SPRING/SUMMER 2010 NEWS
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Upcoming Events
Residency and Mini-Fest in Saratoga Springs, New York
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Recent Happenings
Residencies, Events, and Projects in Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas
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Founders Corner
reflections and ideas from Carolyn and Julie
"Under the Radar" by Julie Adams Strandberg |
MiniConversation
Q&A with Mary Anne Santos Newhall |
MiniConversation with Mary Anne
Santos Newhall
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Mary Anne Santos Newhall, PhD, is a dancing historian. Newhall recently completed a biography of German dance pioneer Mary Wigman, which was published by Routledge. (Click here for order information.) She is dedicated to exploring, enlivening, and preserving early modernist and expressionist roots of dance. Her commentary and re-creation of Wigman's "Hexentanz" (1926) were featured in a 2008
documentary film for ARTE, German-French television. She is Assistant Professor in the dance program at the University of New Mexico where she directs the M.A. in dance history and criticism as well as teaching a wide range of studio and lecture courses. In 2007, Newhall directed the reconstruction of Hanya Holm's "Rota," a "lost work" set
on UNM students and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. She was recently awarded another NEA grant to work with Don Redlich to further document Holm's technique and legacy in American modern dance. In 1993, Newhall worked with Eve Gentry, a member of the original Hanya Holm Company, and Michele Larsson to reconstruct and perform
Gentry's "Tenant of the Street" (1938), and in June 2010, Newhall's restaging of Tenant was performed by the Martha Graham Dance Company as part of its "Dance Is a Weapon" program She continues to perform her own contemporary choreography and historic works as a solo artist
and in collaboration with videographer Susanna Carlisle. She has been a guest artist with Ausdruckstanz Dance Theatre, Compagnie Labkine in Paris, and numerous U.S. universities and professional companies. Mary Anne has partnered with ADLI for over ten years on various projects, including leading the research for the Dancing Rebels
resource publication, featuring biographies of the New Dance Group.
Hometown: Merced, California
Age started dancing: I began dancing at the age of three to correct my extreme bow-leggedness!
When did you know that dance would play an active role in your life? I have never thought otherwise about its role in my life.
One thing about dancers most people don't know? Most people don't know how we combine stubborn determination with mystic idealism, and that dancers are really smart.
Favorite non-dance activity? Research and writing about dance. But that is a dance activity isn't it?
One thing about the dance field, you'd change? I would love for us to talk more with each other.
What has your involvement with ADLI meant to you? My relationship to ADLI brings inspiration, and the joy of finding kindred spirits!
Last Project: A book on Mary Wigman for Routledge, and finishing my PhD.
Coming up: I have just returned from New York City for a final coaching of Tenant of the Street for the Martha Graham Dance Company. This summer I am working on the project: "The Legacy of Hanya Holm," supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, and I'll also be immersed in more ADLI projects!
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Upcoming Events
Residency, July 25-August 21, 2010 - New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance, Saratoga Springs
For four weeks this summer, ADLI will set up camp in Saratoga Springs at Skidmore College and the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in residence at the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Dance. ADLI will host a retreat where the methodologies it uses to transmit Repertory Etudes and other dances will be explored and expanded. Members of ADLI's Dancing Legacy will also join the NYSSSA faculty, teaching and mentoring students, introducing pilot programming, as well as setting choreography. ADLI's residency will be highlighted by the Summer Mini-Fest on August 13-14. The Mini-Fest will feature a dynamic and varied program of performances, lecture-demonstrations, seminars, and classes. NYSSSA School of Dance
Recent Happenings
Residencies led by Marisa Ballaro
January-February 2010 - North Bergen, NJ; Buffalo, NY; Lakeland, FL
Dancing Legacy member, Marisa Ballaro spent the first week of January at High Tech High School in North Bergen, NJ, where she taught "Buraczeski Etude," based on work by Danny Buraczeski, to senior dance majors. High Tech High School Dance Program
Then it was north to Buffalo, NY where Marisa spent three days with Creative Dance Company. There she employed ADLI's Legacy Methodology to set "Village Etude," choreographed by Deborah Friedes based on Sophie Maslow's The Village I Knew, on young dancers between the ages of 8-15. Creative Dance Company
Marisa (left) coaching students at Harrison School for the Arts
Finally, from February 7-11 Marisa made her way south to Lakeland, FL where she taught master classes at Harrison School for the Arts, while coaching and staging "Parsons Etude," based on the work of David Parsons. Harrison School for the Arts Dance Program
Residencies led by Laura Bennett
January-May, 2010 - Albuquerque, NM; Saratoga Springs, NY; Providence, RI
Dancing Legacy Director Laura Bennett was off to the southwest for the first two weeks of February. While in residence at University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, she set "Parsons Etude" on UNM student dancers and participated in a dance criticism seminar. She also worked with Mary Anne Santos Newhall (UNM dance professor and long-time ADLI collaborator featured in this newsletter's
Mini-Conversation) and met with local artists to look at ways to strengthen links between the UNM dance program and ADLI. UNM Department of Theatre & Dance
Laura (standing most right) with UNM students
Over the winter and spring, Laura made multiple visits to Saratoga Springs, NY where she set several Repertory Etudes on Nacre, a performance organization dedicated to revitalizing historic choreography while opening the arena to new emerging artists through performance and arts in education initiatives. Finally, based right at home, Laura set Danny Grossman's "Ecce Etude" on Brown student dancers.
Winter Mini-Fest, March 13, 2010 - Providence, RI
| ADLI hosted its annual Winter Mini-Fest at Brown University's Ashamu Dance Theatre, featuring a gathering of dancers from across Rhode Island, the northeast region, and beyond. This year's Mini-Fest included a full day of activities that offered dancers and non-dancers alike myriad points of access to and participation in the art form. The day began with a free class taught by Robert Battle, which included commentary for onlookers by ADLI founder Julie Adams Strandberg. | 
Students from Central Falls High School perform "Rainbow Etude" in theinformal showing |
It was followed by a free, docent-led, informal showing, where regional dancers presented works-in-progress, received feedback from the audience, and talked about their work. The evening concert featured contemporary works by local artists, a classic piece by Anna Sokolow, and the return to the stage of Robert Battle premiering his duet, We. A dessert and cheese reception followed where guests and artists mingled.
"Buraczeski Etude" Instructional Resource Package and Legacy Methodology Development, May 10-14, 2010 - Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
The Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dance Program has partnered with ADLI to create resource materials for "Buraczeski Etude," based on the work of jazz choreographer and SMU dance professor, Danny Buraczeski. Over the week, Dancing Legacy members Marisa Ballaro, Laura Bennett, and Jude Sandy led filming sessions for the instructional video, which was captured by SMU faculty member Christopher Dolder and featured SMU student dancers Lee Duveneck and Vanessa Trevino who'd worked closely with Buraczeski. Simultaneously, Patty Harrington Delaney, SMU faculty member and Labanotator, lent her valuable perspective to the development of the Legacy Methodology for the RepEtude. Next up: Fundraising for editing and distribution!
Danny Buraczeski demonstrates the "tick tock" lift with Vanessa, while
Lee looks on and Marisa and Jude try it out behind
Founders Corner
reflections and ideas from Carolyn and Julie
UNDER THE RADAR
by Julie Adams Strandberg
Keynote speech for ADLI's Dancing Rebels Conference, August 2005
In 1962 I attended the American Dance Festival.
I studied technique and repertory with Martha Graham, José Limón, Donald McKayle, and Alvin Ailey, composition with Louis Horst, lighting with Tom Skelton, and Labanotation with Helen Priest Rogers. And I saw the premiere performances of Paul Taylor's Aureole.
I knew at the time that I was participating in history.
We cannot possibly be aware of every thing that goes on around us every second of our lives or we would go nuts. But how often do we look back on a time and say, "Oh I wish I had realized how important that was at the time."
But there are special times—like my six weeks at ADF—when we must stop and let all of the information enter our consciousness as we note that we are in the midst of history.
These five days that we are sharing are just such a time. Artists who were born at the beginning of the last century are here with artists who were born at the end of it and will possibly carry this art form into the 22nd Century. And we are not all simply inhabiting the same space and time, but bring our range of perspectives and experiences to the exploration of our shared concerns.
But the special nature of this time goes beyond just these five days. I believe that we are in fact all living in the midst of a historic era and that dance has a role to play in how the world will look at the end of the next century.
But how do we find the perspective to stand back from the time we are living in. I have always been fascinated by how we think about time. The closer it is to us, the smaller units we use and the more specific we are.
I was looking at the Ohio academic content standards for K-12 social studies and the specific requirements for time and chronology.
- Kindergarten - Days of week
- Grade 1 - Months of year
- Grade 2 - Days, weeks, months, years
- Grade 3 - years, decades, centuries
- Grade 4 - Chronological sequence of events in Ohio including prehistoric people
- Grade 5 - Create time line and identify possible relationship between events
- Grade 6 - Describe the early cultural development of humankind from the Paleolithic era to the revolution of agriculture
Or to think of it another way - we refer to the:
- Middle Ages - 1000 years, i.e. 500AD-1000AD.
- Renaissance - 350 years
- Enlightenment - Associated with the 18th Century
In 1000 years how will our era be defined? Will we be lumped in with the age of enlightenment? Will we be named the age of technology? We are already talking colloquially about the 20th century - lumping together the roaring twenties, the Great Depression, the silent 50s, rebellious 60s, the Civil rights movement, the Vietnam war into one all encompassing blur.
We tend to be subjective and personal about the times closest to us and more objective and analytical about times further away.
This may seem obvious because of the alleged perspective of time, but I venture to add that it also takes great courage to be of ones time. Things are in flux. Every opinion is charged. It is easier to "go with the flow." Controversy is inherent in every action. Everyone is a stakeholder. Taking a stand in ones own time can be frightening and lonely. But as dancers, we are in a position to help shape the future together. We do not have to do it alone.
Change is inevitable and we are living in a time of great change. We need to identify the nature of this historic era and we need to choose whether or not to be agents of that change, passive observers of that change or victims of it.
I see two major forces influencing our time: technology and multi-culturalism.
We are living in a time of acceleration of technology - not the age of technology. I once heard someone refer to technology as anything invented after you were born. I venture to say that 1452 and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible marks the beginning of the age of modern technology. The cell phone and personal computer, which make it possible for each individual to have unmediated access to information began with the mass production of the printed word. Now individuals can completely isolate themselves from the communities they live in and create virtual communities around the globe. The irony of this connection is that it also leads to loneliness and isolation.
We are also concerned about issues of multi-culturalism. But this too is not new. Every culture that we think of as "pure" is the result of the slow incorporation of new ideas and cultural forms. The flattening of the world—as Thomas Friedman describes it—has simply led to an unprecedented interaction among the cultures of the world so that the natural evolution of cultural assimilation has been accelerated. We are both witnesses and participants in the process.
As we struggle to assure mutual respect for other cultures, we must be careful to balance that respect with the tendency to advocate for cultural purity. As we know too well, from recent history, there is great danger in insisting on racial or cultural purity.
Dance is uniquely appropriate to deal with the challenges of technology and multi-culturalism.
Artists are always at the cutting edge of technology and we should not dismiss it nor hesitate to use it as a tool in every way possible. But as dancers we are uniquely equipped to confront the isolation and erosion of community that can result from hyper-individualism. We are the only art form that does almost everything in groups. Our training is communal. Our rehearsals are communal. We still use the oral tradition. The choreographic process is a collaborative one. We are constantly negotiating the relationship between the individual and the group. And the human body and the need to move will always be the thing that we have in common with each other.
In terms of multi-culturalism, American dance, as an indigenous art form, embodies the inherent multi-culturalism of the American experience.
Dance is uniquely equipped to share with the nation and the world the depth and complexity of our culture that has too long been defined as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Walt Disney.
We have all lamented that dance is the least known and least appreciated of the arts. My last observation is the suggestion that we take advantage this relative invisibility. There is great power in being under the radar.
In 1969 at 28 I began teaching dance part-time in the women's PE department of Pembroke College, the then women's college of Brown University. I walked into the converted dorm lounge and found 5 eager talented dancers gathered around an old Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder. I felt that dance should be an academic discipline. I first called the music department because my first associations with dance are with music, but no one returned my call so I contacted the head of the theatre program, which was a part of the English department having grown out of studies in dramatic literature.
He had always had a dream of a full theatre program that would include dance, invited me to join the faculty and the first academic dance classes at Brown were offered in the English department. However this inclusion led the administration to realize that theatre should be its own program and in the mid 1970s we became the department of Theatre, Speech and Dance.
Once officially considered an academic pursuit, the dance program grew, adding courses, building a performance season, making connections across disciplines, developing research projects, and bringing in guest faculty. It was all legal and above board, but because dance was the least known and appreciated of the arts it was "under the radar" and allowed to grow organically.
In 1994 when I began to try to raise funds for dance, both the university and the funding community did not associate Brown with the arts, much less dance. I did a survey of the faculty and discovered that nearly 1/5 of the university faculty is associated with the arts disciplines.
Not just dance but theatre, music, visual arts, creative writing, and modern culture and media had all been growing "under the radar." In 1996 I organized a Creative Arts Council to include the chairs of each of the departments, two undergraduates, two faculty-at-large plus the president or his or her representative and the heads of development, alumni relationships and public relations.
We were still under the radar. The Council was approved by the faculty. The only person to recognize the significance of the roster was then President Vartan Gregorian who said, "You really mean for this to make a difference don't you."
The arts now have a $1,000,000 guest artist endowment and a new arts building is included in the upcoming capital campaign. We are also under more scrutiny and are no longer under the radar, but we are also a now force at the table.
So my hope for this conference is that when we meet for our final session on Sunday that we will plan strategies from under the radar and use this relative invisibility as our strength. We can make a difference for our art form, for our country, and for the world.
Update: Brown University's new Creative Arts Center is slated to open in Spring 2011. The Center—which includes an auditorium; three production studios; a gallery; recording, multi-media, and physical media labs; and an outdoor amphitheatre—will not replace existing arts facilities, but rather provide a home for faculty and student artists to come together, along with faculty and students from the sciences and humanities, to build a new model of interdisciplinarity and collaboration. | | Past News and Events
2010 Winter News
Features Founders Julie Adams Strandberg and Carolyn Adams' article
"Part Real, Part Dream" and Mini-Conversation with Amy Burns...
2010 Winter Mini-Fest
Class with Robert Battle, Docent-led Informal Sharing, Performance and Reception...
2009 Spring News
Features Founder Julie Adams Strandberg's article, "Role of the
Director" and Mini-Conversation with Sara Schwabacher...
2009 Winter News
Features online version of NYSSSA commemorative journal and Mini-Conversation with Jude Sandy......
2009 Winter Dance Concert
The Winter Concert features works by Marisa Ballaro, Laura Bennett, Danny Buraczeski, Rachel Forman, Kanji Segawa, and Anna Sokolow....
2008 Summer News
Features Founder Julie Adams Strandberg's article, "The Artistic Method" and Mini-Conversation with Tina Louise Vasquez...
2008 Spring News
Features Founder Carolyn Adams' article, "Art: The Cultural Secret" and Mini-Conversation with Marisa Ballaro...
2008 Winter Dance Concert
The Winter Concert features classic works by Robert Battle, Danny Grossman, and Donna Jewell, and new works by Arabella Project, Rachel Forman, Victoria Fortuna, and Sita Frederick....
2007 Summer Mini Fest
The 2007 Summer Mini-Fest includes a Master Class with Robert Battle, a Lecture Demonstration with faculty and students from the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance, and featuring Dancing Legacy, Battleworks Dance Company, Danny Grossman Dance Company, and independent artists in works by Ruth Andrien, Robert Battle, Laura Bennett, Maggie Ewing, and Danny Grossman....
2007 Winter Dance Concert
The Winter Dance Concert features Goin' to Chicago, Maggie Ewing and Elisa Osborne's duet #1 to live music by percussionist Brian Osborne, and Danny Grossman's "Ecce Etude" from the Institute's Collection. Works by Victoria Fortuna, Sita Frederick, and Tina Louise Vasquez round out the evening....
1994-2006 Event History
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