Just the facts, ma'am

Below, the trailer for Skybridge, the new videodance I made last month with students from Hunter College, in the glassed-in bridge that crosses Lexington Avenue. Creating screendance work with college students over an intensive week, often during their winter break, seems to be my new niche.  Luckily, I had the freedom to make whatever I wanted, and the support to make it in a killer location, not to mention access to music composed and performed by Martha Mooke and my current go-to, Emily Holden. 

I'm looking forward to the premiere of the full 9-minute piece at Hunter's Spring Concert April 23-25.  Meanwhile, another intensive college project made in 2018 with students at Slippery Rock University - Where Love Leads -  will screen in Poland at one of my favorite festivals: Dances for Camera during Short Waves Festival. Skybridge is just beginning to be submitted to festivals, where I'm afraid it will compete for attention with Through Mabel's Eyes, a longer work and perhaps a harder sell. If only my so-called "niche" was a more recognizable "brand."


For those of you who are free to combine a stay on beautiful Cape Cod with a chance to dance,  I'll be creating what's billed as a community dance - meaning come one, come all - at The Castle Hill Center for the Arts.  It runs June 8-13, and the pitch is: We are already dancing ... so please do come, all!

Finally, here's a story only an elder can tell. Thirty years ago, I made a dance called Ophelia with teenaged dancers from the Steffi Nossen School of Dance, including Anna Canoni, a 4th generation modern dancer (her grandmother was Marjorie Mazzia who was in Martha Graham's original company.) Apparently, the experience of making Ophelia was memorable enough that Anna, now on the Steffi board, invited me to return to work with the current group of 11 responsive and beautifully trained teenagers. At the moment it's entitled The Council of Living Beings, with its young cast embodying an active response to the climate emergency, with performances April 2-4 at the Performing Arts Center in Purchase, NY.

Meanwhile, I've joined Extinction Rebellion (XR), and last month proudly participated in occupying the NY Comptroller's building in Albany, urging him to divest in fossil fuels. 

It's coming, folks, and we are not ready.