June 26, 6PM EST – 9:30PM EST and June 27, 11AM EST – 4PM EST
Watch the Live stream here: https://www.dancecomplex.org/festivalstream/
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Friday, 6/26
6-7PM:
Festival Warm Up with Kara Fili What better way to kick off this celebration of dance in all its forms than to move together?! We’ll stretch our bodies, lift our spirits and ground ourselves in the beauty, power and healing nature of movement. www.karafili.com Paypal: kgracefili@yahoo.com Venmo: @karafili
Shriya Srinivasan: Uprising Dancer Shriya Srinivasan and visual artist Bradley Dickenson present a piece merging art, time and culture through a unified process. Through a bird’s eye view, we witness a trapped spirit trapped wanting to fly free but constrained by various oppressive forces, causing great grief, frustration and anger. Eventually, through great effort, both mentally and physically, we see the transformation of a free spirit. Oppression, which comes in different forms such as color, caste, creed, and gender, has plagued humanity for centuries. Now, more than ever, we must rise and consciously work against these forces to achieve universal freedom. https://anubhavadance.wixsite.com/anubhava PayPal: shriyas@mit.edu PayPal: bradley-c@gmx.com “A hand in Education”
Janelle Gilchrist: Excerpts from “Journeys” -Social Distancing Version This short performance of excerpts from “Journeys” celebrates performing within the confines of dancer’s homes. www.janellegilchristdancetroupe.com Venmo @janelle-gilchrist
Papa Sy: In the Village The people of the village enjoy themselves by dancing. Facebook: PasyDanceCompany Cash App: $Pasydance
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7-8PM:
Chat of Us 1 Mayor of Cambridge, Siddiqui Sumbul, joins the Executive Artistic Director of The Dance Complex, Peter DiMuro, in conversation centered around the question: How do our ancestries bring us to share multiple gifts
through our multiple cultures and art? Touching on Cambridge’s Immigrant Heritage Month as well as Mayor Siddiqui’s own experience as an immigrant, we’ll chat about what of our “original” cultures is important to keep or leave behind.
Jean Appolon Expressions: “Power” with Mcebisi Xotyeni Power is a dance piece that explores what an individual has within. It looks into the moment of oppression and the journey towards overcoming, all along becoming stronger and more powerful. https://jeanappolonexpressions.org/ Venmo: @Mcebisi-Xotyeni
Lynn Modell & Ruth B Levin: Time Is Tight And So Are My Pants Two women are tentative about dancing with each other and for an audience. They discover both are enjoyable. lynnmodell.com
Chat of Us 2 Eliza Mallouk is a massage therapist and movement educator whose somatic modalities include Alexander Technique, Zero Balancing, Activated Isolated Stretching, and a host of others. With Marcie Mitler, she co-founded Across the Ages Dance Project, which has become known for its intergenerational performances highlighting both new and established choreographers. We’ll chat with Eliza about a wide variety of topics from coming to dance at a late age and what it means to age in dance to what makes a family, both in the dance world and at home.
Soumya Rajaram: Ardhanarishvara The Ardhanarishvara is a composite androgynous form of the Hindu deities – Shiva and Parvati. Ardhanarishvara represents the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies of the universe and illustrates how Shakti, the female principle of God, is inseparable from Shiva, the male principle of God, and vice versa. The union of these principles is exalted as the root and womb of all creation. This piece is an excerpt from a poem by the most popular Hindu Philosopher – Adi Shankara, written around the 6th century AD.
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8-9PM
NSquared Dance: “The Soul’s Solo” This particular piece of choreography was an exploration during quarantine of what the soul craves and wants. A visceral movement adventure of searching inward. www.nsquareddance.com Venmo: @Zack-Betty-Neagle
Chat of Us 3 The LGBTQ+ community has had a place at The Dance Complex since our beginning – with some of the first “out” concerts in the city held during the 1980’s – Pride Primer! We will chat with Michael Winward,
co-director of Dancing Queerly, and the evolution of DQ from its beginnings here through its virtual festival in 2020.
Dancing Queerly: Sofia Engelman & Em Papineau “Sweet Relish” A compilation of one-minute works made for tight spaces during the pandemic. www.engelmanpapineaudance.com Venmo: @Sofia-Engelman PayPal: sofiaengelman@gmail.com
Seyyide Sultan: “We Daret El Ayam” Seyyide is performing to the overture of Daret El Ayam (one of the Egyptian classics, the music written for the legendary Oum Kolthoum, beloved singer from Egypt). Choreography by Seyyide. Seyyide has recently offered an online workshop teaching this choreography. www.seyyide.com www.paypal.me/seyyide Venmo: @Claudia-Donnet www.patreon.com/seyyide
Lonnie Stanton: Cool Down Unwind your day with a series of slow movement and stretches led by Lonnie Stanton. We’ll use the theme of expand and contract to link the breath into our movements to find ease and openness as we conclude the first day of Fest of Us. Venmo: @Lonnie-Stanton
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Saturday, 6/27
11AM-12PM
Margaux Skalecki: The 5 Rhythms Ecstatic Meditation Movement Practice The 5 Rhythm’s Ecstatic Meditation Movement Practice ® is a palette of moving maps that dance us back to the beat of our heart and breath. As we surrender to the journey we awaken the deep wells of what we hold on to, what we want to let go of and what we want to bring forward. As we surrender to the dance we are ushered into the Wave of movement which travels through time and space and is alive in all things. www.Margauxskalecki.com paypal.me/Margauxskalecki
Nineveh Dance Project: Standing With/Accomplices & 6 apart
Like everyone else, our original plans for the spring/summer season’s work were upended by COVID 19. Our piece is a response to the current events happening within Black and BIPOC communities – we understand that we will never understand, but still – WE STAND. www.ninevehdanceproject.org Love the Land Foundation: https://thelovelandfoundation.org/ *
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12-1PM
Yosi Karahashi: Flamenco Home Delivery Class Your house will be a dance studio and hope your day will be happier with Flamenco! This class is divided into different techniques about flamenco (warm up, castanets, dance, rhythm, and footwork) with a short choreography. http://flamencoyosi.com/ www.venmo.com/YosiKarahashi
Dance Films:
Shannon Humphreys & Chris Engels: Fledge Fledge was created responding to many constraints (both self-imposed and otherwise) during the stay at home order issued by Massachusetts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Partners Chris Engles and Shannon Humphreys collaborated with a community of people who submitted movement or movement instructions electronically. Humphreys collected, learned, structured and performed the material provided, and it forms the basis of the choreography in the film.
Victoria Awkward: SCRAPE SCRAPE is a short dance film that highlights a duet between two Boston-based dance artists, Victoria Lynn Awkward and Michayla Kelly. It originally premiered with Midday Movement Series during the Cambridge Arts Council’s Streamfest on CCTV, on June 6, 2020. https://www.victoriaawkward.com/ https://www.michaylakelly.com/ Venmo: @victoria-awkward
Betsy Miller: Forest River This short film was created for the 2020 Salem Arts Festival #tinydancefilms and was created in collaboration with the dancers. www.betsymillerdanceprojects.com paypal.me/betsymillerdance Venmo@Betsy-Miller-20
Seyyide Sultan: Oriental Dance (Belly Dance) Seyyide Sultan has been teaching oriental dance (the translation of Raks Sharqi, also often referred to as “belly dance”) since 2001. This is a beautiful art which has its roots in traditional dances of Egypt and the Middle
East/North Africa. In this 30 minute class Seyyide will explain the simplest figure 8 shapes and work on layering arm movements onto those hip movements. www.seyyide.com www.paypal.me/seyyide Venmo: @Claudia-Donnet www.patreon.com/seyyide
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1-2PM
Laura Sanchez: LS Flamenco Students COVID-19 Showcase Dancing flamenco online during Covid-19 kept Laura Sánchez and her students connected and became the self-care practice they needed to feel some peace and joy during these difficult times. They will be performing a combination of the pieces they learned at the studio and online with the hope to bring some joy to the community. Laura Sánchez will also lead a short class-demonstration for anyone to join! LSFlamenco.com Venmo: LSFlamenco PayPal: classes@LSFlamenco.com
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2-4PM
Aysha Upchurch: #danceitout Class Whatever IT is for you, this workshop will offer you space and community through facilitated individual and collective dance making. Let your thoughts, feelings, and words become flesh and let them move…who knows what joy, release, healing, and connection we can find and deepen when we just “dance it out.” While everything is at best an invitation, participants will be encouraged to leverage social media and/or create a practice of recorded dance journaling with and for self so that we do not become distant from our bodies’ need to process and communicate all that it takes in. www.ayshaupchurch.com Venmo: @dopeisaverb PayPal: paypal.me/dopeisaverb CashApp: $dopeisaverb
Asia Pyron: Contemporary Phrasework Pyron challenges dancers to bring awareness to what they hear and how to use sound as a tool within movement. Textures, temperatures, and speeds can be applied to sound, so how can we be influenced by its physicality and apply it to the dancer’s physicality. Pyron’s repertoire and teaching techniques leads dancers smoothly and effortlessly into a better sense of rhythm. asiapyron.com Venmo: @Asia-Pyron (Donations)
Sean Bjerke: House Dance Class
Sean’s house dance class will teach students to maximize the use of their body’s natural movement. Along with learning dance techniques, students will develop a greater level of comfort and freedom dancing to house music. https://www.seanbjerke.net/ Venmo: @sean-bjerke Paypal: beejerks@gmail.com CashApp: $beejerks
