Monthly Archives

September 2020

CANCELED – An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell (Montclair, NJ)

By Events

Due to the Governor’s recent announcement that nonessential travel across NJ, NY, and CT state lines be avoided, The Moving Architects will be canceling our Saturday performance of An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell at Van Vleck House & Gardens in Montclair, NJ. While the timing is disheartening, we want to abide by these requests and keep everyone healthy and safe. We look forward to bringing you more virtual and in-person performances in 2021.

October 24, 2020 @ 2pm, Live Music Begins at 1:45pm
(Rain Date, October 25 @ 2pm)

An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell

Van Vleck House & Gardens
21 Van Vleck Street
Montclair, New Jersey
Small Parking Lot and Free Street Parking Available

TICKETS:
General Admission: $20
Student (Under 18): $10
Child (under 5): Free

Note: Tickets must be purchased online, no tickets sold at the door. Chairs will be provided and tickets bought together will be placed together and socially distanced.  Masks are required. The grounds are available for all to peruse and enjoy.
Purchase Tickets: themovingarchitects.ticketleap.com

Celebrating The Year of the Woman in 2020 was overshadowed by the economic and social upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anti-Racism Movements, and political discord.  Instead of celebrating female achievements, 2020 has brought us face-to-face with deep emotions and great disappointments. The Moving Architects have chosen to channel these emotions into a narrative of empowerment, resiliency, grieving, and of finding meaning in the dissonance through the new collaborative work Jubilee & Knell. In the words of poet Emily Dickinson, both Jubilee (happiness) and Knell (sorrow) can be felt at the same time, as we do in this moment.

Join The Moving Architects for a live outdoor performance on October 24, 2020 at the beautiful grounds of Van Vleck Gardens in Montclair, NJ as we celebrate bringing the female representation to the forefront of dance for nearly 14 years. This event supports TMA’s mission of producing new works, offering community classes, and providing platforms for dialogue and collaboration. The company will perform new work created virtually during the pandemic, alongside adjusted repertory work that removes partnering and keeps the dancers socially distanced.

The Moving Architects

Artistic Director: Erin Carlisle Norton

Dancers: Caitlin Bailey, Maggie Beutner, Ashley Peters, Aria Roach

Visual Artist Collaborator: gwen charles

Live Trumpet and Electronic Music: Steven-Jon Billings and Tyler Gilmore of BlankFor.ms

 

An Afternoon with The Moving Architects: Jubilee & Knell / Work Descriptions

The Moving Architects, with Artistic Director Erin Carlislen Norton, visual artist collaborator gwen charles, and dancers Caitlin Bailey, Maggie Beutner, Ashley Peters, and Aria Roach, will perform three rigorous and powerful female-focused works.

Jubilee & Knell is a duet that pulls from the two memory states jubilee (happiness) and knell (sorrow) taken from the poet Emily Dickinson.  Exploring how these two memory states can be experienced simultaneously, Norton explores the exaggerated realities of the pandemic including isolation, social distancing, perceptions of time, connection, and forced self-reflection. Audience members will view performers dancing inside and outside giant milky blurred bubbles in moments of extreme physical exertion side-by-side with moments of intimacy and fragility, the bubbles visually representing how memory is accessed and experienced.  A work truly of our time, Jubilee & Knell has been created almost entirely in the virtual space.

Performed by 3 women, Walled is an aggressively physicalized, fervent, and intricate trio dance work that examines through risky movement, intense partnering, 10-feet of stretchy white fabric, and a driving sound score the societal and psychological barriers found in the company’s political and personal lives today.

The closing piece Together is an improvisationally-based dance work performed by the company with live music by Steven-Jon Billings and Tyler Gilmore of BlankFor.ms.  All of the performed works reveal Norton’s choreographic interests of transgressing borders between dance, art, sound, and design.

Movers & Shapers: Staycee Pearl

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:


PODCAST No.105 – Staycee Pearl

 

Release Date: 9.19.20

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT STAYCEE

Staycee Pearl is the co-artistic director of PearlArts Studios and STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS), where she creates artful experiences through dance-centered multimedia works in collaboration with her husband and artistic collaborator, Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl. In 2010, SPdp&SS debuted at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, and served as the theater’s resident dance company for three years. The Pearls proudly opened their dance/art/sound space, PearlArts Studios, in April of 2012. Since, the duo has produced several works including ..on being…, OCTAVIA, and FLOWERZ. They are both passionate about sharing resources and creating opportunities for the arts community and has initiated project-generating programs including the Charrette Series, the In The Studio Series, and the PearlDiving Movement Residency. Staycee has exhibited visual art works in exhibitions curated for SPACE Gallery, Fe Gallery, and The August Wilson Center and is responsible for the choreography of many musicals and operas presented throughout Pittsburgh between 2004 and 2018 including In “The Heights” for the University of Pittsburgh, Drama Department, Nathan Davis’ “Just Above My Head”, and the Alumni Theater Company in “Rent”. SPdp&SS recently toured Italy and New York with their work-in-progress showing of CIRCLES: Black-Grrlness on repeat in early 2020, and in the Summer of 2019, premiered both “sym” and “sol.” at their very first pearlPRESENTS Dance Festival. The festival featured works in collaboration with Island Moving Company (IMC) of Newport R.I., and Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY)

 

MORE INFO:

www.pearlartsstudios.com

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.

Leaning into the Unknown (Livestream Event with Ramapo College’s Berrie Center)

By Events

September 26, 2020 at 8pm
Leaning into the Unknown, Act II Livestream Event
presented by Ramapo College, Berrie Center for the Performing and Visual Arts

Event Features: The Moving Architects, Dimitri Reyes, and Mignola Dance
Post Show Live Talk with the Artist, led by Lisa Campbell, Berrie Center Director

Direct Broadcast Link: YouTube.com

Support the Event:
Audiences can view the broadcasts on the You-Tube channel Ramapo College Berrie Center. While events are free, viewers are encouraged to consider making a gift to the Contemporary Arts Fund or the COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund through the Ramapo Foundation at www.ramapo.edu/give

For more information and to access the broadcasts, go to:  www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter

 

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

The Moving Architects with “Jubilee & Knell”

choreography: Erin Carlisle Norton in collaboration with the dancers
dancers: Caitlin Bailey & Maggie Beutner
visual artist collaborator: gwen charles
Music: “Wings 3” by Michael Wall, “Wings 4” by Michael Wall, “Clap 05 – Original” by Komet, “Corpo” by Divan Gattamorta

The Moving Architects will perform choreographer Erin Carlisle Norton’s work “Jubilee & Knell” that pulls from the two memory states jubilee (happiness) and knell (sorrow) taken from the poet Emily Dickinson.  Exploring how these two memory states can be experienced simultaneously, Norton explores the exaggerated realities of the pandemic including isolation, social distancing, perceptions of time, connection, and forced self-reflection. Audience members will view performers dancing inside and outside giant milky blurred bubbles in moments of extreme physical exertion side-by-side with moments of intimacy and fragility, the bubbles visually representing how memory is accessed and experienced.  A work truly of our time, Jubilee & Knell has been created almost entirely in the virtual space.

About LEANING INTO THE UNKNOWN

MAHWAH, N.J. — The Angelica and Russ Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts on the Ramapo College campus is pleased to announce the winners of its Leaning into the Unknown competition who will be featured during two livestream broadcasts at 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 19 and Saturday, September 26. The livestreams will be available through YouTube and are free.

Leaning into the Unknown was a call to N.J.-based artists in the performing arts to share work they were creating in response to the COVID-19 global health pandemic. The six artists chosen for the performances of new works in progress were selected by a panel of judges representing a diversity of disciplines and backgrounds. The artists chosen include Mignolo Dance of Metuchen; performance artist Christy E. O’Connor of Middletown; poet and spoken word artist Dimitri Reyes of Kearny; The Moving Architects of Montclair; Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company of Fort Lee; and poet Marina Carreira of Union.

The livestream broadcasts have been divided into two evenings. Act I will air on September 19 with performances by Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Marina Carreira and Christy E. O’Connor. Act II will air on September 26 with performances by Mignolo Dance, The Moving Architects and Dimitri Reyes. After each broadcast, audiences will be able to join Lisa Campbell, Berrie Center Director, and the artists for that evening in a live chat where they can ask questions of the artists.

Movers & Shapers: Robin Staff

By Podcast

MOVERS & SHAPERS:


PODCAST No.104 – Robin Staff

 

Release Date: 9.6.20

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT ROBIN

Artistic Statement, Executive Artistic Director and Producer of DanceNOW[NYC]

My vision is to incite awareness of dance through non-traditional means that join artist and audience in an inspirational experience for both.

The daughter of a painter, I went to Goucher College to study visual and creative arts and graduated as the first dance major, charting the development of one of today’s most vital college dance programs across the country.  Paving my own way, I continued my career as a dancer at what was then considered ‘too late’, creating a small repertory company to sustain both my love of neo-classical ballet that I had studied at a very young age and my eagerness to explore new and contemporary movement styles.  My visual arts background and interest in design, have always led me into unusual urban spaces, inspiring my first gallery performance on Wooster Street in Soho in 1993.  The intimacy and enormous enthusiasm between the artists and audience members at this performance predicted my current artistic direction. I have worked over the past two decades to refine ways to make dance accessible and welcoming, bending the rules to offer audiences and artists a new way to experience dance that is relevant and fun.  As I move DanceNOW[NYC] into the next decade, my vision continues to encompass the untraditional, the unconventional and the unknown that has been the foundation of my personal goals and this organization for more than two decades.

As a dancer, I am aware of the enormous challenges that face performers, choreographers and companies.  As an administrator, my vision is guided by concern for the survival of today’s dance makers, particularly young artists.  I am steadfast in my commitment to provide opportunities that present new choices, stimulate creativity, advance careers, and encourage today’s dance makers to explore the untried, defy the archetypical and carve a path to uncover new means of expression.

 

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Theme Music: Adam Crawley whose music can be found at djplie.com

This podcast episode is in partnership with JAM.  JAM is the home of dance entrepreneur Jessica Marino, providing artist management services and industry shopping. jamdancer.com, networking for dance and bringing ideas to the spotlight.