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Event
East West premiere at SpectorDance
East West
a multidisciplinary performance
with live rap music
by Baba Brinkman
Saturday, October 25
SpectorDance (premiere)
3343 Paul Davis Drive, Marina
8:00 pm
$30 per person at the door/
$25 early bird special before October 15
Tickets are available at 831-384-1050 or www.brownpapertickets.com
About East West........
East West, a multi-disciplinary performance about gang violence created by SpectorDance, will be presented by the National Steinbeck Center at Sherwood Hall in Salinas on Friday, October 24 at 7:30 pm and at SpectorDance in Marina on Saturday October 25 at 8 pm. Through the power of live multi-disciplinary performance experiences, East West gives voice to former gang members and those involved in the gang culture. A group of outstanding collaborators has joined forces to create a powerful reflection of the struggles, hopes, and dreams of these at-risk young adults. East West looks at ways that dance and the arts can contribute solutions to the critical issue of gang activity that plagues the streets of Monterey County and countless cities around the nation.
Lead Artist/choreographer, Fran Spector Atkins, says, "With rap music, dance, visual images and spoken word, we are telling the first hand stories of those who are part of the culture of gangs. Based on filmed interviews with a wide variety of individuals from gang members to teachers, law enforcement officials, judges, at-risk youth and family members we hope East West will bring together a wide range of perspectives, serve as a catalyst for conversation, and provide inspiration for transformation."
To create the piece, SpectorDance worked with at-risk young adults at Rancho Cielo, a 100-acre campus in East Salinas, offering educational/vocational training and recreation for underserved young adults in Monterey County. Started by a retired local judge, Rancho Cielo's vision is to transform the lives of at-risk young adults and empower them to become accountable, competent, productive and responsible citizens.
Like other SpectorDance projects, Spector Atkins is collaborating with William Roden, media artist. Spector Atkins and Roden filmed interviews with nineteen individuals associated with the culture of gangs, which are the starting point for creative development of this project. New York City based rap artist, Baba Brinkman, is creating a "rap/sound environment," incorporating words directly from the interviews. Featured performers include Los Angeles based Jones Welch, Director of Not Man Apart, and Annie Talmadge of Diavolo Physical Theater Company. Jahnna Biddle, hip hop choreographer, is directing an ensemble of hip hop dancers. Award winning photographs by Robert Yager are also integrated into the performance.
Presenting partner, Colleen Bailey, Executive Director of the Steinbeck Center, is excited about presenting the piece, saying it reflects John Steinbeck's words about the power of the arts to "champion the forgotten and disenfranchised, while affirming the strength of the human spirit."
Also on the program will be a reprise of SpectorDance's always-popular Figures in the Dust, based on John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, as well as well as Brinkman's Canterbury Tales Remixed, a recent hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest.
A wine & cheese fundraiser & silent auction to raise awareness of the project will take place at the National Steinbeck Center on Friday, October 10 from 5:30-7:30. Money received will be used toward the establishment of an on-site dance program at Rancho Cielo and expanded outreach performances of East West.
Major Funding for East West is from the James Irvine Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, the Community Foundation for Monterey County, Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Harden Foundation, Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation, & many other businesses and individuals.
CALENDAR OF EAST WEST EVENTS IN OCTOBER 2014
Friday, October 10 Wine & Cheese fundraiser @ National Steinbeck Center
One South Main Street, Salinas 5:30-7:30 pm
$25/single $40/couple
Tickets are available at 831-384-1050 or www.brownpapertickets.com
Friday, October 24 Performance @ Sherwood Hall (premiere)
940 North Main Street, Salinas at 7:30 pm
$20 General Admission
$10 Seniors, Military & Students
$5 Children under 5
Tickets are available at http://eastwestnsc.eventbrite.com
Saturday, October 25 Performance @ SpectorDance (premiere)
3343 Paul Davis Drive, Marina at 8:00 pm
$30 per person at the door/
$25 early bird special before October 15
Tickets are available at 831-384-1050 or www.brownpapertickets.com
ABOUT SPECTORDANCE
SpectorDance is located in Marina and is both geographically and culturally a bridge among various communities. SpectorDance is well positioned to link traditional arts audiences from the Monterey Peninsula with the large population of Salinas, focusing on underserved areas.
The stated mission of SpectorDance is to establish a vibrant center for the performing arts offering a wide variety of dance-based activities that connects diverse artists and audiences, bridges disciplines through collaboration, and celebrates the power of dance to inform and inspire. The SpectorDance vision is to utilize dance and the arts as a vehicle to open doors, ignite creativity, and fuel the human spirit. East West is a project that is clearly aligned with our mission. We are establishing a new collaboration with Rancho Cielo and are expanding our collaboration with the National Steinbeck Center. We are building bridges into many new areas of the community and among many diverse groups of people. We are exploring new artistic boundaries with influences from hip hop and use of original rap music. We are seeking new languages of expression that give voice to our target population of at-risk young adults and other segments of our community. East West has grown from past projects, yet it takes us to new areas of community participation.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Lead Artist/Choregrapher, Fran Spector Atkins is the Artistic Director of SpectorDance and its School, Company, Community Outreach, Creative Projects and Choreographers Showcase. Her credits include a BS in Occupational Therapy from Boston University, an MFA from Mills College in Dance and Choreography and Certification in Laban Movement Analysis from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (NYC). She has directed schools in NYC, Cleveland and Monterey and has choreographed throughout the United States and abroad. Some of her outstanding experiences include being a guest artist at Oberlin College and Brown University and in Denmark, Egypt, England, Israel, Italy, Guam and Taiwan. Spector Atkins has received numerous awards including the prestigious Dewar's Young Artist Recognition Award for the State of California and was featured in Carmel Magazine as one of 10 individuals making "altruistic contributions to the community," and she was featured in the film "Luminaries of Monterey County". Spectordance was selected by The Arts Council for Monterey County as the "Outstanding Arts Organization in Monterey County," and as a national finalist for the Ovation TV award for "Excellence in the Performing Arts." Her work is currently funded by NEA, James Irvine Foundation and the California Arts Council.
Media Artist/Collaborator, William Roden, is owner/operator of New Dawn Studios, a production house in Carmel, providing services for broadcast television and corporate communications. His current clients include National Geographic, CSPAN, ESPN2/HD, HGTV/HD, Discovery Canada, Pebble Beach Company, Airborne and BMW. His work is varied with production of music videos, documentaries, commercials and creative projects. Projects made for public television include The World of Healthy Living and Henry Miller Is Not Dead, for which he received a Silver award at the Houston International Film Festival. The World of Healthy Healing took Roden to China to film traditional healing modalities from the East and has aired on 20 PBS affiliates nationwide.
Rap Artist, Baba Brinkman is a New York City-based artist, writer, and scholar. His master's thesis in English Literature drew parallels between hip hop music and literary poetry. After graduating in 2003, he began his career as a rap troubadour. To date, Baba has created five hip hop theater shows including The Canterbury Tales Remixed and The Rap Guide to Evolution, and spoken at several TEDx conferences. He has performed seven seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has released ten solo albums through his record label, Fuse Lit Records. The Rap Guide to Evolution won the prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award in Edinburgh in 2009 and toured the UK, Australia and the USA, including a five month run off Broadway where it was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
Co-creator/Performer, Jones Welsh is a performer, administrator, and arts activist. Jones received his degree in theatre and dance from the University of Washington in 2000, then returned for the Non-Profit Management Certificate Program after 2 years of working in New York. Jones is the Associate Artistic Director of Not Man Apart - Physical Theatre Ensemble, establishing the organization in 2000 and combining forces with John Farmanesh-Bocca in 2009 to co-produce dynamic movement plays that combine elements of dance, acrobatics, music, video, and powerful physical performance. Jones also co-hosts the LA Improv Dance Festival, Somatic Movement Arts Festival, and Shakespeare Santa Monica. After completing five years touring with Diavolo Architecture in Motion (www.diavolo.org), Jones is now the Diavolo Institute Director, establishing sustainable community outreach programs in Los Angeles and a professional movement training program at the Diavolo Studio.
Hip hop consultant/Performer, Jahnna Biddle is a choreographer and performer from Los Angeles. She has been involved in the theater, film and television industries for over 15 years. Her works have been shown in theaters throughout the country. Many of Jahnna's students have become respected professionals in film and television, back-up dancers, and performing principle dancers for major music artists such as Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Rihanna. Jahnna is currently under the representation of Go To Talent Agency and is the Director of Dance at Stevenson School, Carmel California.
Presenter Colleen Bailey is the Executive Director of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. She has won numerous awards for her teaching, including Who's Who Among American Teachers (2000) and the National Society of High School Scholars Class Novel Educator of Distinction (2007). She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California, a graduate degree from Northwestern University and has completed the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders at the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Colleen is a member of the Rotary Club of Salinas and The Alternative Board and serves on the boards of the Old Town Salinas Association, the Rancho San Carlos Education Foundation, the Youth Orchestra of Salinas, Sacred Heart School, Non Profit Alliance of Monterey County and the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Advisor Susie Brusa is the Executive Director of Rancho Cielo. She previously held Sales VP positions in Agriculture and Telecommunications companies. Brusa holds a B.A. from Pomona College in Claremont and attended Harvard Business School's Executive Education Program in non-profit management. She is a past president of the Junior League of Monterey County and serves on Boards for the Carmel Bach Festival and El Sistema USA/Salinas.
Advisor Luis Rodriguez is a former gang member and an award winning Chicano author who has established Tia Chucha Book Store and Art Center in Los Angeles. His work utilized art to transform the lives of former gang members and at risk populations.
Strategic Consultant Romalyn Tilgman
3343 Paul Davis Drive, Marina CA 93933
Phone 831.384.1050 Website www.spectordance.org Email spectordance@earthlink.net
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LocationSpectorDance (View)
3343 Paul Davis Drive
Marina, CA 93933
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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