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Movers & Shapers Podcast: Maxine Lyle

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:Soul Steps #2Anthony Barboza

Podcast No.19 – MAXINE LYLE

“Starring New Jersey” Special Podcast Series

Release Date: March 8, 2016

Download Episode on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT MAXINE LYLE

Maxine Lyle has been a choreographer, teaching artist and producer for fifteen years, specializing in African-American step dance. She began stepping at the age of seven in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey and has been performing ever since. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Williams College, where she co-founded Sankofa, the Williams College step team, now in its twentieth season under the Williams College Dance Department. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatrical Management and Producing from Columbia University School of the Arts. She has produced several plays and has also directed a youth theatre ensemble in Newark with the All Stars Project of New Jersey. In addition to her theatrical projects, she remains committed to arts education. She developed and implemented one of the first full-time, accredited step dance curriculums in the country, at Harlem Prep Middle School where she taught step for three years. She has also engaged in numerous arts education programming, combining step and other art forms through organizations such as Girls Leadership and The Leadership Program.

ABOUT SOUL STEPS

Soul Steps speaks the language of rhythm.  Founded in 2005 by Maxine Lyle, the company is based in New Jersey and New York and showcases the African-American dance tradition known as “stepping” (not to be confused with Irish step dance!). Their mission is to expand the presence of stepping throughout the world while creating avenues for cultural exchange and awareness among diverse communities. Step started among African-American fraternities and sororities on college campuses as a means of unity and self-expression, and has deep roots in the migrant labor culture of South African gold mines. For close to a century, step dancers have used their bodies as percussive instruments to create a new physical language that inspires, celebrates and forges community. Soul Steps brings this explosive art form to the stage in a high-energy performance that combines percussive movement, hip-hop rhythms, and call and response. Their performances, residencies, and educational programming are suitable for all ages.

Soul Steps brings step everywhere! From school workshops in Brooklyn, to partnerships with U.S. Embassies throughout the world, to Paris Fashion Week, to a cameo in an indie rock band video, they embrace every opportunity to expose diverse communities to the magnetism and dynamic power of step. Credits include a feature in the Diesel Jogg Jeans promotional video, “The A-Z of Dance;” the historical Rick Owens runway show during Paris Fashion Week 2013;  2012 Abok I Ngoma International Dance Festival (U.S. Embassy partnership, Cameroon); Joyce SoHo, Every Little Step, a collaborative piece performed with Dance Theatre of Ireland (New York); Stepping in Remembrance, (U.S. Embassy commissioned September 11th commemorative piece, Dublin); Skena Up International Film and Theater Festival (U.S. Embassy partnership, Kosovo); New York Musical Theatre Festival (2007 and 2011); Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Series; and a nationally aired MTVU promotional video. Soul Steps was named the 2010 Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities Cultural Artist of the year and was described in the New York Times as giving a performance that “excels in cross rhythms” (November 23, 2011, Joyce SoHo).

MORE ON MAXINE:

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Step Afrika!

Upward Bound 

Prudential Young Entrepreneur Program

Dance Theater of Ireland

Rick Owens Paris Runway Show

This special podcast series “Starring NJ” was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.  Special thanks to Charmaine Warren for serving as the Humanities Scholar for this series.

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Jeff Friedman

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:muscle memory
Podcast No.18 – JEFF FRIEDMAN
“Starring New Jersey” Special Podcast Series

Release Date: February 23, 2016

Download Episode on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT JEFF FRIEDMAN

Jeff Friedman is a dancer, choreographer, dance documentarian and dance studies professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He was born in 1956 and grew up surrounded by corn fields in the rural suburbs of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, near Doylestown. He began studying classical ballet at Bucks County Ballet with Carl Sandemeyer, a retired New York City Ballet dancer. Jeff graduated from Central Bucks-West High School in 1974 and studied architecture at Cornell University for 3 years, where he began seriously studying contemporary dance before he ran away with a dance company from New York City. After studying on scholarship with choreographer Twyla Tharp and company members in 1978, he then completed his 5-year professional degree in architecture from the University of Oregon in 1979. Jeff immediately moved to San Francisco, California where he joined the Oberlin Dance Collective as their first performing, non-choreographing collective member. Now known as ODC/San Francisco, Jeff performed and toured for 10 years with the company throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawai’i, and internationally in Australia, at the 1988 World’s Fair; throughout Southeast Asia, on a State Department “soft-diplomacy” tour; and throughout the Soviet Union, in October-November 1989, while the Berlin Wall was coming down in Germany. He also performed in two avant-garde opera productions of Gluck’s Orfeo and Phillip Glass’ Satyagraha at the San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Fe Opera Companies. While based in San Francisco, Jeff also created several performance works, including multi-disciplinarily site-specific performance works, with photographers, videographers and composers as part of his POUNDING THE PAVEMENT site-specific dance festival; group modern dance works; and a solo dance concert created at a Djerassi Foundation Artist Residency that toured the United States as LOCUS Solo Dance, from 1990-1997.

In 1988, Jeff was part of a small group of dance artists responding to their community’s losses due to HIV-AIDS epidemic in the San Francisco Bay Area. Based on training from the Regional Oral History Office at University of California-Berkeley, he created LEGACY, an oral history project that records, collects, and makes accessible the personal and professional histories of Bay Area dance community members who are at-risk, due to their status as elders, to life-threatening illness; and cultural invisibility to the mainstream historical record. LEGACY’s methodology focuses on audio- and video-recorded unstructured oral history interviews in the long-form life-history format. LEGACY’s collection include recordings, edited transcripts, finding and contextual tools, as well as associated collections of personal papers of nearly 100 San Francisco Bay Area dance performers, choreographers, educators, administrators and critics, the largest collection of its kind outside of New York City’s Public Library for the Performing Arts oral history collections. For his pioneering work in dance oral history, Jeff has received the Isadora Duncan, James V. Mink and   awards for his service to the Bay Area dance community, and the oral history communities of the Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, respectively.

Based on Jeff’s performance, choreography and oral history careers, he created a new documentary-based dance-text solo work titled Muscle Memory (1992) using excerpts from LEGACY’s collection. While working as dance technique instructor at Sonoma State University, Jeff received a residency fellowship at Columbia College Dance Center in Chicago where he consolidated his interdisciplinary approach to documentary-based choreography. In 1996, he applied to and was accepted by the University of California-Riverside’s doctoral program in Dance History and Theory where he studied the theory, method and practice of oral history; phenomenological philosophy; Futurist photography; and Laban Movement Analysis. These study areas integrated into Jeff’s dissertation titled A Labanalysis of Dancers Life-histories toward Existential Awareness, earning his Ph.D in 2003. Jeff was appointed Assistant Professor at the Dance Department at Rutgers University-New Brunswick the same year.

Jeff’s publications include book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Spain, Germany, where he was a Senior Fulbright Teaching and Research Fellow in Frankfurt in 2010; Korea, and New Zealand, where he was Visiting Lecturer at Auckland University’s Dance Programme in 2007. Jeff has lectured at Stanford, Columbia, Brown Universities, and the University of California-Berkeley, among others in the U.S.; Kent, Bournemouth, Surrey, and Coventry Universities in the UK; Giessen, Leipzig, and the University of Performing Arts in Frankfurt, Germany; University of Warsaw and Charles University, Prague; Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, Israel; Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey; and Victoria and Auckland Universities in New Zealand. Jeff teaches oral history training workshops nationally and internationally, including 20 years at the San Francisco Museum of Performance & Design; Texas Woman’s University; Simmons College, as Allen Smith Fellow in 2014; and for the Korea Society for Dance Documentation in Seoul. He is on the editorial board of the Korean Society for Dance Research Journal and Dance Chronicle (US) and was elected to a three-year term on the the Governing Council for the National Oral History Society (2013-2015). Jeff is also commissioned to record oral histories for the School of American Ballet Oral History Project in New York City.

At Rutgers University, Jeff teaches undergraduate dance writing and dance history courses and has taught dance technique, improvisation, performance skills, and dance composition and choreography. He also has taught oral history and performance and the history of interdisciplinary for various honors programs and the new Honors College. In 2014, he was appointed Graduate Director for the incoming MFA in Dance degree, beginning in Winter 2017, where he has developed a curriculum focusing on the interdisciplinary integration of dance theory and practice and critical pedagogy. He will be teaching dance philosophy and aesthetics, the history of interdisciplinarity and special topics courses in dance documentation and reconstruction and oral history and performance. He elected to serve for a three-year term on the Rutgers University Faculty Council (2014-2016) and, in 2014, Jeff also created a Dance and Parkinson’s Program, with free classes in two sites in New Brunswick.

MORE ON JEFF:

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Bucks County, PA

Joffrey Ballet

Richard Colton

Minnesota Dance Theatre

Harvey Milk

Oberlin Dance Collective (ODC)

Brenda Way, ODC

Erik Hawkins

Margaret Jenkins Dance Company

Legacy Project

Joe Goode

David Gere

Leslie Farlow

San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design

Movement Pattern Analysis – Warren Lamb

Eve Gentry

This special podcast series “Starring NJ” was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Doug Post

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:20120809wDougPost-SamanthaSiegel
Podcast No.17 – DOUG POST
“Starring New Jersey” Special Podcast Series

Release Date: February 9, 2016

Download Episode on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT DOUG POST

Doug Post began his business career in the printing industry and then switched to the fledgling I.T. industry where he held a number of positions at various companies over a 35 year career. A musician by avocation, he has been involved in the performing arts since childhood.

In 2000, a computer consulting gig landed him in NYC on a daily basis. From this he began attending numerous modern dance performances and developing friendships with performers, choreographers, and others in the industry.

Prior to this, he was involved in his home state of NJ where he served as President of Beyondance, Inc.’s Board of Directors, was a founding member of Freespace Dance’s Board.

By 2005 the computer jobs had all gone overseas and he hadn’t. So a couple of years earlier than planned he began a second career in arts administration.

In 2007, he joined Pentacle, an artist service organization based in Manhattan, and in 2009 became Artist Representative for Pentacle’s Gallery, an eclectic collection of, principally, emerging dance artists.

He has served on the Advisory Board of ACF Dance, and is currently on the Advisory Board of Reverb Dance, the Young Choreographer’s Festival and the Brooklyn Dance Festival. He was Assistant Booking Manager for Eva Dean Dance and assists Wendy Osserman Dance Company as an Administrative Consultant.

He began curating Dixon Place’s Under Exposed performance series in Spring 2011, and then added the Moving Men series in the Fall of 2012. He also publishes a weekly newsletter of performances, auditions and other items of interest to the dance community.

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

José Limon’s “Moor’s Pavane”

Beyondance Inc.

Carolyn Dorfman Dance

County College of Morris

Lisa Grimes

Donna Scro

Freespace Dance

Pentacle

Kyle Abraham

10 Hairy Legs

Akram Khan

Mason Gross School of the Arts

 

This special podcast series “Starring NJ” was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: “Starring New Jersey” Series

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MOVERS & SHAPERS: “Starring New Jersey” SeriesIMG_1697

February 9-April 5, 2016

Download Episodes on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episodes on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers & Shapers Facebook Community HERE

Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

The Moving Architects is pleased to announce “Starring New Jersey”, a special 5-part interview podcast series that is an extension of the semi-monthly podcast “Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast” hosted by Erin Carlisle Norton.  This special one-on-one interview series focuses specifically on how socio-economic status has played a part in five different individual’s development and career opportunities as “shapers” of the dance field, each of whom call New Jersey home.  Enjoy these five diverse, unique, and inspiring individuals as they tell their stories, share their expertise, and provide insights from their life experiences in New Jersey, NYC, and around the world. 

Doug Post: Gallery Artist Representative and Office Manager at Pentacle and Curator at Dixon Place

Jeff Friedman: Dancer, Choreographer, Scholar, and Associate Professor at Rutgers University

Sharron Miller: Founder/Director of Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts, Former Soloist for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Maxine Lyle: Dancer, Choreographer, Teaching Artist, and Producer, specializing in African-American step dance as founder of Soul Steps

Samuel Pott: Founder Nimbus Dance Works and School of Nimbus Dance Works, Former Soloist for Martha Graham Dance Company

This special podcast series “Starring New Jersey” was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.  Special thanks also to Charmaine Warren, who has served as Humanities Scholar for this project.

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Helen Simoneau

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BAC photo Anna Lee CampbellMOVERS & SHAPERS:
Podcast No.16 – HELEN SIMONEAU

Release Date: January 19, 2016
Download Episode on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT HELEN SIMONEAU

A native of Québec, Canada, HELEN SIMONEAU, has been commissioned by The Juilliard School, the American Dance Festival, the Bessie Schönberg Residency at The Yard, Springboard Danse Montréal, and the Swiss International Coaching Project (SiWiC) in Zurich. She was a resident artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Bates Dance Festival and has received fellowships from Bogliasco Foundation and North Carolina Arts Council. Simoneau took first place for choreography at the Internationales Solo-Tranz-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, Germany in 2009. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at notable venues such as Dance Place (DC), New York Live Arts, Joyce SoHo (NYC), Tangente (Montréal), The Aoyama Round Theatre (Tokyo), the L.I.G. Art Hall Busan (South Korea), Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Stage (MA), and Athens International Dance Festival (Greece).

Helen Simoneau Danse, a North Carolina based dance company with strong New York City ties and acclaimed international presence has been described as vibrant, intricate, rich in connection and constantly curious. The company premieres original works by founder Helen Simoneau in collaboration with the dancers. In addition to an annual company season in Winston-Salem, NC, the company has been presented in Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and has toured throughout Germany, Asia, and the United States.

MORE ON HELEN:

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Joyce SOHO

DANY Studios

Simonson Technique

Les Ballets Jazz Montréal

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

George Balanchine

Martha Graham

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

Isabelle Van Grimde

Tangante

Lafayette College

Burr Johnson

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Julie Mayo

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:Julie_headshot
No.15 – JULIE MAYO

Release Date: December 15, 2015
Download Episode HERE
Rate us on ITunes HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast

 

About Julie Mayo

Julie Mayo is a choreographer and director based in Brooklyn. Mayo has recently been commissioned to create an evening length work for Gibney Dance in NYC for their Fall 2016 season and was a 2014-2015 New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Artist-in-Residence. Other recent commissions include the University of Wisconsin/Madison, Wilson College, Broward College, the University of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Mayo’s choreographic work has been a “Best Of” pick in Time Out Chicago and a High Marks recipient in the Movement Research Performance Journal. She has been a recipient of creative residencies at the UCross Foundation, Djerassi, and Wilson College and has been a guest artist at schools throughout the U.S. including Dickinson College, University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, Ohio University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Maryland, Middlebury College, as well as a teacher at community venues ClassClassClass, Brooklyn Studios for Dance and Gibney Dance. In New York, her work has been presented at New York Live Arts, Movement Research at the Judson Church, JACK, and Dixon Place, and nationally at experimental venues Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), NOHspace (San Francisco), Links Hall (Chicago) and <fidget>space (Philadelphia). She studied Dance as an undergrad at Ohio University and received her MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside.

More on Julie:

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

 Wilson College SUPA

“Whoa Man”

Ohio University Dance

Gladys Bailin Stern

Stephanie Skura

Skinner Technique

Rolfing

Samuel Beckett Trilogy

Jack

UC Riverside

Neil Greenberg

Jeanine Durning

Tere O’Connor

David Lynch

Todd Solondz

Susan Rethorst

 

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Nel Shelby

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:
PODCAST No.14 – NEL SHELBY

Photo: Matthew Murphy

Release Date: December 1, 2015
Download Episode on iTunes and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT NEL SHELBY

Nel Shelby demonstrates her dedication to the preservation and promotion of dance through excellent documentation of live performances, the creation of smart and engaging marketing videos, and the making of original documentaries and films covering a variety of topics in the field.

Nel produced and directed PS DANCE!, an hour-long documentary about dance education in NYC’s public schools, created with Jody Gottfried Arnhold and Joan Finkelstein and narrated by veteran television journalist Paula Zahn. PS DANCE! had its premiere broadcast on THIRTEEN/WNET in May 2015 and has since aired on public television networks across the country. Nel’s half-hour dance documentary featuring Nejla Y. Yatkin was filmed in Central America in 2010 and was recently screened during a PillowTalk at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Nel has also created four short films for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature, and she collaborated with Adam Barruch Dance on a short film titled “Folie a Deux,” which was selected and screened at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City and San Francisco Dance Film Festival.

Her New York City-based video production company, Nel Shelby Productions, has grown to encompass a diverse list of dance clients. Since 2004, Nel has served as Festival Videographer for the internationally celebrated Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Each season at the Pillow, Nel’s responsibilities include documenting aspects of festival culture in addition to its 20 mainstage dance performances, filming and overseeing documentation of more than 100 free performances and events, managing two dance videography interns and an apprentice, and educating students about the technical and philosophical aspects of filming dance.

She also serves as Resident Videographer at the Vail International Dance Festival where she creates short dance documentary films and marketing videos about the festival in addition to documenting its events and performances. Her longer-form, half-hour documentary on Vail’s festival, The Altitude of Dance, debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in May 2013.

Nel has a long personal history with movement – she has a B.F.A. in dance and is a certified Pilates instructor. In addition to her dance degree, Nel holds a B.S. in broadcast video. She lives in New York City with her husband, dance photographer Christopher Duggan, and their kids Gracie and Jack.

MORE ON NEL:

 PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

“Water Ballet”

Up With People

Stephens College

Séan Curran

Loretta Livingston

Jacob’s Pillow Dance

Doug Varone

Jose Limón Company

Inbal Pinto

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive

Savion Glover

Urban Bush Woman

Roxanne Butterfly

Wendy Whelan “Restless Creature”

Adam Barruch

Arvo Part

Max Richter

PS Dance! Documentary

Johannes & Jenny Holub

Christopher Duggan

Fabienne Fredrickson

Capacity Interactive

Vail International Dance Festival

NYCB Moves

American Dance Machine

Chita Rivera

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Pat Graney

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:

Pat Graney

Photo by Marina Levitskaya, courtesy of Peak Performances at Montclair State University

Podcast No.13 – Pat Graney

Release Date: November 17, 2015

Download Episode on iTunes, Subscribe, and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT PAT GRANEY: CHOREOGRAPHER

Seattle-based choreographer Pat Graney received Choreography Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for 11 consecutive years, as well as from Artist Trust, the Washington State Arts Commission, the NEA International Program, National Corporate Fund for Dance and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2008, Ms. Graney was awarded both the Alpert Award and a US Artists Award in Dance.

In 2011 Ms. Graney was the recipient of the ‘Arts Innovator’ Award from Artist Trust and the Dale Chihuly Foundation. In 2013, Ms. Graney was one of 20 Americans to receive a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Ms. Graney hails from St. Augustine, Florida, where she spent her seminal years after the Graney family relocated there from Chicago. In 1969, with her family, Pat moved to Mechanicsville, VA and Philadelphia, PA, before returning to St. Augustine to finish high school. Starting her college career at Tallahassee Community College, Ms. Graney eventually went on to The Evergreen State College, then transferred to University of Arizona where she graduated with a BFA in 1979. While at U of A, Pat studied extensively with Dr. John M. Wilson. In the fall of 1979, Graney moved to Seattle, which has been her home for the past thirty years.

In 1981, Graney presented her first full evening of work entitled ‘go red go red, laugh white,’ set to the writing of Gertrude Stein. She went on to choreograph more work to Stein’s writing as well as the writing of Julio Cortazar and Raymond Carver. Departing from the written word, Graney started exploring the use of music combined with American Sign Language to create Colleen Ann, a work commissioned for the French/American Dance Exchange in 1986.

In 1987, with Beliz Brother, she created a work for 7 gymnasts on 7 sets of uneven parallel bars, set against the backdrop of Marymoor Park, and in 1988 Graney created an original work for Pacific NW Ballet. Seven/Uneven toured to the Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center and went on to appear at MayFest in Glasgow in 1991. Following the gymnastic works, Ms. Graney began to create a body of work related to women with Faith (1991), Sleep (1995), and Tattoo (2001). In between creating this Triptych of works, Ms. Graney created the full evening work Vivaldi, choreographed 150 gymnasts for the Goodwill Games, and worked with 130 female martial artists for the Movement Meditation Project in 1996. Following the 12 city national tour of Tattoo, Graney created the Vivian girls (set to the artwork of Henry Darger) with music by Martin Hayes and Amy Denio. In 2008, Graney created House of Mind, an installation performance work set in a 5000 square foot raw space featuring an eighteen foot high wall containing 4000 miniatures, a wall of 100,000 buttons with water flowing over it, a closet of giant little girls’ dresses, hundreds of gold shoes, a 50 x 4 foot-long room covered with 1940’s police reports and a large scale video installation by Ellen Bromberg.

Ms. Graney’s interest in working with incarcerated women began in 1992 after a conversation with Rebecca Terrell, then head of Florida Dance Festival. This conversation later morphed into what has become Keeping the Faith/The Prison Project. KTF is an arts-based residency program that features dance, expository writing and visual arts, and culminates in performances. This project has been conducted at FCI Lowell & FCI Broward in Florida, MCI Framingham in Massachusetts, Excelsior Girls School in Denver, Houston City Jail, Echo Glen Children’s Center & King County Juvenile Detention in Washington, Red Rock Juvenile Center in Maricopa County, AZ, Shakopee Women’s Prison in Minnesota, Estrella Jail in Phoenix, AZ, River City Correctional Center in Cincinnati, OH, Tokyo Girls Detention in Japan, Bahia Women’s Prison in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Munich City Jail in Munich, Germany, the Dochas Centre/MountJoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland and Washington State Corrections Center for Women and Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Washington State.

Keeping the Faith/The Prison Project is one of the longest-running prison arts programs in the US.

Ms. Graney’s latest work, a peformance/installation project called girl gods, will premiere at On the Boards in Seattle in 2015. With National Dance Project Production and Touring support, the work will tour nationally and internationally through 2016.

MORE ON PAT GRANEY

Facebook Page

#GIRLGODS Blog

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Leslie Anderson-Braswell

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:FullSizeRender copy
Podcast No.12 – LESLIE ANDERSON-BRASWELL

Release Date: November 3, 2015

Download Episode on iTunes, Subscribe, and Rate Us HERE
Download Episode on Stitcher HERE
Join the Movers and Shapers Facebook Community HERE
Follow on Twitter @ShapersPodcast HERE

 

ABOUT LESLIE ANDERSON-BRASWELL: BALLET INSTRUCTOR

Leslie Anderson-Braswell’s love for dance began at the three years of age, continued through early childhood at Pittsburgh’s Kingsley House, with Mr. Miller (Jack), and becoming her love, destiny and ultimate life’s journey at the age of twelve when she joined the children cast of the newly forming Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, under the direction of choreographer Nicholas Petrov in 1969. In 1971, Leslie became one of the youngest members of the corps de ballet, training under renowned ballet masters / choreographers such as Edward Caton, Vitale Fokine, Leonide Massine, Fredrick Franklin, and many others, dancing in a variety of renowned classical ballets for three seasons. During the summer of 1972, Leslie was encouraged by teachers / resident principal dancers of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Kenneth Johnson and Patricia Kleckovic. to spend the summer at Arthur Mitchell’s newly forming Dance Theater of Harlem in New York, which she did, and immediately, her goal was to one day return as a dancer for Arthur Mitchell’s African-American ballet company. In 1973, Leslie auditioned for John Cranko, director and choreographer extraordinaire of the Stuttgart Ballet, and was accepted into the exclusive pre-professional Stuttgart Ballet School, in Stuttgart, West Germany. While in Stuttgart, Leslie performed with the Stuttgart State Opera, in addition to the assigned roles with the Stuttgart Ballet School and Company. In 1975, Leslie auditioned, and was invited to join the Geneva Ballet, in Geneva Switzerland, by artistic director Patricia Neary, former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet; however, Leslie longed to return to the United States to work with Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer of George Balanchine’s, New York City Ballet, who is founder and director of the internationally acclaimed Dance Theater of Harlem in New York City. With Ms. Neary’s assistance, the audition was arranged, and Leslie was asked to join Dance Theater of Harlem in 1975. Prior to arriving in New York, Leslie underwent foot surgery, at home in Pittsburgh, for an injury that occurred in Stuttgart. Upon returning to New York as a member of The Dance Theater of Harlem, Leslie performed, touring extensively throughout America and Europe. Unfortunately, the results of the previous surgery were unfavorable, which led Leslie to make a decision to leave Dance Theater of Harlem, and professional ballet, much earlier than anticipated. Leslie returned home, beginning the most amazing journey of her life; teaching, imparting the wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated through the magnificent opportunities she experienced early in her life, to a multitude of exceptionally talented students that, she feels very blessed, have crossed her path.

In 1979, Leslie was the first dance teacher hired by Dr. Harry Clark, founding principal, and Dr. Marilyn Barnett, first Dance Department Chair to teach ballet at the newly forming, Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, originally located in Homewood, the neighborhood where she grew up. Currently, CAPA 6-12, is located prominently in downtown Pittsburgh’s growing cultural district, Leslie and has been a member of the Dance Department faculty for 36 years, where she has inspired a generations of aspiring dancers. In 1980, Leslie was selected to serve as the second artistic director of the well established, professional performing group in the Black tradition of dance, Pittsburgh Black Theater Dance Ensemble, by artistic director/ founder, the late Bob Johnson, a position she held until the company folded in 1983. Equally prominent teaching credits include Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Academy of Musical Theater, where Leslie taught for 16 years with Buddy Thompson, with whom she shares a kinship and bond, nurtured in the early years of the high school, to inspire excellence and greatness in every serious student of dance that crossed their paths, which is a shared on-going commitment. As a result of working together at the Academy, many former students have reached the pinnacle of success in their artistic careers; they include McArthur Genius Recipient, choreographer/ dance artist Kyle Abraham, “Kinky Boots” star and Tony Award Recipient, Billy Porter, Jason McDole, former dance artist with the David Parson and Lar Lubovitch dance companies, Quela Clancy, principal dancer and instructor with Lula Washington Dance Company, Brandon Cowles, former dance artist with the Merce Cunningham Company, Erin Carlisle-Norton, choreographer/ founder/ artistic director, The Moving Architects, Sarrah Strimmel, Broadway dancer/ actress/ singer, Courtney Mazza-Lopez, Broadway dancer/ actress/ singer, Lauren Morelli, Orange is the New Black, writer, to mention a few.

Throughout the years, Leslie has been a guest teacher for many schools, dance organizations and professional dance companies throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Leslie has served as a guest master class teacher for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadanco Dance Company, International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, Dance Masters of America (PA Chapter), Checchetti Ballet Council (PA Chapter), Lee’s School of Dance, Roger’s School of Dance, Dance Arts Academy. Leslie served as principal ballet teacher and consultant for the former August Wilson Dance Ensemble in Pittsburgh, PA., for founder and artistic director, Greer A. Reed, whom Leslie has proudly mentored throughout her successful journey and career in dance. Greer A. Reed’s AWDE was named, “25 to Watch in 2012” by Dance Magazine. August, of 2012, during the 5th annual, RDI, Reed Dance Intensive, Founder/ Director, gave the 1st annual award, named in honor of Leslie, The Brazzy Award, for her lifetime achievement in providing outstanding excellence in dance education and mentorship. Since 2012, the award has been given annually, presented during the concluding performance to two outstanding dance artist from the Pittsburgh area, selected by a panel of judges, headed by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dance Critic, Jane Vranish. Likewise, Leslie has been available for successful former student, Ayisha Morgan-Lee Smith, MAM, founder and director of HDAT, Hill Dance Academy Theater, a successful, innovative arts education institution, located in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA. Through the years Leslie has been available for HDAT workshops, conferences, master classes and the annual HDAT Summer Intensive. Recently, Ayisha Morgan-Lee Smith and the HDAT organization honored Leslie with their 2015 Bold Vision Shona Sharif Award, for outstanding artistic excellence, at their 10th Anniversary, Diamond Gala Celebration. Leslie, Ayisha and HDAT were commended with an official letter from Charon Battles, of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, whom is a dear friend and someone that Leslie looked up to, as the only soloist, Black ballerina, in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. Charon commended Leslie as a Pittsburgh legend in dance for the life-long love,commitment and promotion of the art of dance. Leslie is eternally grateful for Charon’s acknowledgement of her work.

Life long mentor and consultant, the late Jeraldyne Blunden, Founder/ Director of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, constantly encouraged and urged Leslie to continually grow and share the wealth of accumulated knowledge. As a result, throughout the years, Leslie has been commissioned for choreographic works for a variety of organizations, dance companies, dance schools and individuals. Leslie received a choreography fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Association of Regional Ballet Choreographic Development Workshop/ Phyllis Lamhut, Director, and the Ann Vachon Choreographic Development Workshop. Leslie was commissioned for choreography for the AWDE/ Pittsburgh Symphony Collaboration, and in the past has choreographed for several northeastern performing arts groups, as well as an episode of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. She was also a recipient of a choreography fellowships from the Heinz Endowment, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Ohio Council on the Arts. In 1986 Leslie was awarded an Outstanding Distinguished Teacher Award, for 1st place female dance award recipient, Janeen Elliott, of the Young Arts Scholarship Program, presented at the White House by President Ronald Reagan. She was honored with an Outstanding Woman of America Award in 1982, and, Outstanding Artist Award from the Pittsburgh’s Greater Legacy Council, in celebration of African-American Artists.

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Kingsley House

Pittsburgh Ballet TheaterNicolas Petrov

Natalia Makaravo

Point Park College

Charon Battles

Jon Cranko

Ruth Page

Joyce Cuoco

Maxine Sherman

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Arthur Mitchell

Janet Collins

Stephanie Dabney 

Keith Saunders

Greer Reed

Misty Copeland

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron

Movers & Shapers Podcast: Heidi Latsky

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MOVERS & SHAPERS:Heidi 2
Podcast No.11 – HEIDI LATSKY

Release Date: October 20, 2015

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ABOUT HEIDI LATSKY: ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER, PERFORMER

HEIDI LATSKY, originally from Montreal, first received recognition as a celebrated principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1987-1993). Her experience there profoundly influenced her style and her philosophy of dance as she developed a reputation in her own right as a choreographer for stage, theater, and film.

In 1993, she received a commission from the Cannes International Dance Festival. Three years later, she was chosen to represent Canada at the Suzanne Dellal International Dance Competition in Tel Aviv and at Danse a Lille in France. Since then, Latsky has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe with her own company and as part of Goldhuber & Latsky (with former partner Lawrence Goldhuber) [1996-2000].

Latsky headed the Movement Department at The School for Film and Television from 1998-2005, where she developed her teaching practice: The Latsky Method. She has taught internationally throughout her career and her “Movement Portraits in Action” program has been implemented at the AIDS Service Center and The Creative Center in NYC.

While working with Theater Director Mary Fulham, she received two Innovative Theater Award nominations. She served as choreographer on Academy Award nominated Katja Esson’s film “A Season of Madness” and as director and choreographer on Susan Murphy’s GIRL/GROUP at the Marquee, NYC (2003).

In 2001, she founded her own company, Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD). During the fall of 2006, Latsky began an intensive period of creation with bi-lateral amputee, Lisa Bufano. This marked a significant shift of focus for HLD and a period of immense growth, during which she more fully developed the company’s mission and vision. HLD received an ARC grant through Pentacle that included mentoring Latsky for a period of 18 months, and in 2009 she was chosen by Creative Capital Foundation as one of four choreographers nationally to receive a three-year award for her evening-length work, GIMP. In 2014, she was selected as the first participant in “Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University,” a three-year short film series underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The film will premiere as part of the company’s live show at Peak Performances in April 2015.

Her range of work is as varied as guest lecturing at Harvard University, performing with other Bill T Jones’ alumni in “SUMMER REUNION,” restaging a piece of Arnie Zane’s at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, creating a work at the Aaron Academy for high school students with learning disabilities, directing workshops in performance skills, performing in 2012’s TEDxWomen, and developing new works for her contemporaries like Li Chiao Ping as featured in several films by Douglas Rosenberg, including Seven Solos in 2012.

Latsky has continued her work as an adjudicator of the American College Dance Festival Association’s (ACDFA) and serves on the Artist Advisory Board of Danspace Project. She has a BA in Psychology with Honors from Carleton University (1979), receiving the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement and The Ottawa Ladies College Scholarship.

MORE ON HEIDI LATSKY

PODCAST INTERVIEW LINKS

Les Grands Ballets

Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal

York University

Twyla Tharp

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Ligamentous Laxity

Sean Curran

Donald Byrd

Keith Young

Lawrence Goldhuber

Lisa Bufano

Jeremy Alliger

The Gimp Project

Bob Fosse

25th Anniversary Americans with Disabilities Act

Jerron Herman

Meredith Fages

Lawrence Carter-Long

Creative Capital

Abrons Arts Center

Simi Linton

Janet Wong

Podcast produced by: The Moving Architects
Interviewer: Erin Carlisle Norton
Intro Music: “Singing Distance” by Elijah Aaron