Fun and too much to do

Just sharing this because, I mean, how can you not be impressed at these guys squeezing themselves into a car? http://blog.pilobolus.org/2011/01/pilobolus-and-emc-break-a-world-record/

Otherwise, there are so many things on my to-do list, but not so much on the "done" part of that checklist, I'm afraid. Things I wish I were posting here include:

• notes from the Dec. meeting, 
• announcement on where the Feb. meeting will be (we're still aiming for Feb. 6! and we're talking about health--but WHERE?), 
• a copy of the enews I sent out the other week, 
• info on recent performances/coverage of dance, 
• and the date we hoped to launch the website has come and gone (again). 

Gee that's a long list and it's not even everything! Bad weather and illness don't help. That and the fact that I've only got like 50 other things going on. But don't we all? So I'll see what I can do here in a sec on the links to coverage...not so sure I can do much on the others tonight.

A WABE spot from "City Cafe" with Full Radius Dance that came out before their recent show "Walking on my Grave".

A preview of Project 7's recent "Wall to Wall" from Andrew Alexander in Creative Loafing's Culture Surfing blog.

Urban Bush Women preview/interview with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar from ArtCriticATL.com by Daryl Foster, and another with Andrew Alexander at Creative Loafing, and yet another quick interview, "3 Questions" with Lynn Peisner from the AJC.

Step Afrika! preview/interview with C. Brian Williams on ArtCriticATL.com by Cynthia Perry.

I'll keep ya posted (haha, blog humor) on the rest as I hopefully can check things off the list (I may have another intern starting soon...that would help!) Please post comments of things I missed in the link department, and please plan to come to the dancer health meeting on Feb. 6 in the afternoon/evening--and I'll get you that time/place detail soon, really! (sigh) Thanks! Yay dance!

The dancer/body

Here's a nice reaction to the "too many sugar plums" controversy from UK's Guardian. Ms. Mackrell's argument about unique bodies being a positive dance trait reminds me of something that happened to me as a teenage dancer. I met a woman with 6 toes on one of her feet in a modern dance class. I admit, my first reaction was "oh no! doing modern dance everyone always sees your feet and that extra toe!" but I talked to her and she said it was actually the best place for her with that surplus digit--she didn't have to worry about fitting into shoes! So it's always about perspective (of course!)

New space for dance

Congrats to Moving in the Spirit and Kennesaw State University for opening new spaces for dance and thus expanding their existing programming.

From the press release, "Moving in the Spirit, a nonprofit youth development program, completed construction this fall on a new dance space that will serve hundreds of youth in the Atlanta community. Named after Dougald “Mac” Monroe Jr., an advocate for racial equality and Founding Academic Dean of Atlanta Metropolitan College, “The MAC” stage resides in a large warehouse adjacent to Moving in the Spirit’s existing facility. The MAC was officially unveiled as a surprise to Mr. Monroe on November 26, 2010, his 90^th birthday."

From Ivan at KSU, "The Kennesaw State University Program in Dance is pleased to announce the opening of our new state-of-the-art dance facility at Chastain Pointe. This 8,000 square-foot facility will be the new home of the dance program at KSU. We are grateful for the support of our friends in the community who have helped us develop a dance program of national repute. The KSU Dance Company holds the national distinction of being selected for 4 successive regional gala concerts and 2 successive national concerts at the American College Dance Festival. In 2011, the enrollment in the KSU dance major will cross the 100-student mark, with 14 faculty and plans for the expansion into an additional dance facility at Chastain Pointe."

Yay to more space to move in, Atlanta!

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year to everyone!
So it's a new year, but here's a year-in-review by Cynthia Perry from ArtsCriticATL.com. Thanks for the shout out! And another she did for the AJC.
Let's see what else happened last year that she didn't have space to mention (focused on the local dance scene, not things that came in to large venues, though there were some pretty spectacular things that did. Please feel free to comment and add anything I've left out):

• Relief Work: the dance community rallied and performed to raise money for Haiti
• Georgia Ballet began its 50th Anniversary Season and produced several ballets, in addition to educating young dancers
• Ballethnic began its 20th Anniversary Season, expanded their space and produced concerts, also in addition to educating young dancers
• CORE Performance Company began its 30th Anniversary Season, held Fieldwork for local artists in spring, summer and fall, and produced Corazon Abriendo (Heart Opening)
• Dance Truck brought dance to various festivals around town, on various types of "trucks"
• The dance community joined other artists to rally for the continued existence of the Georgia Council for the Arts
• Modern Atlanta Dance Festival celebrated its 16th year
• Breaking New Ground returned to the Decatur Arts Festival
• Inman Park Dance Festival returned to the Trolley Barn (I can't find how many years! Someone tell me!)
• Dance happened on the Beltline, created for sites along the proposed path of the intown loop by Beacon Dance and Brooks and Company
• Dance for camera was featured at Emory and Pera Dance Studios
• SIDEWAYS produced "Pop!"and "Once Upon a Holiday"
• Project 7 produced "The Land, the Sea and the Creationist", in addition to the FLUX performance mentioned in Ms. Perry's summary
• Gathering Wild Dance produced "Lessons and Dreams" at Callanwolde and organized a board of directors
• Helen Hale produced work "Head First to Upside Down" and danced on top of shipping containers and in abandoned warehouses with Convergent Frequencies and at FLUX
• Zoetic put on the Choreographers Showcase, a culminating show to a series of master classes with local choreographers, "featured Bala Saraswati's "Coeur de CORE" and performed in Wormhole Project's "Just"
• Blake Beckham produced "American Muscle"
• Dance Canvas worked with a group of young interns and produced a showcase of new work by emerging choreographers
• Refuge Dance Co. produced "Rest: A Journey Home"
• D'air Project continued to teach teens aerial dance and performed some shows including BARRIERS in their space and together with Project 7 and Brooks and Company
• Celeste Miller's "The Annunciation…sort of: Mary says ‘no’ 
•  Zerina Serulle's "Anthology" 
• Brooks and Company put on "Shorts 6"
• Juel Lane and Ursula Kendall-Johnson presented "Wha-Cha Don't Wanna Tap Into" at the Southwest Arts Center in May
• Nicole Livieratos presented Gardenhouse Dance's "IDEAS" at a studio space in September (having recovered from a life-threatening car accident), 
• Atlanta Chinese Dance Company performed "Nezha" in October. 
• Not to mention all the college/university dance programs' spring and fall shows that included a co-operative restaging with Emory and Agnes Scott students of Doris Humphrey's "Shakers", works by T. Lang and more at Spelman, and at KSU produced Bill T. Jones' "D-Man in the Waters," along with works by Ivan Pulinkala, Sandra Parks and Lauri Stallings

And here's to all the great dance that will happen in 2011! DanceATL will be holding meetings still on the bi-monthly schedule of first Sundays. The first will be on February 6 and the topic is dancer health, so I hope you can join us for that important discussion. And as always, please get us your info for the dance table and google calendar!
Yay dance!

Oh boy, the weight issue

So I'm guessing you've probably already seen or heard about the whole "too many sugar plums" controversy? Alastair Macaulay has managed to bring up weight in ballet again (as if most of the ballet dancers in the studio don't confront that every day). Jennifer Ringer, the Sugar Plum in question, was interviewed on Today Show (most interesting how she says NYCB has a variety of body types...). And Mr. Macaulay's response in print was basically that he didn't make the ridiculous body image standards of the ballet world, he just enforces them.

In addition to the body image issue that touches off women's personal reactions, the fact that the Black Swan ballet movie has just come out means it's even more appealing to mainstream media. No one is interviewing "downtown dancers" in the wake of another of Mr. Macaulay's online "controversies"--the fact that as the NY Times dance critic, he really only has an interest in classical forms, and a handful of the more musical of contemporary choreographers. I guess that story doesn't have as wide an appeal of course, it's pretty much only offends the downtown NY dancers (and their audiences) that he doesn't pay them any attention.

But back to the weight issue, who hasn't had body issues of one kind or another (if you're somehow lucky enough not to have weight as one of those) that come up as a dancer? As everyone points out, your body is your tool for making the art and so there you are. And in ballet especially, the "facility" required for professional dance is really freakishly rare. I've wondered sometimes what's worse, the old school communist style recruiting where kids were chosen specifically for their "facility" and made to dance whether they wanted to or not, or the democratic every girl in a pink tutu version, where they let you dance your heart out as a kid only to have it crushed by the realities of your genetics as you grow up.

Hinterland etc.

I hope everyone had an amazingly Happy Thanksgiving!
I wasn't in town this past weekend, so I didn't catch the show, but here's Cynthia Perry's review in ArtsCriticATL.com of Luminocity's presentation of Hinterland. And here's a photo slideshow of the same in Creative Loafing by Tara-Lynne Pixley.
Otherwise, how are the Nutcracker's going around town? Other holiday shows out there? Having fun?

About last weekend

So to update from over the weekend, here are some (p)reviews of things that happened around town (that I mentioned in my last post).

• A preview of the Emory Dance Company show by Collin Kelly on Atlanta INtown online.
• A review of the Kennesaw State University dance program's show by Andrew Alexander on Creative Loafing online.
• A review of CORE Performance Company in Corazón Abriendo (Heart Opening) also by Andrew Alexander.
• Another review of Corazón Abriendo by Cynthia Perry on ArtsCriticATL.com.

If I missed any other articles, please let me know. And of course, always interested in what you guys saw this weekend, or performed in, and how it went!