Moroccan choreographer expresses her African Roots in new work
By Trevor Miles
“I made a decision,” states Hind Benali, Moroccan choreographer. “I had to dance, and that meant I had to fight.”
Benali comes from a culture where women do not dance publicly. However, she uses her roots to influence her work and tell her story. On October 10-11th, she will bring her autobiographical work, IDENTITY to Alloy Studios.
Benali serves as the artistic directorof this project, and teams up with hip-hop dancer Soufaine Karim and musician Mochine Imrharn to create the soundscape.
Hind will also host a Master Class on October 9th, 10:00 AM- 11:30 AM. For more info on the Master Class and IDENTITY, please use the links below.
Kelly Strayhorn celebrates a century of arts and entertainment in East Liberty
By Trevor Miles
KST has some big plans to commemorate its hundred years of being an entertainment destination for East Liberty residents. Beginning as the Regent Theatre in 1914, the building that now houses KST was actually a movie house. However, after opening and closing several times, in 2001, the theater underwent a name change and took on a powerful new identity.
The Kelly Strayhorn Theater, named after Gene Kelly and Billy Strayhorn prides itself on presenting creative, daring and tantalizing contemporary works.
Janera Solomon, executive director of KST, is thrilled about the upcoming centennial celebrations at the theater. “This is an opportunity for people to bring photos and things that they value to the theater and keep it there. East liberty has changed so much in the past one hundred years– it’s interesting to think what it will be like a hundred years from now.”
You can be a part of the event by coming to the KST Centennial Community Day on Saturday, October 11, 2014, 10:00 AM-Noon, and bring memorabilia to contribute to Capsule15206!
Unless you live via a teenager, you’ve most likely by no means heard of Musical. Ly. If you do, then you’ve most likely at the present appeared in another of the body’s kid’s music movies. Yet the DIY music-video app first appeared on the scene here at 2014, but exploded straight to the top of yet the App electric outlet charts last summertime. Information technology has never declined beneath the top 40 seeing that. Normally, it’s swapping greater places from your app electric outlet and at Snapchat and then Instagram. Yet the 15-second movies are typically business people lip-syncing or dancing straight to a number of the greater strikes. More recently, Musical. Ly stars have got began launching their very own roles, and then old fashioned music stars, hope Jason DeRulo, are now pledging straight to debut their movies on the computer software first, a minor coup a lot more than YouTube. At this point, a lot more than 10 mil business people use the app day to day and then cook while in the same number of movies every single time. Virtually all here at, 70 mil people have registered seeing that Musical. Ly business people, says its cofounder and then co-CEO Alex Zhu. As the music movies have got drawn people to yet the app, Zhu is familiar with that’s not what i mean they stick. He’s installing Musical. Ly to be the subsequent sociable marketing a patient predicated on movies from which only about entertain business people and then be in them coming back. “Today yet the proposition of the app has not been about installing music movies. Its just not about lip-syncing. Its in regards to a sociable marketing,” Zhu said. “Its a minor community. Business people hope to stay seeing that you’ll get other people. “
‘Doomed as being a failure’
The concept to get a make-your-own-music-video app was a minor eager pivot obtained from an instructions app. Zhu have already been bearing in mind instructions during the course of his time just like a task manager here at enterprise computer software giant SAP, easy earning yet the title of “education futurist. ” He was feeling massive online programs, also called musically-likes MOOCs, were fair, but no-one finished them. Here at 2014, he was feeling he’d come up with a minor billion-dollar idea: short-form instructions movies. Zhu and then his cofounder and then co-CEO Louis Yang increased $250,000 obtained from venture capitalists and then spent six months installing an app named Cicada. The concept was from which executives, if so you can get espresso or calculus, the way i educate brief three- straight to five-minute movies explaining a topic. But there are a reason you’ve by no means heard of information technology prior to. “The time i submitted the age computer software straight to the market i comprehended it turned out by no means more likely to devastation,” Zhu said. “It was doomed to be a failure. “
It turned out doomed to be a failure. His reader have had didn’t find from which yet the movies had taken lots of time which is called. Lesson organizers have had a difficult time condensing their intelligence down into three minutes. Thankful creation and then intake needed to be within moments and then seconds, just not hours. Information technology wasn’t entertaining, and then information technology failed to attain teens. At the time, Zhu’s reader only about have had 8% of its cash preserving, he says. Rather than a that give information technology back into investors and then jogging out, they scrambled straight to come up with a fresh concept. ‘We have had lucky’
Outlined Musical. Ly at this point and then there is not any trace of its failed-education-app origins. Yet the 15-second movies are longer plenty of straight to drag a minor giggle and then educate a story, however, not lots of time from which teens attain bored and then go onto the subsequent a patient. It’s a number of different teenage boys thumping their chests straight to a minor song, straight to gymnastics routines put straight to music, straight to conducting out funny lyrics obtained from music. Zhu first have had here at the concept the minute he looked upon a number of boisterous youthful teens on the educate here at Mountain watch, so where Google is based. Half of the teens were listening music as the spouse had taken selfies or movies, guarded them here at stickers, and then shared the outcome along with their close friends. The definition the minute Zhu comprehended he the way i put music, movies, as well as a sociable marketing straight to attain yet the early-teen demographic. Yet the reader turned Zhu’s wash concept down into an app here at thirty days, and then submitted Musical. Ly here at July 2014. In real time, they outlined yet the quantities were fair. About 500 people were downloading information technology per day, but moreover, they kept coming back.
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In preparation for their inaugural performance at the Kelly Strayhorn on May 30th at 7pm, the SOUNDWAVES student steelband ensemble performed a great 25 minute set at the Campus School’s International Festival. Check it out and come see them at KST on May 30th!
Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion — Kyle Abraham, professional dancer and choreographer, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Over the past few years, Abraham has received tremendous accolades and awards for his dancing and choreography including Dance Magazine’s coveted 25 to Watch in 2009, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant 2008, Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship in 2002. This year, Abraham was heralded by OUT Magazine as one of the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama.” His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad, most recently at Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Jacobs Pillow, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan, Springboard Danse Montreal, Fall for Dance Festival at New York’s City Center, Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall in Harlem, New York and the Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany.
As a performer, Abraham has worked with several acclaimed modern dance companies including David Dorfman Dance, Dance Conduction Continuum, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Mimi Garrard Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Dance Alloy, The Kevin Wynn Collection, and Attack Theatre. In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, abraham.in.motion, Abraham also teaches his unique approach to post-modern dance in various schools and studios throughout the United States.
BLOOM! Dance Collective — Being a truly international collective, BLOOM!’s works are rooted in various cultural backgrounds and disciplines. BLOOM! embraces collaboration as the foundation of its creative process opening up the artistic direction to the whole team. The creative team of each production comprises different members and also guest artists working in the fields of dance, set & costume design, lighting design and film.
Since its foundation in November 2009 BLOOM! has created two pieces, namely CITY and TAME GAME. Most recently BLOOM! has been awarded the Rudolf Laban Award 2010 (Budapest) for best Hungarian dance production(CITY) and it was awarded an artistic residency at the Prix Jardin D’Europe 2010 (iDans04-Istanbul). The collective was also selected for the international touring network Aerowaves in 2010-2011.
BLOOM! is currently working on SuperHeroes (working title), the collective’s third production to be premiered in Spring 2012. Members include: Viktória Dányi(HU), Csaba Molnár (SK), Moreno Solinas (IT), Igor Urzelai (ES), Alberto Ruiz Soler (ES); and manager Anikó Rácz (HU)
Sidra Bell — Sidra Bell (Artistic Director) holds a BA in History from Yale University and an MFA in Choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. She is currently a Master Lecturer at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Bell has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including a performance prize for her solo work Conductivity in 2009 at the Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. At the same festival in 2011, she received First Prize for Choreography for her solo work Grief Point. In 2010, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette said of Bell, “she had her finger on the future of dance where ballet and hip-hop coexist on the same plane.” As a sought after master teacher, Bell has taught her unique and comprehensive approach to creative process, improvisation, and technique at many prestigious institutions for dance and theater.
Jaamil Olawale Kosoko — Philly-based choreographer and dance impresario Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is a busy man these days—creatively, curatorially, and administratively. He recently changed the name of his company from Kosoko Performance Group to The Philadiction Movement to herald in a new era for the company. Kosoko has been performing and touring with his company and with Headlong Dance Theater, and he has just published a book of his poems titled Notes on an Urban Kill-Floor. The recently formed company, The Philadiction Movement, is a Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary ensemble of musicians, dancers, writers, actors, and visual artists. Its artistic mission is to push performance further via the expansion of cultural awareness, the production of live performance, literary publication, youth and community outreach, and teaching.
Sara Crawford Nash — Sara Crawford Nash is the Program Manager of the National Dance Project at the New England Foundation for the Arts. Prior to joining NEFA, Nash managed the USArtists International grant program at the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. She worked as senior producer in programming at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, at Tanec Praha, an international contemporary dance festival in Prague, and at the British Council in London. She has served as a panelist for a variety of programs and organizations, including the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Performance Space 122’s Avante-Garde-Arama series, the IN FLUX performance series in Philadelphia, Solar One Green Energy Arts Festival, and the Sazka Award for Choreography. She served as the Northeastern Regional Desk for the National Performance Network in New Orleans in 2009. Nash holds a degree in Theater and Dance from Mary Washington College.
Staycee R. Pearl — Staycee R. Pearl began her dance training at the University of the Arts, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. After ten years of working as a dancer/choreographer based in NYC and Atlanta GA, she relocated to Pittsburgh and immediately began her six-year tenure as Artistic Director of Xpressions Contemporary Dance Company. She premiered numerous original works and experienced working with celebrated national choreographers such as, Rennie Harris and Robert Battle, Kyle Abraham, and Darrell G. Moultrie. Pearl is responsible for the choreography in Nathan Davis’ jazz-opera, Just Above My Head, Carmen Jones, and Lost in the Stars, produced by the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. Over the past five years, her continued educational experiences include a Choreographic Fellowship at Summer Stages Dance in Concord MA, a scholarship to Urban Bush Women’s Summer Institute/Place Matters, and a performance workshop with Art-UP and La Pocha Nostra. Pearl recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with department honors in Studio Arts and a minor in Africana Studies. She continues to produce multi media works with PearlArts: movement and sound, co founded with Herman Pearl, and has served as curatorial advisor for NewMoves Contemporary Dance Festival. Ms Pearl debuted STAYCEE PEARL dance project at Kelly Strayhorn Theater in 2010.
Craig T. Peterson — Craig T. Peterson, Director of the Philly Fringe Festival and Live Arts Brewery (LAB) program, joined the staff of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in 2010. Initiated in 2009, the LAB program seeks to support artists in the creative process through integrated, long-term residencies, elective programming, and the facilitation of collaborative artistic exchange between audiences and artists of all disciplines. He is also Director of the annual Philly Fringe Festival, a three week city-wide festival featuring the work of more than 200 performing artists and companies.
For ten years he served in numerous positions at Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts), one of America’s preeminent performing arts institutions based in NYC including that of Artistic Director and Producer for four years. In 2004, Peterson co-founded U-Phonic Records, an independent record label based in New York City. He has served on numerous panels for inter/national arts funding institutions, consulted with various arts and social service organizations as a program sight assessor and lecturer, and has traveled extensively nationally and internationally to identify emerging talent and connect with artists and arts organizations worldwide.
Thomas Benjamin Pryor — Thomas Benjamin Snapp Pryor is an independent arts manager, producer, and curator operating under the moniker tbspMGMT. His current projects include producing and touring the performance works of Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Trajal Harrell, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Yvonne Meier, Wally Cardona, and Deborah Hay. Pryor is also the Curator and Producer for American Realness, an annual festival of contemporary performance at Abrons Arts Center in New York, NY (Best of Dance 2010, ArtForum). Previously Ben worked as Director of Operations for Center for Performance Research, an Artist Representative at Pentacle, a project manager for Chez Bushwick, and in the Planning and Development department at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ben served as chair of the Agents Council and Trustee for Dance USA from 2008-2010. He was the recipient of the 2010 Gabriela Tudor Fellowship in Cultural Management. He has served as a panelist/reader for CEC ArtsLink, the Jerome Foundation, Creative Capital, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kate Watson-Wallace — Kate Watson-Wallace is a choreographer, director, and professional development facilitator who creates site-based performances that re-imagine our everyday spaces. She co-directs anonymous bodies, an art collective based in Philadelphia, with Jaamil Kosoko. Her work includes HOUSE, a performance for 15 audience members inside an abandoned row home; CAR, where four audience members sit inside a moving vehicle; STORE, a performance installation about American greed; and Everywhere, a participatory on-line dance experience and contest. Watson-Wallace is a 2007 Pew Fellow in the Arts in Choreography. She has received two Map Fund Grants, a Doris Duke Exploration Grant through Creative Capital, and four grants from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage’s Dance Advance program, as well as funding from The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Independence Foundation, and PennPAT.
From 1998-2002, Watson-Wallace toured internationally with Group Motion Company, and has toured and performed with Headlong Dance Theater since 2004. She is currently working on Mash Up Body, a performance installation created in collaboration with video artist Ricardo Rivera (klip collective) and musician Chris Powell (ManMan). Mash Up Body explores the idea of a multi-tasking body with an interactive video and sound installation. Mash Up Body was started in a developmental residency at the Yard. The work will continue to be developed through a yearlong residency (supported by the Investing in Professional Artists Grant Program of the Pittsburgh Foundation) at the Kelly Strayhorn premiering in Spring 2013.
Marya Wethers — Marya Wethers has been dancing and working in arts administration in NYC since 1997. As a performer, she has enjoyed working with Yanira Castro + Company, CompanyAmyCox, Palissimo, Faye Driscoll, and Joyce S. Lim. Marya has also performed in independent films and television, including a featured role in the dance film Lez Side Story and hosting Move the Frame on public access television. As an administrator, she has worked at Danspace Project, BRICstudio, Pentacle, and currently New York Live Arts. She curated the Out of Space @ BRICstudio series for Danspace Project from 2003-2007 as well as two evening of Food For Thought programs. Her writing UnCHARTed Legacies: women of color in post-modern dance was published in the 25th Anniversary Movement Research Performance Journal #27/28. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College cum laude with a BA in Dance with High Honors and a minor in African-American Studies.
Reggie Wilson — Reggie Wilson (Artistic Director, choreographer and performer) founded his company, Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group, in 1989. The Brooklyn-based dance company that investigates the intersections of cultural anthropology and movement practices by blending contemporary dance with African traditions. Wilson draws from the movement languages of the blues, slave and spiritual cultures of Africans in the Americas and combines them with post-modern elements and his own personal movement style to create what he calls “post-African/Neo-HooDoo Modern dances.” His latest evening-length work, The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn had its World premiere at the Walker Art Center in November 2009 and NY premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2009 followed by a ten city US tour.
SYMPOSIUM DISCUSSIONS WILL TAKE PLACE AT ALLOY STUDIOS (5530 PENN AVENUE)
FRIDAY MAY 12, 2012
9:00AM
WELCOME and INTRODUCTIONS
10:00AM
RESIDENCIES THAT WORK: ARTISTS AND PRESENTERS WORKING TOGETHER Why are residencies important to presenters and what’s the most beneficial model for artists? How do presenters partner to provide long-term support to artists and how can artists take risks to develop great work? Explore new ways presenters and artists are working together to foster innovation in dance.Conversation Starters: Marya Wethers, Craig Peterson, Kyle Abraham
10:45AM
Break
11:00AM
10 OR MORE MEANINGFUL WAYS OF ENGAGING COMMUNITY in CONTEMPORARY DANCEHow do we find new audiences for contemporary dance? Is it important for an audience to be invested in artists and their work and an artist to be invested in an audience and their feedback? Discuss ways audience/artist/presenter work together to engage audiences in meaningful ways. Conversation Starters: Staycee Pearl, Ben Pryor, Sidra Bell
1:00PM
ARTIST TALK WITH REGGIE WILSONReggie Wilson is indisputably one of America’s leading choreographers. He was born and raised in Milwaukee after his family moved north from the Mississippi delta. In 1989, he founded his Brooklyn-based Fist & Heel Performance Group. Drawing from the movement languages of the blues, slave and spiritual cultures of Africans in the Americas, Wilson adds post-modern elements and his own personal movement style to create what he calls “post-African/Neo-HooDoo Modern dances.” At this talk, Wilson discusses his approach to making work, recent projects and sustaining a career as a choreographer.
1:45PM
Break
2:00PM
THE COLLABORATOR: SUSTAINABLE MODELS FOR DANCE COMPANIESHow are dance makers finding new ways to collaborate and build their careers? Explore ways artists blur the lines by working cross genre in collectives, nontraditional companies and project-based collaborations. How do these models encourage sustainability and success? Conversation Starters: Jaamil Kosoko, Kate Watson-Wallace; BLOOM! Dance Collective
SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2012
11:00AM
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? MAKING AND CREATING TOURS FOR NEW WORKLets talk relationships with presenters, presenting and touring new work and some great examples of networks and support structures for touring new work by emerging artists.Conversation Starters: Sara Nash, Reggie Wilson, Sidra Bell
newMoves Dance Symposium Supporting Innovation in Contemporary Dance
(supported by The Heinz Endowments)
Kelly Strayhorn Theater presents the first, newMoves Contemporary Dance Symposium, bringing the contemporary dance world to the city with presentations from leading presenters and practitioners focusing on supporting innovation in dance.
The two- day symposium includes panel discussions, performances and artist talks that represent diverse perspectives on dance activity in the region. The event takes place May 10 -11, 2012 during the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival.
The symposium convenes regional and national dance makers, presenters and audiences for a conversation on the trends in contemporary performance and the ways in which institutions can foster a healthy ecology for innovation in dance performance.
As a dance presenter, we believe programming that better connects Pittsburgh to the nationally scene stimulates excitement that benefits artists and audiences.
The Symposium, organized by KST, was established to provide an opportunity for us to be part of national conversations and bring national presenters to the city during newMoves Festival. We hope the conversations will bring our efforts to stimulate a scene for new work into focus. As a dance presenter, we believe the symposium and festival gives an opportunity to be part of the national scene and be at the forefront of supporting new work and innovation in contemporary dance.
In January, Kelly Strayhorn Theater was chosen to spearhead the Pittsburgh module for NBC/iTheatrics’ SMASH: Make a Musical program. This incredible opportunity jump-started the Strayhorn Legacy Project, our new education initiative dedicated to the artistic advancement of students across Pittsburgh’s East End.
We chose Westinghouse 6-12 as our school partner – it hasn’t produced a musical in over 10 years and Billy Strayhorn wrote his first songs as a student there. Beginning with Westinghouse, KST’s Strayhorn Legacy Project reestablishes the culture of artistic achievement for East End students.
The 20-30 students involved in this project are passionate, dedicated, and incredibly excited to share their work. Under the guidance of KST’s teaching artists and with the strong in-school support of Richard “Muzz” Meyers, the University of Pittsburgh, YMCA’s Lighthouse Project, and members of Americorp and the Heinz Fellows, Westinghouse will premiere Fame on May 18 at 7pm at Westinghouse High School (1101 North Murtland Street in Homewood). For tickets, please email dan@kelly-strayhorn.org or call 412.363.3000 ext 313.
Interested in supporting the advancement of student arts in the East End? Consider donating to the Strayhorn Legacy Fund. Contact Michelle Zaffary at michelle@kelly-strayhorn.org for info.
We are incredibly excited to see our youth steelband program, SOUNDWAVES, kick off with such a bang last week at the Union Project!
SOUNDWAVES, a new KST education initiative (in partnership with the Union Project, started a few weeks ago. KST Resident artist Mat Docktor and legendary steelpan craftsman, Phil Solomon will work with students through the spring. Students from Pittsburgh Obama 6-12, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12, Pittsburgh Urban Christian School and St. Edmund’s Academy, who come from a wide range of experience levels, participate in Docktor’s afterschool master classes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 4-6 pm at Union Project (801 N. Negley Ave at Stanton Ave).
In their sessions, students learn steelband techniques, music theory essentials and the elements of ensemble performance.
There is a student showcase public performance at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater on May 30th at 7pm.
As part of our artSEEDS program, Docktor visited students at Pittsburgh Obama, The Ellis School and Carlow’s Campus School to introduce nearly 100 students to steelband music.
To learn more about Kelly Strayhorn’s Education Programming, including our youth steelband classes in Summer Stage 2012, visit www.kelly-strayhorn.org/classes or contact Dan Derks, Education Director, at 412.363.3000 ext 313.
SOUNDWAVES, a new KST education initiative (in partnership with the Union Project, started a few weeks ago. KST Resident artist Mat Docktor and legendary steelpan craftsman, Phil Solomon will work with students through the spring. Students from Pittsburgh Obama 6-12, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12, Pittsburgh Urban Christian School and St. Edmund’s Academy, who come from a wide range of experience levels, participate in Docktor’s afterschool master classes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 4-6 pm at Union Project (801 N. Negley Ave at Stanton Ave).
