An Afro Latin Halloween

Reminder: There will be no Dance TRaC class this Friday, October 31st. It's HALLOWEEN!

So.....

We'll see you on Saturday, November 1st for Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's Dia de los Muertos!


On Saturday, Nov. 1st, the whole Teen Reviewers and Critics program will come together along with over 100 other High 5ers to celebrate la Dia de los Muertos with Arturo O’Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, a Grammy-nominated ensemble, melding rhythms from African and Latin American countries with jazz harmonies from the United States. The concert features the world premiere of the Day of the Dead Suite, the extraordinary Aztec Suite and special guest performers including Folkloric Dancers.

Before the concert, Arturo O'Farrell is holding a High 5 exclusive workshop on Afro-Latin Jazz, so we'll be heading over to the show by 6:30 p.m. Come prepared to jump on stage and learn first-hand what it takes to be a Afro-Latin Jazz All-Star....

WHEN: Saturday, November 1st. 6:30 - 10:15 p.m. (with two intermissions)

WHERE: SYMPHONY SPACE at 2537 Broadway and 95th Street in Manhattan

DIRECTIONS: Take the 1, 2 or 3 subway to the 96th Street stop. Exit train and walk south on Broadway. Symphony Space will be on your right-hand side. OR Take the B or C subway to the 96th Street stop and walk west until you hit Broadway.

Costumes
are
optional.....

:)

see ya'll on Saturday, muertos!


~eric

Luciana Achugar - Performance

Friday, October 24 (tonight) we go see Luciana Achugar's "The Sublime is Us" at Dance Theater Workshop (the same place we have class).

The show starts at 7:30 and runs about an hour.

Fall 2008 Dance TRaC begins!

Make sure to think outside the box....and the lines.... and rules.... and pre-conceptions.
Open your mind!

and enjoy.

~eric


(for more BANSKY - the graffiti artist who painted the above - click here.)

Update

Hello All,

I know It's been a while so lets see if I can get you up to speed. 

Over spring break we saw Akram Kahn at City Center, well a few of us at least. We went with the people at Visual TRaC. We had mixed opinions about the piece but that only fueled our discussions further. At some point in the past month we tried to tackle the question "What is dance?" We compared all the dance forms we saw this spring. Streb's Action Mechanics, Grupo Corpo, Jonah's motion capture, and most recently Akram Khan's dance theater piece. Can walking, sports or Streb be considered dance? what are their qualified features? 

Safe to say we exhausted the subject but could not come up with a definitive answer, and it seemed that, that was a better solution than a strict definition.

Following on the philosophical trend on May 6th we saw Nora Chipaumire at DTW which featured our very own B-Mac as the post-show moderator. The following friday we were scheduled to have Nora come and talk to us but due to scheduling mix-ups it was just us, that didn't prove for much of a problem. We then tackled the process of how dancers gain exposure, how they get shows and who has the power to choose what will be presented to the public. This led us to this week's discussion of how we decide what is "good" or not? Is it based on our opinion of the piece, do we use other people's opinions to influence our decisions or do we base it on what we know and have been exposed to previously? Also do we have to like something to think it's "Good" how does that influence our reviews and opinions. This was a heated conversation at times and at others we had so many questions to ask that most went unanswered.

 I think this just goes to show how many different opinions there are and that there is never one right answer, especially when critiquing something. We all have different view points and writing styles and that just makes what we write and say more important and unique. Let's face it who would want to live in a world where everyone agrees and has one view point. 

Next Week we are at DTW as usual, no more shows :(  , but we have guest scholar Charmaine Warren. 

See You Then

P.S. Hopefully we can get out a news letter listing upcoming dance performances that we can possibly all go to together. 

at STREB S.L.A.M. in Williamsburg

Check out Emily's update and the Jonah Bokaer reviews below, too!

Catching Up

Hello Everyone this is your new Blog Captain Emily this is my first post. And I will be honest this is my first time ever posting on a blog so bear with me .

March 28th Elizabeth Zimmer a known dance critic for the Village Voice and now the Metro ( that free paper that you get on the subway every morning ) came in and did an intensive writing workshop working with our reviews of Jonah Bokaer, which I will post soon. She was very impressed with the class and even said "we took the criticism better than some of the other writers she has worked with". Great Job everyone.

April 4th Jonah actually came in and talked with our class about his piece and he also gave us a rundown of how Image Capture works and what he uses it for. It was a large component of the piece that we saw and it seems that this technology will contribute greatly to dance and how it evolves in this age of technology. There are programs that make choreography as simple as clicking a mouse, which brings a lot to the table for non-dancers and perhaps injured or retired dancers. It was a possible glimpse into the future by a the person who is making the future present now in dance.

Jonah also talked about Chez Bushwick, an arts center in brooklyn that has free and very low cost performances, and also performance space to rent for only 5$ an hour. Also there are shows that anyone can sign up to showcase their work no matter the art form. This is great for you artists out there who wouldn't mind an audience.

After class we went upstairs to DTW's smaller performance space to see a work in progress by Ursula Eagly.

Also last week on April 4th after class we went upstairs to DTW's smaller performance space to see a work in progress by Ursula Eagly. Which you should all read about in our reviews in the coming weeks.

Note to Dance TRaC, Please complete your Ursula review and send it to me as soon as possible, the choreographer contacted me and would like to see what we wrote. Thanks

And Finally, On friday we saw STREB"s Slam Show #11. Which we will all write reviews for and I will post shortly along with all the other ones.

So till next time.

Ciao

Jonah Bokaer reviews

Check out your reviews of Jonah Bokaer's "The Invention of Minus One" on the Reviews page of the High 5 website.
These are the ones I got. If you'd like to submit yours, send it to Eric. If you'd like to edit anything or submit a revision, feel free!

Cathy's review
Emily's review
Jennifer's review
Kesi's review
Michelle's review
Rachel's review