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!

Dance this weekend

So not surprisingly for it's being the last weekend before Thanksgiving, several of the college departments are doing their fall shows (Kennesaw, Emory and Spelman), and CORE Performance Company's performing Corazón Abriendo (Heart Opening) at the Balzer. About upcoming shows:
Preview of Corazon Abriendo (Heart Opening) from Creative Loafing's Andrew Alexander
A piece on Kennesaw State University's dance program director Ivan Pulinkala in the Sunday Paper
And about recent shows:
Review of Blackbird by Brooks & Company dance from ArtsCriticATL.com Cynthia Perry
Preview and review of the same by Creative Loafing's Andrew Alexander

"Dance Buddies"

In case you didn't read down to the very end of the most recent DanceATL email, a recent thought spurred by conversations with a couple of other art-interested folks who said "I would love to come, but I have a hard time finding someone to go with me" is to make a DanceATL program called something like "dance buddies" (suggestions for the name?) Folks who're flying solo to a show can meet up at the dance table in the lobby of the performance before the show, during intermission and even afterward. Nothing formal, just a way to go alone without being alone. I know I've had friends with whom I regularly go see shows (pre-baby!), but there are always times when you can't find anybody or end up going too last minute etc.

Should we have a meet up ahead of time? Or after? Should we wear buttons that let each other know who we are? Eventually try to get tickets together? (much more complicated, that.) There's potential for a whole group of dance enthusiasts to form that gets together for shows all around town. But no expectations of that at this point. Right now, we'll just if anybody likes the idea? The concept is still in formation and we'd be happy to hear your thoughts on making it work!

Of course, we'd love it if the reality were that people who have a problem finding folks to come with them manage to strong-arm their significant other or friends into going and then the friends find that they actually kinda like that dance stuff and turn into huge fans as a result. But, in the absence of that happening (I certainly seem to have the luck that the things I take my husband to are guaranteed to be, um, challenging? in a variety of ways) this is a way to at least let the people who ARE interested be able to make it.
 
And by the way, if you're not on the DanceATL elist but you'd like to be, please contact me to be added at info@danceatl.org. And please send submissions for the enews to the same address. I can't promise exactly when the next one will go out, unfortunately, but maybe in mid-December? The next meeting will be December 5 in the afternoon. I'll do another post soon with details!

Catching up

So it's been a while, I apologize. There's been a lot going on! And personally I've been busy partly because I've been dancing more, so I can't complain.
Here we go with a bunch of links here to try to catch up on the last couple of weeks.
The 1st ever "we didn't have time to make it pretty" DanceATL enews went out and here's a link so you can read it if you aren't on the mailing list. And if you're not on the list but you'd like to be, please email info@coredance.org and we'll get you added!
And on the (p)review front for this week:

• Dance Canvas preview and review from Creative Loafing's Andrew Alexander

• Ballet Preljocaj: Blake Beckham's preview on ArtsCriticalATL.com, Andrew Alexander's interview with Angelin Preljocaj, a preview and a review of "Empty Moves"