Joining disciplines with a Hyphen: Catherine Cabeen Company at Velocity
One of the difficulties of assembling an accurate history of jazz is dealing with the subject of improvisation. Lacking a real system of notation, improvisation passes from teacher to student through direct practice alone and is difficult to reproduce. Dance also shares this problem. While there are various systems of notation for dance, these often narrow the range of expressive options rather than opening them up. Yet with a bit of humility and a sense of playfulness, one can approach the subject of notation as a playground for inspiration.
BOOST Dance Festival: A Showcase of Seattle’s Diversity
Dancers face the very same challenges as theater groups. Rehearsal space, performance space, support funding and so on. But quite unlike their counterparts in the theater, dancers tend to gather together out of necessity and fix their problems from within. Marlo Martin rose to a challenge in 2010 by starting the BOOST Dance Festival.
Hollow Earth Radio and Nonsequitur bring trio improvisation to the Chapel
In improvisation, duos are a sort of conversation. Big bands are something like a game of follow the leader. In a sense, improvising trios are a combination of both. They retain much of the conversational intimacy of a duo through a kind of shared leadership of conversation that rarely if ever occurs in the classic quintet format, or even in the quartet. Many things can happen in trios that would be virtually impossible in another format.
The Bureau of Drawers brings back the comix tabloid to Seattle
Now that bandwidth has hit a safe plateau where consumers can download massive picture files at will, it makes sense that someone would bring back the free comix tabloid. That is exactly what Seattle’s Bureau of Drawers have done.
In the Land of Make/Believe: tEEth Bring Their Magic to On the Boards
Using the barest of elements in extraordinary combinations, Make/Believe produces visually and sonically striking imagery that grows and grows in intricacy, the way that music grows from the simplicity of a heartbeat, or language itself grows from scratches and dots on a Sumerian jar. Make/Believe is a succession of gorgeous images revolving around the idea of what it means to communicate, not only with others but also with oneself–or what one takes oneself to be.
Seattle Sounders FC: Cool enough to play for free and still give to charity
The holders of the US Open Cup, our Sounders, would normally meet with the holders of the MLS Cup, the LA Galaxy. Not this year. This time the opponent is Club Jaguares de Chiapas from Mexico. And in keeping with the name of Community Shield, the community can watch the game in the stadium for free. How groovy is that?
A flashback to the youthful days of the Emerald City
A lesson in Rain City humility.
Seattle Chamber Players sail their Icebreaker around the Mediterranean
Among Elena Dubinets’ many brilliant ideas is her vision of a showcase of new music from around the world, where audiences could meet and discuss the music with the actual composers themselves. That brilliant idea that has become the Icebreaker series, which has moved from Russia through the Baltic, across land to the Caucasus and America and now, this year, to the Mediterranean.
Another approach to the classics: Emma at the UW
Jane Austen’s novel Emma has proven strong enough over the past two hundred years to connect with many different audiences. It has also proven flexible enough to withstand the separate approaches of faithful rendition and tangential adaptation. It has withstood both stiff, starchy costume drama versions such as the BBC miniseries and even modern-dress musical versions.
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