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Christine Jowers / Moving
Arts Projects E-Newsletter
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Feb. 3, 2006
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E-Newsletter Articles:
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Letter from the Artistic Director
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From the Artistic Director:
Dear Friends ,
Welcome to CJ/MAPs first E- Newsletter. (Aint technology grand?)
Happy New Year and Happy Valentines Day... (almost)
First, I would like to thank you for your interest and support in our
company, whether you have made a donation of money, time, or flowers, or whether
you have been a workshop participant, an audience member, or one of the many
fine artists who have shared your talent and expertise with us, I CONSIDER YOU
VITAL TO OUR WORK.
I would like to take this e-opportunity to share with you
our upcoming performance news, highlights of the past year, and plans for the
future. I would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to be part of
our exciting possiblities.
with love and appreciation, Christine
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Exciting News: CJ/MAPs Performances at The World Financial Center!
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Save The Date:
FREE PERFORMANCES
at the World Financial
Center Winter Garden
WEDNESDAY MARCH 22, 2006
- 12:30 Lunchtime
Preview and 8PM Full Show -
Running Time: approx. 1
Hour
I am thrilled to announce that the producers of Arts + Events at The World Financial Center have invited CJ/MAPs to appear in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center located in Lower Manhattan's Battery Park City . Two FREE March 22nd Performances of ISADORA AND THE DANCING GODDESSES OF NYC will be presented. There is lunchtime show at 12:30 pm, (a shorter preview performance - that doesn't include all the
choreographic works) and a full show (longer, with a special ending created for the WFC) at 8pm. The 8pm show includes video and musical guests Galina Zisk, Norman Pors, Bryce Sebastien, and Micheal Tompson.
(ps...Bryce and Micheal are fellow Virgin Islanders in addition to
being great jazz musicians.) The dance performers for both shows are Christine Jowers (me) with guests Catherine Gallant and her company DANCES BY ISADORA :Michelle Cohen, Francesca Todesco, and Chriselle Tidrick.
It is an honor to join the ranks of the great dance companies- Alvin
Ailey, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Martha Graham etc.- that have been presented in this elegant glass enclosed and palm tree filled space, AND it is also source of great honor and pride to be part of the movement bringing more art and life to downtown Manhattan.
If you are wondering what the show is about, here goes:
Passionate dancing, curiousity, contemplation,video stories and EVEN recyclables come together in ISADORA AND THE DANCING GODDESSES OF NYC, an unusual performance mix of dance history and fantasy. The Isadorables meet Irving Berlin, Isadora speaks through performance artist Ann Carlson, and the Goddess of Recycling reminds us that "everything" in NYC dances....really.
Featuring choreography by Isadora Duncan , the Mother of Modern Dance circa 1920's, recreated by Catherine Gallant, and contemporary works created especially for CJ/MAPs circa 2001-2006 by Carlson, Janis Brenner, Margie Gillis, Catlin Cobb, Rachel Cohen with Agata Oleksiak,and Jowers. Costumes Naoko Nagata, Oleksiak, and La Rue Designs.
Video by Jeanne Finnerty and Ed Hanna. Lighting Design Catherine Lee.
Bring yourself, bring a date, bring your family...make a night of it. Check out the restaurants at the World Financial Center for a before show or after show cocktail or supper. (www.worldfinancialcenter.com for more info re dining and directions)
We look forward to seeing you and, perhaps, even dancing with you there.
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What's Ahead for CJ/MAPs? / Future Projects
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In the
studios of Chinatown and the offices of 515 Broadway, we are working
on:
* Our
MARCH 22nd WINTER GARDEN PERFORMANCE - Please Join Us
* A SPRING COLLABORATION WITH THEATER/DANCE ARTIST IRINA
CONSTANTINE POULOS, artistic director of OXYMOROS DANCE THEATER and she is also known as the Bungee Cord Ballerina (Are you enticed?...me too). The piece is called Aqua... the props so far: WATER AND WINGS.
* A MOVING TALE, TERPSICHORE AND THE DANCING CITY
A book for kids of all ages written by me and inspired
by the muse of dance and my two dancing sons... more news later.
* SUMMER 06 IN EUROPE- dancing, researching, teaching and creating
* PERFORMANCE AND WORKSHOP AT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF MANHATTAN - FALL 06 TBA
* FREE SHOWING AT THE CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE IN NYC - Part of art an art and architecture series in the works. TBA.
* PLANNING THE NEXT MINI MOVING FESTIVAL For Fall of 06
in conjunction with the Culture Project @45 Bleecker and their IMPACT FESTIVAL
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2005 Highlights
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JANUARY 05 - After our very successful New York Season at The Cunningham Theater, performed solos from the repertory at the Association of Performance Presenters at the City Center Studios, New York City with Jodi Kaplan and Associates and the other talented dance companies on her roster.
FEBRUARY 05 - Performed at "Tea Dances" a salon performance series in New York City created by a talented colleague, Jody Sperling. Invited to perform and lead a workshop for dance teachers in New Jersey public schools at the beautiful New Jersey Center for Performing Arts (NJPAC) in Newark, NJ. Danced 3 historical works from the repertory - and then led everyone in practicing the falls suspensions that abound in the Humphrey-Limon technique of modern dance.
MARCH AND APRIL 05 - Invited to teach a series of technique classes for the Jose Limon Foundation in NYC (my modern dance training is heavily Humphrey-Limon based and some of my favorite teachers and performers come from this school / company. Alan Danielson, Gary Masters, Risa Steinberg, Roxanne D'Orleans Juste, Nina Watt to name a few. It was an honor to teach there, Guest artist at the Mattin Arts Center at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. I used this opportunity to focus on how a performer can make a work of choreography their own - a unique interpretation involving a total integration of ones imagination, skill, and intelligence. My favorite comment from a Hopkins student was, "at the end, this felt like I was meditating."
MAY 05 - Performed and led outdoor workshop at the Pennington Day Festival in Pennington, New Jersey. It was a moving workshop for kids and their grown-ups....but their grown-ups were too shy. I was very surprised and pleased to have not only little children dancing in the hot sun with me, but (gasp) senior and junior males from Pennington High School Swim and Lacrosse teams braving the hot sun to play shape games etc. Terpsichore is alive and well in Pennington!
SUMMER 05- Spent the summer organizing, teaching, and creating the first (of many) CJ/MAPs Mini-Festival in New York City!
JULY 05 - Performed 2 works of repertory at Opening Night Performance of the Culture Project's Women Center Stage Festival in New York City. Festival participants included actors Marisa Tomei and Lynn Redgrave in addition to many
talented new comers.
AUGUST 05 - Guest Appearance with Kun Yang Lin/Dancers at the Association of Architects in New York City.
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A MIINI FESTIVAL- WHAT WE DID ON OUR SUMMER VACATION 2005
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enthusiastic participants in colleague Jill Sigman's workshop at the culture project's 45 Below studio theater-Summer 2005
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The
Festival attracted participants from as far away as Spain, Italy, and Germany
and in the USA, New Mexico. We worked with an enthusiastic group of poets,
painters, actors, dancers (independent artists and members of such companies as
Merce Cunningham and Urban Bush Women), choreographers, gypsy singers,
videographers, science teachers, and arts administrators and already have had
requests for more.
COMMUNITY OUT REACH
This summer, the
company (in the form of me artistic director, Sydney Skybetter, administrative
assistant, and Will Arnold graphic designer) created and underwrote and
publicized a mini-moving arts festival. The MOVING ARTS MINI FEST was a 3-week
experience offering low cost and free classes to anyone interested in moving,
and creativity. The thought behind our festival was to provide a break from the
hectic NYC pace that is not always conducive to making work. Our goal was to
provide our community with inspiring nurturing experiences. Our goal was to
employ our peers to conduct workshops. Our goal was to be a catalyst to generate
new ideas that everyone could take back to their work and life. We accomplished
all these goals. YAYY! Our workshop leaders, all talented provocative artists
did a fantastic job of inspiring. I am very proud of this work.
THANK YOU TALENTED FRIENDS OF MOVING ARTS PROJECTS:
- Marissa Sullivan (actor/director)
- Tigger
Benford (acclaimed musician, body percussionist)
- me (you know me)
- Irina
Constantine Poulos (choreographer/movement theater and artistic director of
Oxymoros Dance Theater)
- Martha Williams (choreographer/life coach/artistic
director of the Movement Movement)
- Janis Brenner (award winning performer,
choreographer, vocalist and artistic director of Janis Brenner/Dancers)
- Dawn
Stoppiello and Mark Conniglio co-artistic directors of Troika Ranch (combining
dance with computer technology)
- Andrea Woods (dance and spoken word artist
artistic director of Souloworks)
- Jill Sigman (soloist, choreographer,
dance philosopher and artistic director of Jill Sigman/ThinkDance).
The
first week called Moving Playdates took place in our rehearsal studios in
Chinatown where we offered low cost classes to the community $5.00 a piece for 2
hours. The second two weeks of our festival was produced in collaboration with
THE CULTURE PROJECT 's Women Center Stage Festival.
THANK YOU CULTURE PROJECT@45 BLEECKER:
The CULTURE PROJECT@45
Bleecker is an acclaimed downtown theatrical venue known for its support of new
voices in the arts, activism, and for its extremely well received and long
running production of THE EXONERATED (which recently became an HBO TV movie
starring Susan Sarandon and other noted actors.) Alan Buchman the artistic
director of TCP and Lauren Saffa the director of TCP's Women Center Stage
Festival were excellent partners. They were generous enough to donate space to
our festival workshops and they further supported us by inviting me to perform
two moving projects at their opening night festivities. I encourage you all to
take a look at The Culture Projects offerings and get involved. www.45bleecker.com
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Participants comment on our Mini Festival
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Sydney Skybetter (Administrative Assistant) and Lauren Saffa (Director: Women Center Stage)
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"...Thank you so much for all of your hard work
organizing the Moving Arts workshops via Women's Center Stage. I know I learned
so much that really pushed my thinking and doing as a performer as well as
equipping me with helpful tools to use as a working artist. The workshops were
a fresh breath of relief and inspiration to challenge my work and share this
knowledge with the communities that I am a part of. The fact that they were
free was an absolute blessing and gift that speaks to the kind of generosity
that is truly encouraging for emerging artists ..."
Sincerely, Kelly Zen-Yie
Tsai, poet, performer- Mango Tribe
"I just wanted to get a chance to
THANK YOU again for putting together such a wonderful mini-festival and
performing those exquisite pieces in this year's Women Center Stage festival. I
think the classes were tremendously successful. It was so inspiring and exciting
for me personally to share those special afternoons with women from all over the
world playing and exploring and challenging myself! And your positive energy and
great attitude made it such a pleasure to work with you."
Lauren Saffa,
Festival Director, Women Center Stage
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Be part of our Possibilities/ See what we do, why we do it, and
how you can help.
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We need your involvement to make MOVING ARTS PROJECTS HAPPEN. LOOK BELOW TO SEE WHAT WE DO AND WHY WE DO IT - AND TO DISCOVER WAYS THAT YOU MIGHT TAKE PART.
What is a MOVING ARTS PROJECT?
It can be a poem, concert performance, a new work of choreography or theater, an interactive presentation for families, a series of classes, a dance festival, video or short story. The common thread that links all of our projects is a passion for the art of dance and artists of the past and present who create it. Through CJ/MAPs we want to share with our audiences the positive and enduring theme of our young modern dance history - THE POWER OF THE INDIVIDUAL CREATIVE VOICE TO INSPIRE AND CREATE CHANGE.
We share the work of the company in 3 different ways
1. Unique Concert /Performance Art Works.
We commission and collaborate on new works of music, choreography, theater created by emerging artists and masters of the form. We provide venues and opportunities for these new works to be shared with different audiences in performances of high artistic caliber. We are known for creating productions that blend historical and modern works in an original thought provoking way.
2. Workshops geared to Children/Families/ and Special Communities
We create and produce interactive informal experiences that invite
people into our work and into the world of modern dance. Participants discover how dance relates to their everyday life experience.
3. Projects to Develop and Support Artists in the New York City
Community
We offer opportunities for colleagues to share their vision for dance
with other artists in our community (see our chapter on the
Mini-Festival). As much as we can we aim to offer these experiences Free or at little cost.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
* DONATE FUNDS - WE ARE A NON-PROFIT 501(c)3 organization and every donation to us is fully tax deductible according to the law. AND... now because we have subscribed to PAYPAL, it is easier than ever for you to help us with the expenses of creating moving art. Every donation is appreciated. Every donor is acknowledged in our written materials. Every donor is invited to a rehearsal and an informal showing.
Donations are payable to:
MOVING ARTS PROJECTS, inc
515 Broadway, #3BF
NYC, NY 10012 or PayPal
* VOLUNTEER - We can always use help in the office with filing,
organizing press packets and media, or putting labels on envelopes, and for our special events we often need cheerful meet and greeters. Do you have some free time to share? email sydney@movingartsprojects.org if you are interested. It is good karma.
* CHASE SPACE with us. - We are looking for a donation or underwriting of space in order for us to offer more FREE MOVING KIDS SALONS to kids and their grown-ups. We need a clean space, with a sprung floor, that can hold at least 50 audience members not including performance space. We want to offer family events 3x per year. Autumn, Summer, Spring. Can you help?
* WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO? - Are you interested in working with a small growing enthusiastic organization that loves dance and dancers and wants to create opportunity for artists as well as moving works of art? Are you interested in dance history? The creative process? Are you interested in getting more people not in the dance world to discover the beauty of modern dance ? Would you like to be part of creating a moving arts project but don't know how? We are always looking for other enthusiastic energized souls like us. Contact sydney@movingartsprojects and we will set up a time to chat. Who knows what great things we can come up with!
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