Monthly Archives

January 2022

Seeking Creative Movement Dance Instructor for Kids (Montclair, NJ)

By Events

Community Movement Project, a pay-what-you-can movement program led by The Moving Architects in partnership with Central Presbyterian Church, is seeking an experienced Creative Movement Dance Instructor for kids ages 3-6 on Tuesday afternoons for the spring session March-June.  Candidates with a degree in Dance/Dance Education and significant experience teaching children preferred, as well as a willingness to build relationships and connect with students and their families as part of a community program. Position offers a competitive hourly pay with the potential to continue teaching classes for the 2022-2023 school year.  All classes take place at Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, NJ.

More information on the program: Community Movement Project
Questions? Erin Carlisle Norton, erin[at]themovingarchitects.org

To apply: Applications Due February 11, 2022. Send cover letter, resume, teaching philosophy, and 3 references to Erin Carlisle Norton, Artistic Director of The Moving Architects, at erin[at]themovingarchitects.org

Movers & Shapers: Lisa La Touche

By Podcast

PODCAST No.128 – Lisa La Touche


Release Date: 1.23.22

photo: Mark Bennington Photography

 

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT LISA LA TOUCHE (tap dancer, choreographer, educator, director/curator, film maker and mom)

Originally from Calgary and a former New Yorker, Lisa’s career as a performer, solo-artist, choreographer and director has reached great heights. One of her greatest credits includes being an original cast member of SHUFFLE ALONG on Broadway choreographed by Savion Glover and directed by George C. Wolfe. With such an all-star cast, she performed at the 70th Annual TONY Awards, was a recipient of the Fred Astaire award for “Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway show” and the A.C.C.A. Actor’s Equity Award for “Outstanding Broadway Chorus”. She was also both Off-Broadway and on tour for multiple years with the production STOMP directed by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas and later then toured with Savion Glover and his production of STEPZ. In film/ television, some of Lisa’s credits include Amazon’s Original TV series Z- The Beginning of Everything starring Christina Ricci with choreography by John Carrafa, the Maya And Marty show c/o NBS and Secret Talents of the Stars with Maya Harrison c/o CBS.

Some of her previous overall performance highlights have also included being in the original ensemble of Dormeshia’s “Sophisticated Ladies” performing weekly at The Cotton Club in Harlem, being a member of Jason Samuel Smith’s company A.C.G.I, Max Pollak’s Rumba Tap, and Barbara Duffy and Co. Her foundation as a professional tap dancer truly began in Chicago as part of the legendary M.A.D.D. Rhythms (founded by Bril Barrett and Martin “Tre” Dumas III), which had her Direct M.A.D.D. Rhythms Canada in her hometown, Calgary, and then later continue great works working with The Chicago Human Rhythm Project with Lane Alexander’s BAM! and Martin “Tre” Dumas’ company JusLisTeN.

As a guest artist and choreographer, Lisa has appeared in venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Royal Albert Hall in London c/o Michele Drees’ Jazz Tap Project, and with bands such as the Revive Da Live Big Band, and both Marcus Strickland and E.J. Strickland in NYC’s jazz scene. She founded her own company TAP PHONICS in 2009 and has been commissioned to present for such organizations such as The Brooklyn Museum, 92Y, Gibney Dance and Fall For Dance North. Some of her most sought after choreographies include “Love Me Or Leave Me”, “So” and “Fragile” to name a few which can all be found online.

As an educator, she has been on faculty as Adjunct Professor at PACE University in Manhattan and at the University Of Calgary, and held appointments at NYU, Princeton University, the Juilliard School, USC, George Brown University and many others. Her outreach initiatives has lead her to work with Rosie O’Donell’s “Rosie’s Theater Kids”; a New York youth-outreach theater program, as well as countless after school programs on the South Side of Chicago c/o M.A.D.D. Rhythms and the Chicago Human Rhythm Project. She has appeared on faculty commercially at Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, The American Tap Dance Foundation, taught residencies at institutions such as The School at Jacob’s Pillow under the direction of Dianne Walker and at the Hinton Battle Dance Academy in Tokyo, Japan. She has been blessed to reach an abundance of dancers as well worldwide via the dance and tap festival circuit. This includes reputable festivals like Tap City, The Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Rhythm World, RIFF/Woodshed, Tap Kids, Third Coast Rhythm Project, North Carolina Tap Festival, and the likes across Canada and in Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, China, and the UK. She now currently hosts her own series of courses online
 at tapclasswithlisa.teachable.com and offers an online after-school program called “Tap For the PPL”. Her recent endeavors includes co-curating the Tap Dance Legacy Series along with Travis Knights in partnership with Toronto’s Dance Immersion providing the local black community free access to their cultural history. She also has written and directed her debut film TRAX encompassing her journey back to Alberta while discovering important local black history.

As an ever evolving artist, Lisa continuously immerses herself in studies and has trained in Meisner and Method based acting via Matthew Corozine and Susan Batson Studios in New York. She works with vocal coaches Shelton Becton and Susan Eichborn Young to continue her singing training, and loves the journey of rising to new discoveries as a performing artist.

She believes whole heartedly, to quote the great Maya Angelou, “when you learn, teach” and that the journey is infinite and full of fascination if we trust those nudges of inspiration. Please visit www.lisalatouche.com for further info.

 

CONNECT:

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Joanne Baker

Decidedly Jazz Danceworks

James ‘Buster’ Brown

“Tap” the challenge scene

Gregory Hines

Sammy Davis Jr.

Vicky Adams Willis

Savion Glover

Savion Glover at the White House

Jason Samuels Smith

Ayodele Casel

Sean Cheesman

Bril Barrett

M.A.D.D. Rhythms

Star Dickson

Donnetta Jackson

Nico Rubio

Chloé and Maud Arnold

STOMP

Dormeshia

George C. Wolfe

“Shuffle Along”

Michelle Dorrance

Billy Porter

Travis Knights

Dance Immersion Legacy Series: Tap Dance Symposium

Brinae Ali

Danny Nielsen

Project with Gibney

Ronnie and Robert Crump

Cheryl Foggo

 

 

 

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.

Movers & Shapers: JoAnna Mendl Shaw

By Podcast

PODCAST No.127 – JoAnna Mendl Shaw


Release Date: 1.9.22

TO DOWNLOAD PODCAST OR LISTEN:

    • iTunes: Subscribe, Listen, Rate Us HERE

    • Stitcher: Subscribe and Listen HERE

    • Any Smartphone Podcast app: Subscribe and Listen

ABOUT JOANNA

Veteran choreographer and dance educator, JoAnna Mendl Shaw has been devising performance works for stage, rural and urban landscapes since the 1980’s. Her body of interspecies work initiates visceral engagement with the natural and cultural environment. Redefining the possibilities for dance-making, Shaw’s research into the human-equine dialogue began in 1998. Her company, The Equus Projects, tours throughout the States and Europe creating site-specific works through immersive collaboration with local equine and arts communities. An internationally recognized dance educator, Shaw has taught on faculty at NYU, The Juilliard School, Alvin Ailey, Princeton, Mount Holyoke and Montclair State. Shaw is the recipient of NEA Choreographic Fellowships and multiple NEA grants for Interdisciplinary Performance. She has brought her somatic practice of Physical Listening into elementary schools and academic think tanks, into the Strategic Studies group at the Naval War College and NYU Medical school. She is a certified Laban Movement Analyst. She is the author of the 2021 book, Physical Listening, A Dancer’s Interspecies Journey.

 

CONNECT:

 

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Susan Klein

Marnie Thomas

David Wood

Sally Stackhouse

Helen Priest Rogers

Mount Holyoke College Dance

American Dance Festival

“There is a Time” Jose Limon

Paul Sanasardo

Don Farnworth

Talley Beatty

Eleo Pomare

Joyce Trisler

Bill Evans

Cornish College for the Arts – Dance

Pat Graney

Wade Madsen

Susan Marshall

Margie Jenkins

Ann Carlson

Montclair State University Dance

NYU Tisch School of the Arts

DTW

Kay Cummings

The Julliard School

Ailey/Fordham BFA Program

Denise Jefferson

Judith Kestenberg

Swiss Gymnastics Federation (STV)

Five College Dance

Gus Solomons Jr.

NPN 

David Lichman

VCU Dance

William Forsythe Technologies

Jill Johnson 

Bates Dance Festival

Equus International Film Festival

National Arts Club

Janis Brenner

Christine Jowers

Carl Flink

Dance Rising

Melissa Riker

NYCDA

Daniel Gwirtzman

 

 

 

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.