I've started working on a new duet with my old friend, Arthur Aviles. In 2010, Arthur danced NOBODY'S DARLING (above) with Tina Vasquez. This year he turns 50, and I'm helping him celebrate by exploiting his indomitable energy and enthusiasm in something which will be shown June 12th as part of Dance Conversations @ The Flea.  I'll blog a little bit about the process here - as soon as I cast his new partner! 

[By the way, if you want to support the great work he does as Artistic Director of BAAD, contribute to their $50,000 goal - quick, before the man turns 51!]

Two other events will keep me busy this summer: 

        being resident artist at ArtsEnter in Cape Charles, Virginia
            (more news next post)

        directing a dance/film project with campers in New Hampshire.

Why work with campers? Inspired by archival photos of the Group Camps in Harriman State Park, I found my way to shooting & editing REGATTA 2011 - borrowed camera, spur-of-the-moment shoot -  which will screen as part of an exhibit at the Rockland County Historical Society celebrating the Centennial of the camps.  Of course, most of the footage is of kids competing in the end-of-summer canoe regatta.  But my favorite footage is of "the worm girls" - two 7-year-olds completely focused on a very important project involving a tree stump, rocks and the forced relocation of several worms.  Isn't that how you spent some of your happiest summer days?

Soon I'll share an excerpt from my first long-form documentary: THE CIRCUS ACCORDING TO CECIL. Like ARTHUR & AILEEN and the earlier WHERE THE DANCE IS, CIRCUS is a documentary that pulls back the curtain on the creative process.  And like them, it was made on a shoestring. 

But CIRCUS might be the last project in which I allow myself to borrow a camera and follow my nose without benefit of budget or crew.  Because subjects like Doug Elkins at Beacon School and Arthur being coached by Aileen deserve a wider audience.  Don't believe me?  See what Wendy Perron wrote in Dance Magazine.