Kathryn’s Interview with Peter Kasule, Artistic Dir. for Spirit of Uganda.

I am Rebecca Frank from P.S.56 Queens.  I am in Mrs. Alperstein’s class. On March 6th I watched the Flamenco performance by Carlota Santana. I myself have been taking Flamenco lessons for over 6 years. I am part of the American Bolero Dance Company. I love Flamenco and the castanets. I can also play them very well. I have original handmade flamenco costumes and accessories. I dance Ballet as well for 3 years. I have been in over 14 flamenco and Ballet performances on stage. I love performing. Flamenco has also been in my family for a while. My castanets are my great-grandmother’s! And I have also danced on a float in the Hispanic Columbus Day Parade with my teachers and classmates down Main Street in Manhattan. And I really enjoyed that Flamenco performance!

by Martin Wechsler, Director of Programming

Australia – Part 1

Australia is far. Really far. But it’s nice to be back for a visit downunder.

As one of the inaugural “Dance Down Under Ambassadors,” an appointment I received from the Australia Council, the government department responsible for exporting arts and culture, I am supposed to advocate on behalf of Australian dance companies and help promote them in the United States. I’ve done my fair share of advocating, and continue to do so. We’ve also presented a fair number of Australian companies at The Joyce and Joyce SoHo, and provided a commissioning grant to the Australian Dance Theatre to financially support the creation of their new work, G which is having its “work in progress world premiere” as part of the Adelaide Festival, the main reason for my trip.

On my way to Adelaide, I spent a day in Sydney, where I had meetings with representatives of the Sydney Dance Company–Meryl Tankard was busily creating a new work. I also took time to meet with Rebecca Matthews, at the Sydney Opera House, and Sue Spence and Joseph Alessi from the Australia Council.

The next day I headed down to Adelaide, which is in the middle of a heat wave – temperatures are reaching over 100 degrees daily. I attended the premiere of Sacred Monsters, a duet by Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem. Akram is a London-based artist, of Bengali descent, trained in the traditional Indian form of Kathak. His company appeared at The Joyce in 2003. Sylvie is a classical ballet dancer, trained at the Paris Opera Ballet, and currently a guest principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. They are both extraordinary performers, with very different backgrounds, yet they managed to put together an evening that was beautiful and compelling. It’s a shame that there are no plans for the work to come to New York, but New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see two other works by Akram Kahn when they tour to City Center in April. Zero Degrees, Akram’s collaboration with Belgian dance theatre creator Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Akram’s latest work, Bahok, made in collaboration with the National Ballet of China.

by Christina Pinnell, Marketing and Audience Development Associate

According to the statistics on AVERT.com, an international AIDS charity, the rates of HIV infection in Uganda is on the decline.

WHAT?
Uganda is one of the few African countries where adult prevalence has decreased since the early 1990s, going from 15% of the population to only 5% in 2001. A public educated campaign is credited for the decrease.
Even though the trend seems to be in the decline, the infection rate is still very high and leads to tens of thousands of deaths each year. The virus typically claims the lives of young adults, and has greatly depleted the country’s labor force, as well as left behind scores of orphaned children.

WHY IS THIS ON THE JOYCE BLOG?
This week Spirit of Uganda, a group of these orphaned children from Uganda, whose parents’ lives were claimed by AIDS, will be performing at The Joyce Theater. They are touring the U.S. to raise awareness of the disease as well as funs to support themselves and other others in their country.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?
You can visit http://www.empowerafricanchildren.org to learn about these children and their mission and you can click here to order your tickets and help support these inspiring kids!

by Kathryn Padberg, e-Marketing & Design Associate

Dance New Amsterdam brings back Luis Lara Malvacias-Venezuelan choreographer/performer to their “Guest Artist” series this week (through March 14). His classes infuse a thorough and precise warm up with luscious phrase work marked with cultural nuances and innuendos. With the influence of Barbara Mahler and Susan Klein technique, his experience with Jeremy Miller and more recently with the anatomical explorations of Alexander technique, the investigative nature of the class allows the dancer to take moments and locate his or her individual structure and fine tune the thousands of connections existing within the body. Be prepared to hang upside down – tail bone reaching to the ceiling, palms resting on the wood floor. At first, this activity can feel odd, but the methodical exactitude of the material can almost seem like coming home into your own body—a means to begin your own discourse with it; a way to find your full length and an airy, yet weighted sensation of your physical structure.

Malvacias is at DNA Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am -12pm through March 14.

Other March Classes:

John Jasperse at Movement Research Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 12 though March 27

Alexandra Bellar at 100 Grand Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 12 though March 27

Keith Thompson at 100 Grand Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10am to 12 through April 4

Cori Olinghouse at Trisha Brown Studio, March 17 and 24 6:30-8:30pm

by Martin Wechsler, Director of Programming at The Joyce

As the Director of Programming at The Joyce, I travel around quite a bit to see performances. Last weekend, I headed off to Seattle to see Donald Byrd’s The Theater of Needless Talents that he made for the studio series of Spectrum Dance Theatre, where he is the Artistic Director.

Booking my ticket at the last minute using The Joyce’s American Express miles, I was able to leave New York early on Saturday morning, get to Seattle around lunch time, see the show that night, and head straight back to the airport for the red-eye home, via Cleveland.

I had a few hours to spend in Seattle before the show, so I took the opportunity to walk through the central branch of the Seattle Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas which was stunning.

Joyce Programming Associate Jonathan Krebs, who comes to New York from Portland, where he worked at the dance presenting organization White Bird recommended a stop in Queen Anne neighborhood, where I re-energized with a cup of Café con Leche at the El Diablo Coffee Company before heading off the find the Madrona Studios where the performance was to be held.

I went down a very long and very winding road along Lake Washington, and found the company’s two beautiful studios to be house in a repurposed old bathing facility, owned by the city. Although they’re right on the side of the lake, they had no windows from which to see the magnificent view of the Lake and Mt. Rainer. While waiting for the performance, I chatted with Anna Thompson, the Director of Performing Arts at the University of Notre Dame who was one of the commissioning partners who provided money for the creation of this work. We shared some future programming ideas, and discussed our respective commissioning programs, including The Joyce’s recent awarding of 25 commissions of $25,000 to 25 dance companies in celebration of The Joyce’s 25th Anniversary.

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by Dulce Gomez, Marketing Intern at The Joyce

Internships enhance the classroom experience by bringing to life theories and issues discussed. It is also an opportunity to observe an organization as it lives and functions day by day. As students we seek out those internships that will provide us an opportunity to test theory on practice. That is why I chose The Joyce as my internship site. As a second-year graduate student studying Performing Arts Administration at NYU, I have already interned for a dance company and now I wanted to see what the perspective was for a presenter. What challenges do they face that are both similar and unique to this environment?

I am now in my fourth week and what is it that I have observed so far? Well for one, the great thing about The Joyce is that they have something that most arts organizations would kill to have- their audience. It is incredibly diverse. One could say that most presenting organizations have diverse audiences due to the variety of programming they provide but I believe that it goes beyond that for The Joyce. There are few organizations that pump as much diversity into their programming. Just looking at the performances scheduled from February to the end of March you will find Indian dance, a Mexican ballet company, Flamenco, Classical Ballet, a group from Uganda, and an Israeli dance company. Talk about an international passport! “What do the arts do to enhance our lives and what service do they provide to the community?” That is a question that is often posed when the need for arts is questioned. In relation to The Joyce, one answer is that they are promoting cultural awareness through dance. This is an incredibly important resource as the world around us shrinks and we are forced to interact with more and more people that are different than we are. Rather than fear the unknown, organizations like The Joyce are fostering cultural understanding through a medium that everyone has in common- DANCE!

Do you want to be a Joyce intern?

More useful information from Christina, Marketing & Audience Development Associate

25. 5X5= 25

24. 25 is the usual minimum age for car rental in most countries.

23. Mark McGwire (Former single season HR record holder in MLB) wore the number 25

22. “Under 25″ provides a common cut-off point for designating youth.

21. February 21 1925- The New Yorker magazine publishes its first issue.

20. 25 is the name of the national card game of Ireland

19. The minimum age of candidates for election to the United States House of Representatives is 25

18. Rapper Tupac Shakur died at age 25

17. 25 years of marriage designates a silver wedding anniversary.

16. The atomic number of manganese is 25.

15. Arkansas was the 25th state to be admitted to the Union

14. 25 is a square number, being 5² = 25

13. Christmas is on the 25th of December

12. William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States

11.It is the smallest square that is also a sum of two squares: 25 = 3² + 4². Hence it often appears in demonstrations of the Pythagorean theorem.

10. The movie 25th Hour was directed by Spike Lee and stars Ed Norton

9. The first United States Quarter Dollars (25 cents) were struck in 1796.

8. 25 is the number of days approximately that takes the sun to do a complete rotation on itself.

7. Year 25 BC was a leap year

6. The 25th Anniversary flower is the Iris.

5. The 25th Top Grossing Film of All time is “Independence Day”

4. Ranger Mark Messier retired from the NHL after 25 seasons

3. In the year 2525 “If man is still alive. If woman can survive, they may find.”(According to Zagar and Evans)

2. Sunday evening tickets at The Joyce are only $25 because. . .

1. The Joyce is in its 25th Season!!

Check out the pretty cool article about Kansas City Ballet, performing here at The Joyce next week, March 11 -16. For more news, articles and reviews about the performances at The Joyce, visit our News Page.

In an effort to reach out into the college dance scene, one post a month will be written by a dance student from one of the many campuses based right here in New York City. Get the fresh perspective of the next generation of dance innovators.

We start the series with New School student, Saifan Shmerer.

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The Last to Know

I walk into my first rehearsal for my Advanced Repertory class, change into my dance clothes, warm up in the corner, and psych myself up for the last Rep class of my college life. When our esteemed guest choreographer peels his Julliard-trained body off the floor where he’s been splayed since I walked in, and slides back into the reality of that particular studio, he doesn’t set any material on us. He doesn’t even pretend like he’s going to.

“What if your whole body, 360 degrees, could perceive time and space, uniquely and originally?”

Huh?

Two weeks later, I’m on the train and trying to do my ‘Dance and Theories of Communities’ homework. I’m tired, fading in and out of the literature, when deja-vu hits.
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