Summer

It's almost the Fourth of July. There'll be fireworks and my little girl says "Happy Birthday, America!" even though she has no idea what (or who) "America" is.

And I'm pondering this blog. In an effort to remain neutral, I've only posted things that other people have written. I don't want to become a reviewer because I want to be all-inclusive and supportive of everything everyone is doing. But on the other hand, there are so many things that happen that don't get attention anywhere else, really. I always intended it to be a platform for everyone else's voices, but lately no one has taken me up on the chance to use it. I don't mean as a place to post press releases. I mean if someone has something they want to say about dance here in Atlanta, some musings or even a review that won't be published elsewhere, this could be your platform (with some editorial oversight by myself to try to keep things, well, civil). If you want to talk about a show you've been in or your experience in a workshop etc. I think it would be great to post that sort of thing, a sort of insider's view from no particular company.

Again, I want to remain as "fair and balanced" as possible (haha) and the whole goal of DanceATL has always been to bolster the community as a whole, to build ties and deepen relationships among ourselves and with our audiences. How can this blog, which will hopefully be linked to an actual website before the summer is out (cross fingers, I know we keep promising, but I'm really working on it this time) move us toward those goals? Please comment and let me know what you think! I just haven't been posting all that much, I realize, and I really would like to open it up, since I never really intended it to just be me anyway.

But to continue doing the recap of other folks' writing on the subject:
Burnaway has Art Crush: Helen Hale Dances Her Way into Atlanta's Heart and there was a preview from Andrew Alexander at Creative Loafing and review from Cynthia Perry at ArtsCritical.com of Gardenhouse Dance's "Layers".

But there were lots of other things that have happened despite its being the "off" season (I probably don't have a totally inclusive list, so if I left you off, sorry and please correct me. But on a personal note, I did not make it to any of these events, I just know about them so we have them on the calendar and here. Sometimes frustrating, but until you all want to take turns babysitting for my toddler for free, I'm going to have to keep missing things.):

• Room to Move Dance performed soon after our last meeting at the Atlanta Ballet in "The Lemon Table"
• Giwayen Mata did a performance on Father's Day, "A Salute to Our Men", 
• Emily Christianson did a showing of her upcoming work "Shaken" during the Castleberry Hill Art Stroll, 
• Crossover Movement Arts danced at the Goat Farm in Aleatory (and have a new website), 
• The Lucky Penny had inaugural events with guest artists The Blow, and Dance Truck (kinda the same folks in this case, I think) welcomed Noelle Stiles from the Pacific NW at the MINT gallery,
• SIDEWAYS had it's 5th season show "Breaking Bounds" at 7 Stages,
• Full Radius Dance went out of town and performed at the Florida Dance Festival
• Zoetic had its Zoetic Dance Exchange with ChristinaNoel Reaves and "Passing Moment, Intimate Strangers," a showing at the end,
• gloATL started its intensive and will have a showing 

And I'm pretty sure there are about 800,000 dance camps for kids, and a few more for adults, happening all across the metro area right now. And in July, it remains pretty sparse, with the National Black Arts Festival's events, Gardenhouse's "Origami," gloATL's "Liquid Culture" series of 5 site specific showings, and Dance Truck/Blake Beckham's "PLOT" as the only things I've heard about.

And then there's, da da da DUM: August. I think there are a couple of auditions (send info@danceatl.org an email if you want to be on the enews list for this kind of news, until the website is up) but otherwise, it's pretty much completely empty, as far as I know, except for the DanceATL meeting that should be happening on the first Sunday. But I'm wondering if that's going to be too hard to make happen in the midst of such emptiness. Would anyone like to volunteer to speak/perform/host that meeting on August 7? Anyone want to hear Angela Harris, who went to Americans for the Arts, someone who went to Alternate ROOTS Fest in Baltimore and myself (going to Dance/USA) download from recent conferences attended (I haven't asked Angela or anyone else about this yet...) or we could discuss spring season dates if you don't have them yet? Try to avoid another first weekend in May scenario? Let me know!

Yay dance!