisi nkondi in Paris fostered Bibene’s insatiable curiosity and planted the seed for his new work Nkisi Nkondi: A Divine Sculpture from Central Africa 1 , presented at ODC Theater in May, followed by performances at the Museum of the African Diaspora in June: “I became obsessed and started researching. It took me to revisiting the history and spirituality of my country before colonization.” Bibene began developing the piece two years ago, as part of his thesis for his MFA in Dance at Saint Mary’s College. It started as a duet with Congolese dancer Chris Babingui, before morphing into a quintet. The piece now includes twelve dancers, and live music by Colombian flutist Adriana Rueda as well
Still Standing AT THE HAAS-LILIENTHAL HOUSE J U LY 1 2 — A U G U S T 5
Continued on pg 6 »
Byb Bibene's Kiandada Dance Theater and ODC Theater present Nkisi Nkondi: A Di- vine Sculpture from Central Africa : May 17-18, ODC Theater, SF. odc.dance/kiandanda
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SAN FRANCISCO ETHNIC DANCE FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 40 YEARS
PHOTOS BY RJ MUNA
Arenas Dance Company
OngDance Company
Parangal Dance Company
Nunamta Yup'ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers
Performers during the 40th San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival:
Hermanos Herrera - Mexican Folkloric Kim Shuck – Poet Laureate of San Francisco
be seen for the first time in over 200 years, in regalia that has taken nearly four decades to create. Additionally, the Festival has announced a trio of new Co-Artistic Directors: Pat- rick Makuakāne, Latanya d. Tigner, and Māhealani Uchiyama, as Carlos Carvajal and CK Ladzekpo become Artistic Direc- tors Emeritus after 12 seasons as Co-Artistic Directors. Makuakāne is founder, Artistic Director, and Kumu Hula of San Francisco’s renowned Nā Lei Hulu i ka Wēkiu Hawai- ian dance company; Tigner is a dancer and choreographer at Oakland’s venerated Di- mensions Dance Theater, directs Dimensions’ youth company, and serves on the dance faculty of UC Berkeley; Uchiyama is founder and Artistic Director of the Center for International Dance in Berkeley, Kumu Hula of Hālau Ka Ua Tuahine, and is an award- winning choreographer and composer.
THIS JULY, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival will return to the War Memorial Opera House for its 40th anniversary as the largest, longest-running, and most compre- hensive world dance and music event of its kind in the US. “[The Opera House] is a magnificent set- ting to celebrate the awe-inspiring Bay Area artists who are sustaining the world’s cultural traditions, shining as a powerful beacon for the power and beauty of diverse cultural in- clusion,” said Festival Executive Director Julie Mushet. “It’s deeply gratifying to celebrate four decades of presenting these inspiring art- ists to ever-growing audiences, from the Festi- val’s modest beginnings in community centers to the grandest stage in San Francisco.” One of the highlights of this year’s Festival is the performance by Chuna McIntyre and the Nunamta Yup’ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers, who will present a dance that will
Leung’s White Crane Lion & Dragon Dance Association – Chinese Dragon Dance Los Danzantes de Aztlán, Fresno State – Mexi- can Folkloric (Huapangos) Mussel Rock Cloggers – Appalachian Clogging Nimely Pan African Dance Company – Liberian Folkloric Nunamta Yup’ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers – Alaskan Yup’ik Eskimo OngDance Company – Korean Traditional and Contemporary Parangal Dance Company – Philippine Folkloric (Meranao) Te Pura O Te Rahura’a – T ahitian ʽŌte’a and ʽAparima Vinic-Kay (La Gente y El Canto) – Mexican Folkloric Ye Feng – Chinese Contemporary The Festival’s Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in ethnic dance and music will be presented to four artists who have had an extraordinary impact on the field: • Lily Cai , Founder and Artistic Director of Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company • Patty-Ann Farrell, the Festival’s Lighting Designer and Auditions Stage Manager, who has been a part of the Festival team since it launched in 1978 • Chuna McIntyre, Founder and Artistic Director of Nunamta Yup’ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers • Jamila Salimpour (In Memoriam), Founder of Bal Anat, and a major influence on belly dance in the United States for more than 50 years.
AERODANCE – Indian Folkloric (Gujarat) AguaClara Flamenco – Spanish Flamenco Ananya Tirumala – South Indian Kuchipudi Antara Asthaayi Dance – North Indian Kathak Arenas Dance Company – Afro-Cuban Bolivia Corazón de América – Bolivian Folkloric (Tarabuco and Potosí) Caminos Flamencos – Spanish Flamenco Charya Burt Cambodian Dance – Cambodian Classical Chinyakare Ensemble – Z imbabwean Tradi- tional Chitresh Das Youth Company – North Indian Kathak De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association – Afro-Peruvi an Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisc o – Mexican Folkloric (Tabasqueño)
Saint Mary’s College offers two graduate programs in dance:
DANCE PROGRAM IN
• Design and Production The first in the U.S. for the field of Dance
CONTACT: stmarys-ca.edu/mfadance mfadance@stmarys-ca.edu
• Creative Practice Low-residency option
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Caminos Flamencos
Antara Asthaayi Dance
Te Pura O Te Rahura'a
Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco
Nimely Pan African Dance Company
San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival: Jul 6-22, War Memorial Opera House, SF, sfethnicdancefestival.org
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community news
» Continued from pg 3 Bringing the Minkisi Home
IN PRACTICE: Claudia La Rocco
» Continued from pg 2
as music by Bayaka Pygmies and composers Henry Torgue and Serge Houpin. Featuring text and videos about the cre- ative process and the history of minkisi , the piece recreates some of the dances that might have been used in the process of calling for the divine spirits to inhabit the body of the nkisi nkondi . “I don’t know if there was a specific dance used by the nganga when per- forming the ritual, but I deducted so because ceremonies always involve dance, music, chanting or clapping. I don’t think that a small matter such as two people sealing a contract with the help of a nganga included dancing, but a larger matter involving the whole community might certainly have,” Bibene commented. In Nkisi Nkondi , Bibene is not only draw- ing from the ethnic dances of his country but also from the photos of the minkisi that he came across during his research: “I’m creating from what the minkisi are telling us, from the power emanating from them. In the studio I may ask dancers to choose two of the minkisi ’s positions and activate them.” For Bibene this work is an excavation into a cultural heritage that was taken away by colonial powers. “We are remembering his- tory and honoring the spirit of the minkisi . With this piece I’m creating something that is my own internal ritual, connecting with my people’s history, which I didn’t know grow- ing up. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn.” This process of excavation raises ongoing questions: “What would have happened if people had held on to their beliefs and their healing practices? What if people didn’t em- brace Christianity? The people whose heri- tage minkisi are a part of don’t even know about their existence. Considering that I had to pay a museum entrance fee in Paris to see a nkisi for the first time in my life, what is the economy of this cultural heritage? Do we bring back the statues to where they belong or do we ask for compensation?” Bibene asks. A firm believer that the key to Africa’s advancement rests in the acknowledgment of its indigenous knowledge, author Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu advocates for the return of stolen art to Africa, as a first step in restor- ing a sense of identity to communities whose traditional practices and history have been partly erased: “It is very important to under- stand that while Africa’s artwork resident in museums across Europe and America hold mostly aesthetic value in the hands of their current owners, the value it holds for
Africans are completely the opposite. Africa’s artifacts hold the collective history and memory of several communities that make up the continent. It represents Africa’s pride in her past, the absence of which has robbed the continent of a clear understanding of its present situation and the will to chart a veritable path to her future,” she stated in an interview with the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad . Bibene hopes that his piece encourages audiences to delve into their own history: “I want the audience to realize how im- portant it is to know one’s history. A lot of issues we face in our society come from the fact that people have abandoned practices that were demonized by settlers – different forms of healing or documenting history, for example. I am also hoping to encourage my brothers and sisters in the African American community to connect with their roots.” My conversation with Bibene about Nkisi Nkondi inevitably brings me to consider the colonial history of my own native country. As a white woman originally from France, whose ancestors, and the generations follow- ing, if not directly responsible for colonizing Bibene’s land, undisputedly benefited from it, I am confronted with these implications and my own position in regards to the aftermaths of France’s colonial past. After a two-year hiatus from his bi-annual trips home to complete his MFA, Bibene will return to the Republic of the Congo this summer. He is building a cultural center on the coast, in Pointe-Noire, and continues to oversee the Rue Dance street festival that he co-created in Brazzaville, which is held every two years with international guest artists who come teach and perform. While bridg- ing cultural dialogue through artistic ex- change, Bibene hopes to keep on unearthing parts of his people’s heritage and returning them to his community. “For me encoun- tering the nkisi nkondi was the start of a personal revolution, similar to a rebirth. My research and this work have taken me closer to my culture in a way I couldn’t imagine. I started questioning everything, each aspect of my life. It is hard to trace our history, I am only discovering components of it little by little. It will certainly be a lifelong project.”
thought of criticism as a triangle between a work of art, an individual experience, and the surrounding culture. It would drive me crazy when people would say, ‘Balanchine works are timeless’ No, they’re not. He created in a very particular time. If a work of art is time- less and its creator a genius and everybody should just bow down before it, then by that logic if the art work isn’t ‘succeeding’ in any one moment, it has to be the fault of the people performing it or the people perceiving it. It can’t be that a thing that was created 70 years ago might no longer be legible in a contemporary context. Performance has to move. So does the writing and thinking that seeks to converse with it.” To write dancing from a position of inti- macy with dancers and with critical distance from the form is a delicate, difficult, and deli- cious balance to strike. When I awkwardly told Claudia that I would be interested in writing for Open Space, she said, “No awkwardness. Everything in life is hopelessly intertwined.” SIMA BELMAR , Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the Depart- ment of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and writing fellow at the National Center for Choreography in Akron, Ohio. Her scholarly articles and book reviews have appeared in TDR, the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, Performance Matters, Contem- porary Theatre Review, and The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies.
Photo courtesy of artist
38th Annual Planetary Dance Sun, Jun 3, Mt. Tamalpais Sunrise Ceremony followed by main event at 11am Free The Planetary Dance is an annual all-day ritual of healing and community renewal started by legendary choreographer Anna Halprin. It is an invitation to join in a dance for peace. It brings people of all ages and abilities together in a beautiful setting to “dance for a purpose.” The Planetary Dance is a participatory dance rather than a theatrical performance. At its heart is the Earth Run, a simple dance that everybody can do. Participants are invited to run, walk, or simply stand in a series of concentric circles, creating a moving mandala. planetarydance.org Call for Applications: ODC Resident Artist Program ODC’s three-year resident artist program includes artistic commissions, creative space, choreographic and administrative mentorship/support, an annual retreat, technical residencies and preview performances. The Artist-in-Residence Program at ODC Theater is designed to offer a crucial developmental opportunity for Bay Area artists with an active recent history of creation and presentation. Successful candidates will demonstrate a clear and distinct artistic vision, rigor of practice, and point of view through their work. Applications deadline: May 1, 2018 odc.dance/resident-artist
1. Supported in part by Dancers’ Group CA$H Grant program.
MARIE TOLLON is the current ODC Theater Writer in Residence. Her stories can be found at medium. com/odc-dance-stories
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Summer W o r k s h o p
MAY BEGINNING HIP HOP PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP MICAYA Sat-Thu, Apr 28-Jun 14 Location varies No dance experience required. Performances Jun 15-17 & 22-24 at Dance Mission Theater for Mission on the Mix. **Attendance to all rehearsals is mandatory. micaya@micaya.com; micaya.com INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED HIP HOP MICAYA Sat-Thu, Apr 28-Jun 14 Location varies Performances Jun 15-17 & 22-24 at Dance Mission Theater for Mission on the Mix. **Attendance to all rehearsals is mandatory. micaya@micaya.com; micaya.com d g DUNCAN DANCE WORKSHOPS MARY SANO STUDIO OF DUNCAN DANCING Sundays, May & Aug, 12:30-3pm Mary Sano Studio of Duncan Dancing, SF This series of workshops will introduce basic Duncan dance concepts and technique to students who would like to experience Duncan dance for the first time or for those looking to keep up their technique. info@duncandance.org; duncandance.org d g BEGINNER SWING DANCE SERIES JASMINE WORRELL DANCE Tuesdays, May 1, 8, 15, 22, 8-9pm Alma del Tango Studio, San Anselmo A month-long beginner series, no partner or dance experience needed. All abilities and ages are welcome. Enjoy community, beautiful jazz music and exercise while learning a versatile and lively dance. jasmineworrell@gmail.com; jasmineworrelldance.com TAMALPA DANCES WITH KAYE ANDERSON
d g INTRO TO ARGENTINE TANGO ALMA DEL TANGO May/June/July/Aug, Wednesdays 7-8:15pm Alma del Tango Studio, San Anselmo
This course is an introduction to the social form of Argentine Tango as danced in Buenos Aires. Learn a code of movement that will get you started with this improvised dance. No previous experience necessary. Debbie@AlmaDelTango.org, almadeltango.org HIPS LIPS AND DIPS MICAYA Sat-Thu, May 2-Jun 14 Location varies Dance workshop for sexy girls and boys. Intermediate level. Performances Jun 15-17 & 22-24 at Dance Mission Theater for Mission on the Mix. **Attendance to all rehearsals is mandatory. micaya@micaya.com; micaya.com TAMALPA DANCES WITH JOY COSCULLUELA TAMALPA INSTITUTE Thu, May 3, 2018, 7:30-9:30pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF FREE Drawing from the Halprins' body of work, participants will be introduced to the basics of generating resources, themes, intentions and activities. Danc- ers will practice devising and enacting a simple score to generate creativity. info@tamalpa.org; tamalpa.org d g INTRO TO AERIAL TISSU & SLING DANCING UPSWING AERIAL DANCE Mon, May 7, 14, 21, 5-6pm Studio 12, Berkeley Students will learn a range of vocabulary on aerial tissu. The focus of the class series will be on finding ways to dance in, on and around the aerial apparatus. No previous aerial or dance experience required. Limited to 10 students. cherie@upswingaerialdance.org; upswingaerialdance.org YOUTH SUMMER PROGRAMS ROCO DANCE Mon-Sat, May 7-Aug 4, times vary by age and level RoCo Dance, Mill Valley Dance camps and intensives for children, teens and adults. Week long programs in contemporary, ballet, hip hop, breaking, jazz, west african, latin dance and much more. emily@rocodance.com; rocodance.com d g TAROT IN MOTION POLARITY WELLNESS TAROT Fri, May 11, 18 & Jun 1, 8; 12:30-2pm Spring Fall Studios, Berkeley Use Tarot as the jumping off point to create movement-based expressions that can bring many positive changes. This series is about healing with Tarot, through movement. Tarot readings will be with the Polarity Well- ness Tarot Deck, giving clarity and revealing some unknown information. mimi@polaritywellness.com; polaritywellness.com DEVISED PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP DETOUR DANCE detour dance company artists, guest facilitators Scott Marlowe and Angela Mazziotta, and participants come together with the goal of deepening their creative and performance practices. detour focuses on embodied voice, physicality/movement, text, devising, the ensemble, presence, risk, and play. detourdance@gmail.com; detourdance.com d g WEEKEND WORKSHOP WITH SHARP & FINE SHARP & FINE Sat-Sun, May 12 & 13, 10am-3pm San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, SF Dancers will spend ten hours immersed in Sharp & Fine’s process of collaborative exploration, which brings together physically exuberant, technically rigorous phrase work with playful improvisation, spoken text, and attention to narrative. megan@sharpandfine.com; sharpandfine.com Sat, May 12, 10am – 3pm Little Boxes Theater, SF PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Alma Del Tango / photo by Alli Novaka
TAMALPA INSTITUTE Tue, May 1, 6-7:15pm Berkeley Yoga Center, Berkeley FREE
(POLE) DANCE YOUR STORY SAN FRANCISCO POLE AND DANCE Sat, May 12, 5:30-7:30pm San Francisco Pole and Dance, SF
This class will introduce participants to the Tamalpa Life/Art Process. It begins with Anna Halprin's Movement Ritual that will take participants into a movement exploration to ignite creativity and get in touch with the body. info@tamalpa.org; tamalpa.org
Dive deep into connecting emotion to the body, the body to words, words to characters and character to story. Working with SF Pole and Dance owner, writer and choreographer, Amy Bond and The Sexy Grammarian, writer and teacher Kristy Lin Billuni, participants will play with writing prompts and expressing emotion with words and the body. amy@sfpoleanddance.com; sfpoleanddance.com d g TAMALPA EXPERIENCE WITH ROSARIO SAMMARTINO TAMALPA INSTITUTE Sat-Sun, May 19 - May 20, 10am-5pm Mountain Home Studio, Kentfield Using movement, drawing, poetic writing, and improvisational performance, participants will tap into art's symbolic language to explore current life themes and generate new resources. No dance experience needed. info@tamalpa.org; tamalpa.org COMPANY CLASS WITH AMY SEIWERT’S IMAGERY AMY SEIWERT’S IMAGERY Mon-Fri, May 28-Jun 22, 10-11;15am Sat, Jun 2-23, 11am-12:15pm
zaccho Studio, SF PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Professional and pre-professional dancers are welcomed to a contemporary ballet class with Imagery dancers during their daily warm-up. asimagery.org
d g Discount for Dancers' Group Individual & Company Members. Join and find the discounts at dancersgroup.org.
Hope Mohr Dance / photo courtesy of the artist
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2018 Summer WORKSHOP GUIDE
KNOW-IT-ALL PERFORMANCE AND PROCESS INTENSIVE STUDIO 200 Mon-Fri, Jun 18-22, 9am-4pm Studio 200, SF
DEVISED PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP DETOUR DANCE
Taught by Mary Carbonara and Heidi Carlsen, this workshop is for adult beginning and intermediate dancers looking to invest more deeply in technique, improvisation, composition, and the development of perfor- mance skills through the exploration of a variety of different dance and theater processes. director@studio200.org; studio200.org BERKELEY BALLET THEATER SUMMER WORKSHOP - ADVANCED SESSION 1 BERKELEY BALLET THEATER Mon-Fri, Jun 18-Jul 6, 9:30am-4:30pm Berkeley Ballet Theater, Berkeley Open to new and returning students, offers training for advanced danc- ers in a diverse, supportive environment. Daily schedule includes rigor- ous classical ballet class, modern, jazz, capoeira, and pilates. info@berkeleyballet.org, berkeleyballet.org MOVEMENT AS A LIFE/ART PROCESS WITH DARIA HALPRIN TAMALPA INSTITUTE Mon-Fri, Jun 18-22, 10am-5pm Mountain Home Studio, Kentfield Special Appearance by Anna Halprin in her 98th year. Away from the dis- tractions of daily life, this workshop offers time to feel and listen deeply to the powerful intelligence of the body, to play and express with imagination through the arts, and to create personal and collective dances. info@tamalpa.org; tamalpa.org
Sat, Jun 9, 10am–3pm Little Boxes Theater, SF PAY WHAT YOU CAN
detour dance company artists, facilitators Kat Cole and Eric Garcia, and participants come together with the goal of deepening our creative + performance practices. detour focuses on embodied voice, physicality/ movement, text, devising, the ensemble, presence, risk, and play. detourdance@gmail.com; detourdance.com d g PHYSICAL COMEDY THE LIVELY FOUNDATION Sun, Jun 10, 2-4pm Mountain View Masonic Center, Mountain View Taught by Megan Ivey, professional, Ringling Bros. trained clown. Learn slaps, water spits, walking into walls, falling down funny. Improv, solo or partnered/group, physical plus verbal. All adult ages & kids 10 and up welcome. Part of the International Dance Festival@Silicon Valley. livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net; livelyfoundation.org SRJC SUMMER JAZZ INTENSIVE SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE Mon-Thu, Jun 11-14, 9am-1pm Tauzer Dance Studio, Santa Rosa Junior College Dancers will be immersed in daily classes with a challenging variety of styles including Contemporary, Traditional Jazz, Commercial/Street Jazz, Broadway Jazz, Team Technique, Improvisation and an Audition Workshop. chillman@santarosa.edu, kad.santarosa.edu/dance DIGGING THE COMBO: PAUFVE DANCE'S JUNE 2018 WORKSHOP 3-hour sessions of Randee’s popular technique class, where dancers will dig deep into class combinations, working the material technically, me- chanically, metaphorically, narratively, dramaturgically, and spiritedly. Participants will learn and dismantle each combo, strip it bare, work it from center of the bones, expand, lighten up, and play with it. jill@shawl-anderson.org; shawl-anderson.org d g CHOREO-CUBATOR© THE LIVELY FOUNDATION Create new work or polish a work in progress. All dance/movement style welcome. Space & time to explore & make work on your own or in collaboration with other participants. Show the work in their Showcase Performance, open to the public, Jun 22. (performance not required) livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net; livelyfoundation.org A DAY WITH LYNN SIMONSON STUDIO 200 Fri, Jun 15, 10am-4pm Studio 200, SF Lynn Simonson is an internationally respected educator and the cre- ator of Simonson Technique, an organic approach to movement that prepares the body to dance in a way that is anatomically intelligent and somatically aware. Simonson Technique Class 10am-12pm, Body Mechanics Workshop 1-4pm. director@studio200.org; studio200.org CONTACT IMPROV WITH ROGELIO LOPEZ SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA Fri, Jun 15, 10:30-11:30am Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley FREE Join Rogelio Lopez, Dance Faculty member and Co-Director of the MFA in Dance at Saint Mary’s College of California, for a one-hour workshop in Contact Improv. This workshop is free and open to the public. All levels welcome. RSVP by email required. rmc5@stmarys-ca.edu; stmarys-ca.edu/mfa-in-dance AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL) DANCE EXPLORATIONS AND PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP SHAWL-ANDERSON DANCE CENTER Fridays, Jun 15-Aug 3, 6-8:30pm Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley Deaf and hearing participants of all levels are invited to join this ASL movement workshop taught by Antoine Hunter, director and founder of Urban Jazz Dance and the Bay Area Deaf International Dance Festival, with Zahna Simon (Assistant Director of Urban Jazz Dance Company) and Maim Mendelson (Assistant Rehearsal Director). This culminates in SHAWL-ANDERSON DANCE CENTER Mon, Wed, Fri, Jun 11, 13 & 15, 3-6pm Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley Tue, Thu, Fri, Jun 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 6-7:30pm Mountain View Masonic Center, Mountain View Five movement classes offered back to back with a mid-day lunch break: Pilates mat, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Etta's Electric Line Dances. Take any number of classes. All classes are mixed levels, ages 15 and up. livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net; livelyfoundation.org d g CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP WITH VICTOR TALLEDOS ALONZO KING LINES DANCE CENTER Sat, Jun 16-Aug 4, 1:30-3pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF Choreographer Victor Talledos will lead the students into developing their skills and performance abilities in a safe and creative environ- ment. Workshop ends with a performance at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Thu, Aug 9. jamie@linesballet.org; dancecenter.linesballet.org a performance at the festival Fri-Sun, Aug 10-12. jill@shawl-anderson.org; shawl-anderson.org d g FULL DAY OF DANCE© THE LIVELY FOUNDATION Sun, Jun 16, 10am-5pm Mountain View Masonic Center, Mountain View
detour dance / photo by Eric Garcia
d g LINES ADULT DANCE INTENSIVE 2018 ALONZO KING LINES DANCE CENTER Thu-Fri, May 31-Jun 1; 5-9:30pm; Sat-Sun, Jun 2-3; 9-5:30pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF For the non-professional dancer, this intensive is an opportunity to work with world-renowned teachers, including Alonzo King himself, in the technical, artistic, and individual cultivation that founds the LINES phi- losophy and approach to dance training. Daily classes in ballet, modern, somatics, composition, and LINES repertoire. jamie@linesballet.org; dancecenter.linesballet.org d g LINES ADULT DANCE INTENSIVE 2018 (EXTENDED OPTION) ALONZO KING LINES DANCE CENTER Thu, May 31, 5-9:30pm; Fri, Jun 1, 12:30-9:30pm; Sat-Sun, Jun 2-3, 9-5:30pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF This extended workshop includes access to a special master class with Baobab Dance Company (Japan). jamie@linesballet.org; dancecenter.linesballet.org JUNE (UN)DOING GENDER IN CI: A CONTACT IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP WITH KRISTIN HORRIGAN HOPE MOHR DANCE Participants will seek to deepen their Contact Improvisation dancing, strengthen their technique, and expand the range of dances they have by discovering how gender lives in our movement and building strate- gies to undo the ways it limits us. programs@hopemohr.org; hopemohr.org d g THE INTIMATE ACT OF CREATION ROBERT MOSES’ KIN Mon-Fri, Jun 4-8, Two Sessions: 9am-12pm & 1-4pm Studio 200, SF Robert Moses will lead this workshop designed to expose students to practical performance and creative approaches to stage presentation. Recommended for dancers, actors and composers desiring to under- stand the major issues associated with problem solving, process, practi- cal performance and creative approaches to stage presentation. info@robertmoseskin.org; robertmoseskin.org d g DIVA DANCE OFF A. SPEARMAN & CO. Thursdays, Jun 7-Aug 23, 7-8pm The Beat Berkeley Performing Arts, Berkeley Three months of your favorite divas. Beyonce, Rihanna, J-Lo, and more. With a focus on hip hop, modern, vogue and jazz movements, par- ticipants will learn style, grace and attitude while working up a sweat. Includes an end-of-summer performance at The Beat Annual Showcase. aspearmanAndCoDance@gmail.com; aspearmanandco.org BE MOVED WITH ROSARIO SAMMARTION AND Sat-Sun, Jun 2-3, 2018, 12-5pm SF Conservatory of Dance, SF
Luna Dance Institute / photo by Michael Ertem
d g AFRICAN RHYTHM & DANCE THE LIVELY FOUNDATION Mon-Fri, Jun 18-22, 11am-12:30pm Mountain View Masonic Center, Mountain View
Keith Hames, Founder & Director of AKOMA ARTS, leads classes in African rhythms and dance. Mixed levels. Participants will learn a piece to perform in the Showcase Performance, Fri, Jun 22 (performance not required). Part of the International Dance Festival@Silicon Valley. livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net; livelyfoundation.org d g DANCING ALONE: A SOLO CHOREOGRAPHY WORKSHOP WITH KATIE FAULKNER KATIE FAULKNER Mon-Fri, Jun 18 – 22, 12:30-4pm ODC, SF Designed for anyone interested in practicing making dances. Particular emphasis will be placed on solo explorations designed to meet all level of dance-maker. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their current interests, instincts, habits, and curiosities and guided through processes for generating material that feels specific to personal goals. khfaulkner@gmail.com; littleseismicdance.org d g CONTEMPORARY JAZZ CHOREOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP WITH KELSEY LETTKO ALONZO KING LINES DANCE CENTER This workshop will combine basic jazz technique with elements of mod- ern and contemporary movement that will encourage dancers to push themselves creatively, technically, and emotionally. Workshop ends with a performance in the Yerba Buena Garden Festival, Thu, Aug 9; 12-1pm jamie@linesballet.org; dancecenter.linesballet.org d g MIDDLE EASTERN DANCE CHOREOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP WITH MONICA BERINI ALONZO KING LINES DANCE CENTER Mondays, Jun 19-Aug 6, 8-9pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF This Egyptian style belly dance workshop will focus in creating a new choreography in collaboration with the participants. All levels welcome. Workshop culminates with a performance at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival – Thu, Aug 9, 12-1pm. jamie@linesballet.org; dancecenter.linesballet.org Mondays, Jun 18-Aug 6, 7:30-9pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF
JOSHUA MCCLAIN TAMALPA INSTITUTE Sat, Jun 9, 10am-5pm Western Sky Studio, Berkeley
A collaboration between somatic expressive arts therapist Rosario Sammartino, and cellist Joshua McClain, journey into the body's own dynamic melodies, dive into feeling and imagination, and move to the rhythm of discovery. info@tamalpa.org; tamalpa.org
Lynn Simonson at Studio 200 / photo by Anna Pons
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org I | | rs r . r
unify strengthen amplify unify strengthen a plify unify strengthen a plify unify strengthen a plify
44 Gough Street, Suite 201
d g BEING HERE NOW
MARY ARMENTROUT DANCE THEATER
Mon-Sat, Jul 9-14, 10:30am-5:30pm The Milkbar, Richmond
In this expanded composition intensive participants will unfurl, follow, wildly manipulate, and crash live performance from multiple perspec- tives: refiguring the body and the self through Feldenkrais, reconstruct- ing the performance space and the performance contract through site specific, technological, and critical strategies, utilizing intermedia to push collage and embodiment into new configurations. ma@maryarmentroutdancetheater.com; maryarmentroutdancetheater. com LUNA KIDS DANCE CAMP LUNA DANCE INSTITUTE Young dancers 8-11 dance, take nature walks, make new friends, and cho- reograph group dances around a particular theme. Past Luna camp themes have included nature & the environment, urban pathways, and dance circus. No prerequisite. hstockton@lunadanceinstitute.org; lunadanceinstitute.org BERKELEY BALLET THEATER SUMMER WORKSHOP – Open to new and returning students, offers training for intermediate dancers in a diverse, supportive environment. Daily schedule includes rigorous classical ballet class, modern, jazz, capoeira, and pilates. info@berkeleyballet.org, berkeleyballet.org GAGA/IMPROVISATION 3-DAY WORKSHOP JAMES GRAHAM DANCE THEATER Fri-Sun, Jul 20-22, 10am-2pm Joe Goode Annex, SF Each day will consist of a Gaga/Dancers Class, where participants investigate the Gaga Movement Language (Ohad Naharin/Batsheva), and an Improvisa- tion Class with James Graham. Research and follow your curiosities and learn Graham's approaches for getting outside of your comfort zone...find nuance, find power, find pleasure. Some dance familiarity is encouraged. jamesgrahamdancetheatre@gmail.com; jamesgrahamdancetheatre.com d g STAR DANCE STUDIO SUMMER SESSIONS STAR DANCE STUDIO Tue-Fri, Jul 10-Aug 3, 7 & 8pm Star Dance Studio, SF Offering children, teen and adult classes, as well as four one week sum- mer camps in July and August in Ballet Barre, Body/Dance Conditioning, Contemporary, Intermediate Jazz, Hip Hop, Beginning/Intermediate Tap. info@stardancestudio.net; stardancestudio.net SALIMPOUR BELLY DANCE: LEVEL 1 SUHAILA FORMAT SALIMPOUR SCHOOL OF DANCE Sun-Mon, Jul 15-16, 9am-4pm; Tue, Jul 17, 9am-1pm Center for International Dance, Berkeley Students will learn essential belly dance movements, history and basic finger cymbal technique. Optional certification exam in the afternoon on Tue, Jul 17. salimpouroutreach@gmail.com; salimpourschool.com BERKELEY BALLET THEATER SUMMER WORKSHOP – Session 1: Mon-Fri, Jul 9-13, 9am-3:30pm Session 2: Mon-Fri, Jul 16-20, 9am-3:30pm Luna Dance Institute, Berkeley INTERMEDIATE SESSION BERKELEY BALLET THEATER Mon-Fri, Jul 9-27, 9:30am-4:30pm Berkeley Ballet Theater, Berkeley
UC Berkeley Dept of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies / photo by Alessandra Mello
MINI DANCE CAMP FOR CHILDREN 5-7 YRS LUNA DANCE INSTITUTE
Mon- Fri, Jun 25-29, 9am-12pm Luna Dance Institute, Berkeley
Half-day camp for children ages 5-7 provides opportunity for explor- atory play through dance. Mini-campers dance with props, create ob- stacle courses, and make dance maps. Children must have completed TK or kindergarten to participate. hstockton@lunadanceinstitute.org; lunadanceinstitute.org HAMSTER DANCE SUMMER CAMP: WEEK ONE
HAMSTER DANCE ACADEMY Mon-Fri, Jun 25-29, 9am-3pm Studio 200, SF
For kids 4-10 years old. The day includes free play, dance games, movement exploration, outdoor lunch (bring your own), crafts, and playtime in neighborhood playground. Hamster Dance Camps is led
Amy Seiwert's Imagery / photo courtesy of the artist
by Mary Carbonara, with guest artists. director@studio200.org; studio200.org wcciJAM WEST COAST CONTACT IMPROVISATION JAM Fri-Tue, June 29-July 3, 10am to midnight UC Berkeley, Hearst Gymnasium, Berkeley
DROP YOUR CITY ARMOR WITH SARA SHELTON MANN AND ABBY CRAIN MIXED BAG PRODUCTIONS Thu-Wed, Jun 21- 27, All Day/ 5 Day Retreat Dos Rios Dance Mission Artist Retreat Center, Dos Rios Come dance in the barn, swim in the river and discover yourself again. Classes with Sara Shelton Mann and Abby Crain. For continu- ing students and newcomers. Includes camping and omnivorous food prepared by Leslie Castellano. dropyourcityarmor@gmail.com; sarasheltonmann.org d g TWO DAY BALLET PEDAGOGY WITH ANDRA AND ERNESTA CORVINO DANCESPACE Sat-Sun, Jun 23- 24, 2-4:30pm Danspace, Oakland Join master teachers Andra and Ernesta Corvino for a two-day peda- gogy intensive to invigorate your teaching, connect with colleagues and to strengthen your technical understanding of ballet. info@danspace.com; danspace.com d g BUNGEE IMMERSION AND TEACHER TRAINING WITH SONYA SMITH SONYA SMITH Mon-Fri, Jun 25–29, 9am–5pm Zaccho Studio, SF This course has been designed with 15 hours of practical skill building for both immersion and teacher training students. The teacher training adds an additional 15 hours of technical information about gear, spot- ting and safety techniques, skill progressions for working with a variety of levels, and a deeper exploration of strength needs for harness work. seesonya@gmail.com; seesonya.com
Featuring open jamming and peer exchange, 5-day intensives with Anya Cloud and Ray Chung, daily family offerings, drop-in intensive with Ronja Ver & Rene Alvarez, and single classes with Cathie Caraker, Cookie Harrist, Diana Lara, Jen Chien, Jo Kreiter, Jose Navarrete, Keith Hennessy, Kevin O’Connor, Ryuta Iwashita, and Taja Will. contact@wccijam.org, wccijam.org JULY d g HIP HOP CHOREOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP WITH LESLIE PANITCHPAKDI ALONZO KING LINES DANCE CENTER Sundays, Jul 1-Aug 5; 1-2:30pm Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, SF Get into the groove with performance-ready hip hop choreography. Workshop culminates with a performance at the Yerba Buena Garden Festival, Thu, Aug 9; 12-1pm jamie@linesballet.org; dancecenter.linesballet.org d g BAYER BALLET ACADEMY SUMMER INTENSIVE BALLET WORKSHOP BAYER BALLET ACADEMY Mon-Fri, Jul 2–Aug 10, 9am – 5pm Bayer Ballet Academy, Mountain View An opportunity to experience growth in: Ballet Technique (Vaganova method), Repertoire, Pas de Deux, Character, Historical, Contempo- rary Dance, stretching, strengthening and conditioning. Workshop culminates in a stage performance. Please email for audition for placement. info@bayerballetacademy.com; bayerballetacademy.com BAY AREA AXIS SYLLABUS EXCHANGE A gathering of Axis Syllabus teachers from the across west coast. During ten days of over 55 hours of classes, workshops, and special events, participants can experience applications of Axis Syllabus movement principals through multiple movement modalities. Indi- vidual workshop and class descriptions can be found online. axissyllabusca@gmail.com; axissyllabuswest.org REPERTORY WEEKEND WITH JOAN LAZARUS Master teaching artist Joan Lazarus will teach choreography over these two days. Culminates with an informal showing on Sun, Jul 8, 5pm with several other local artists. jill@shawl-anderson.org; shawl-anderson.org BALLET BOOT CAMP SUMMER INTENSIVE OAKLAND BALLET COMPANY Mon-Fri, Jul 9-27, 9am-5pm (depending on level) Ballet Petit, Hayward Dancers ages 9 and up will train intensively with daily technique classes along with conditioning, repertoire, and choreography taught by Artistic Director Graham Lustig, company dancers, and guest fac- ulty from renowned national and international dance companies. babbit@oaklandballet.org; oaklandballet.org BAY AREA AXIS SYLLABUS Fri-Sun, Jul 6-15, 10am-5pm Finnish Hall, Berkeley SHAWL-ANDERSON DANCE CENTER Sat, Jul 7, 3-6pm; Sun, Jul 8, 3-5pm Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley
ELEMENTARY SESSION BERKELEY BALLET THEATER Mon-Fri, Jul 16-27, 9am-3pm, Berkeley Ballet Theater, Berkeley
Open to new and returning students, offers training for beginner dancers in a diverse, supportive environment. Daily schedule includes rigorous classical ballet class, modern, jazz, capoeira, and pilates. Contact BBT for
level placement. Aftercare available 3-5pm info@berkeleyballet.org, berkeleyballet.org d g DANCE & PLACE
ZACCHO CENTER FOR DANCE AND AERIAL ARTS
Thu, Sat & Sun, Jul 19, 21 & 22 Zaccho Studio, SF
Award-winning site-specific choreographer Joanna Haigood offers a workshop exploring the possibilities of site-specific dance on top of beau- tiful Mount Tamalpais in Marin County. Include a lecture at Zaccho Studio on the history and context of site specific dance, and two days of creation
at Mount Tamalpais State Park. sonya@zaccho.org; zaccho.org
Oakland Ballet Company / photo courtesy of the artist
d g Discount for Dancers' Group Individual & Company Members. Join and find the discounts at dancersgroup.org.
Monica Berini at LINES Dance Center / photo by Christine Fu
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