Yesterday evening, the U.S. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which sets the initial funding level for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), approved a $2.5 million increase for the NEA in its FY 2011 spending bill. Chairman Jim Moran (D-VA), a longtime champion of arts and culture, presided over his first Interior spending bill as chairman of the subcommittee. It is significant that Chairman Moran has proposed an increase for the agency in light of a spending freeze on federal discretionary funds and a lower budget request by the administration. Please send a message to your members of Congress telling them to support this funding increase that Chairman Moran made in subcommittee!

Mayor Nutter announced new cuts to the city budget that directly impacts arts and culture in this city.  This includes a 35% reduction to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (or $1,120,000), the Recreation Fund, and the Community Land Care Program run by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (or $840,000).

This is a stark contrast to statements made by the Mayor only a year ago. “There is something about art and music and culture that enhances the quality of life of this city,” Mayor Michael Nutter said in an interview with The Associated Press.  “I think, even more so in these economic times … it helps us to cope and to deal with the madness around us, which virtually none of us can do anything about.”

In the 2009 interview, Nutter had even cited figures from the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance report,  stating that arts and culture in the region employs 40,000 people and generates more than $1 billion in economic activity every year.

These new budget cuts will impact cultural groups that contribute to the long-term health, vitality, and sustainability of our region, serving thousands of city residents and visitors.

Please show your support for restoring Cultural Funding  and remind the Mayor of his support for arts and culture by signing the online  petition at

http://www.petitiononline.com/PD01/petition.html

The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, announced today its 2010 grants underwriting 40 new projects spanning the disciplines of performing arts practices. A panel of peers selected this year’s grantees from more than 800 submissions. Amongst the 2010 grantees was Headlong Dance Theater.

Headlong Dance Theater will receive $25,000 to support Red Rovers (2010), a collaboration between Headlong Dance Theater and visual artist Chris Doyle,  inspired by the Mars Rovers.

Red Rovers is about Mars. A barren landscape. Endless dust, extreme heat and cold. Occasional meteorites. Two rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity. They were designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and were meant to spend 90 days on the Martian surface before breaking down. Five years later, against all odds, they are still there; collecting data and sending it back to Earth. In 2005, one of Spirit’s wheels broke. Because she started moving “backwards”, dragging the bad wheel, she dug a trench in the Martian soil and uncovered evidence of water (and therefore the possibility of life). Other happy accidents include the fact that the rovers’ solar panels were “cleaned” by a Martian dust devil, increasing their communicative capabilities.

The piece will not necessarily tell the story of Spirit and Opportunity. It will explore a constellation of ideas: a lifeless landscape, the search for life on other planets, the impossibility of reliable communication, the bonds between robots and with their makers, the inexorable genetic modification and robotization of our human bodies, task-oriented movements, intricately detailed dance actions, strings of numbers and NASA lingo, propulsion, disability. The end result will be a performance piece as well as a stand-alone gallery installation.

For more about Headlong Dance Theater, visit http://www.headlong.org/

It’s the 50th Anniversary of “The Twist,” and Philadelphia’s native son, Chubby Checker, will perform live at Philadelphia City Hall (Dilworth Plaza – West Side) in a FREE concert on Friday, July 9^th at Noon.

Ernest Evans was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina, but grew up in South Philadelphia, where he lived with his parents and two brothers. When he was a small boy, his mother took him to see Sugar Child Robinson, a child piano prodigy and also the famous country singer Ernest Tubb. Young Evans was so impressed, that he vowed to someday enter show business and took his first step toward that goal by forming a street corner harmony group when he was only 11 years old.

By the time he entered high school, Ernest had learned to play the piano a little at Settlement Music School and could do a number of vocal impressions. He also went to South Philadelphia High School with his friend Fabian Forte, who would have show business success of his own. He entertained classmates whenever he could. After school, Chubby would sing and crack jokes at his various jobs including Fresh Farm Poultry on 9th Street and at the Produce Market. It was Ernest’s boss at the Produce Market, Tony A., who gave Ernest the nickname “Chubby”.

The storeowner of Fresh Farm Poultry, Henry Colt, was so impressed, he began showing off his employee to his customers through a loud speaker. Henry and his friend Kal-Mann arranged for young Chubby to do a private recording for Dick Clark. A Yuletide novelty tune called, “Jingle Bells” on which Chubby did several impressions of top recording stars, was cut. Dick Clark sent it out as a Christmas greeting to all of his friends and associates in the music business. Cameo-Parkway liked it so much that they wrote a song called “The Class” and it became Chubby’s first hit in early 1959.

In June of 1959, Chubby recorded “The Twist”. Bernie Lowe, president of Cameo Parkway records was not initially impressed with Chubby’s recording and felt it may be a “B” side at best. However, Chubby felt “The Twist” was something special and worked hard promoting the record by undertaking non-stop rounds of TV dates, interviews and live performances. Fourteen months later, in the summer of 1960, “The Twist” was a hit.

“The Twist” was not only the #1 song but it introduced the concept of “dancing apart to the beat”. Over the next few years, endless songs incorporating “The Twist” into its name sprang up such as “Peppermint Twist”, “Twist and Shout” and “Twistin’ the Night Away”. In addition, each new song brought a new dance involving “dancing apart to the beat” such as “The Jerk”, “The Hully Gully”, “The Boogaloo” and “The Shake”. At the forefront was Chubby with “The Fly”, “The Pony” and “The Hucklebuck”.

The next few years were prolific for Chubby as hit followed hit. In 1961, Chubby recorded “Pony Time” written by Don Covay and John Berry. It went to #1 and stayed on the charts for 16 weeks. In between recording and touring, Chubby took time to add feature films to his portfolio with the releases of “Don’t Knock The Twist” and “Twist Around The Clock”.

In the fall of 1961, record industry history was made when Checker’s original hit record, “The Twist”, re-entered the charts and by January of 1962, it was back in the #1 position. No other record before or since has accomplished that feat. Combining its 1960 run with its 1961/62 return, “The Twist” spent an amazing nine month total on the U. S. best seller charts.

Chubby Checker merchandise was everywhere, and included T-shirts, shoes, ties, dolls, raincoats, and chewing gum. His success continued for years with the release of one dance record after another, with “The Fly” and “Let’s Twist Again”, for which he won a Grammy for the “Best Rock Performance”. More hit records followed. “Slow Twistin’”, Dancin’ Party”, “Popeye the Hitchhiker” and “The Limbo Rock” all came along in 1962.

1963 saw Checker return to the hit parade with “Birdland” and “Twist It Up”, after which he followed with “Loddy Lo” and a series of other novelty type tunes. Eventually, teens incorporated these movements to all songs that had a beat and called these movements “The Boogie”, a permanent fixture in Rock and Roll and popular Music 24/7. While hits kept coming, the highlight of 1964 was Chubby’s marriage to Catharina Lodders, Miss World 1962.

In 2000, Chubby branched out into the snack food business commemorating 40 years of “The Twist” with Chocolate Checker Bars, Beef Jerky, Hot Dogs, and Popcorn, all to be washed down with Girl of the World Water (dedicated to his wife).

Today, Chubby continues 40 years of live performances while releasing new studio music. His Maxi-Single “Limbo Rock Re-Mixes” and CD “The Original Master of the Dance Hall Beat” by Chubby C & OD, featuring Inner Circle, were both on the Billboard Charts attracting a new generation of Chubby Checker fans.

Chubby Checker – the only artist to have 5 albums in the Top 12 all at once.

Chubby Checker First Platinum – “Let’s Twist Again”.

Chubby Checker – the only artist to have a song to be #1 twice – “The Twist”.

Chubby Checker – the only artist to have 9 Double-Sided Hits.

Chubby Checker – changed the way we dance to the beat 24/7 since 1959.

Governor Rendell’s Pennsylvania State Budget for Fiscal Year 2010-2011 eliminated many arts and culture line items and drastically cut the few that remained. Funding for museums, public television, zoos, non-state universities, and arts professional development training are all greatly effected by the new budget.

In addition Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) Administrative Budget was cut 10.5%, Grants to the Arts were cut 23.4%, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) Operations Budget was cut 5.8% and Museum Assistance Grants were eliminated completely.

Reduced state funding during such financially stressed times could dramatically hurt non-profit organizations that make up such a large portion of the region’s economy. In the 2008 study, by The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance points it was noted that over 19,000 people are employed by arts and culture institutions in the Philadelphia region. These organizations offer free admission 43% of the time, or charge a median ticket price of less than $14. The ability to offer programs at this reduced rate was the direct result of state subsidy or funding.

It should be noted that organizational dependence on state funding has increased by 144% in recent years, but so has been the ability to serve a much broader and diverse population base as well as those of lower socio-economic status.

State funding also allowed nonprofits arts organizations to market themselves as destinations for tourists, which in turn created employment as well as an increase in the purchase of goods and services. All totaled, these organizations make up a $1.2 billion dollar boost for the local economy.

As Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery) put it best, “A community’s health is judged by the health of its arts”. Under the new budget for 2010-2011, many organizations will be faced not only with maintaining their level of current service but now with just keeping their doors open to the public.

Montgomery County Community College is accepting registration now for its new Associate in Arts degree program in Dance.

Beginning in the fall, this 63-credit program provides both a liberal arts background and dance courses comparable to classes offered during the first two years at a four-year institution. Classes include modern dance, ballet, jazz, hip hop, dance improvisation, dance composition, dance repertory and performance, dance wellness and fitness and dance history.

“The program is unique in that it offers courses for dancers of all levels, from beginners to experienced dancers,” said Dr. Melinda Copel, Coordinator of Dance, indicating that novices can take fundamentals-level dance courses while simultaneously taking degree courses. Dance classes are open to all students, regardless of their majors.

Small class size allows instructors—Dr. Copel, Antoinette Coward-Gilmore, Stephen Welsh, Heather Dougherty, William Thomas and Duane Holland—to give personalized attention.

The Associate in Arts degree program in Dance allows students to transfer into a baccalaureate program in dance at many colleges and universities.

“There are a number of career possibilities in dance including performer, choreographer, teacher, dance or movement therapist, dance historian and writer, dance critic, arts administrator, and dance notator,” Dr. Copel said. “There are performance opportunities in a variety of settings including dance concerts, opera, musical theater, musical productions, television, movies, music videos, cruise ships and theme parks, such as Disney World or Sesame Place.”

“Many dancers combine performance with careers in dance education or choreography,” she said. “Dance educators teach in higher education, K-12 schools, private dance studios and community centers. Some open their own studios. Students may wish to combine their studies in dance with a related field such as technical theater or physical therapy. The arts are a big industry in the Philadelphia area, and there are plenty of opportunities.”

The demand for dance classes is continually growing. Initially, dance classes were incorporated with the College’s Physical Education department. In 2008, under the direction of Dr. Copel and Dr. Stephen Grieco, Dean of Arts and Humanities, a Dance Department was created and four sections of dance were offered. The College increased this to 12 sections by the spring of 2010 and has now added the degree program for fall 2010.

Beyond courses, students have performance opportunities with the College’s Dance Performance Ensemble, which is open to all students. Both the Dance Ensemble and the Dance Repertory class perform at the end of each semester.

The Dance Program and Cultural Affairs collaborate to arrange performances and master classes with visiting dance artists. This year, AXIS Dance Company, a world-renowned company from Oakland, Calif., featuring physically integrated dance with dancers with disabilities, held several dance sessions during a week-long residency program. The community was invited to participate with students, faculty and staff. The residency concluded with a public performance involving the professionals and selected participants.

For more information on the College’s new Dance program, contact Dr. Melinda Copel at mcopel@mc3.edu or 215-641-6346.

This report describes the demographic characteristics of U.S. adults that participated in the arts (such as concerts, plays, and dance performances) via electronic media (e.g., TV, radio, computers and portable media devices) in 2008, based on the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). Separately, the report examines broad categories of arts participation via Internet. The report also investigates factors contributing to the likelihood of some Americans experiencing art through media. Finally, the report considers the relationship between media-based arts activities and other types of arts participation, such as live attendance and personal arts creation.

You can read the entire report online. Go to the multi-media version. [Click on upper left or right corner of page to scroll backward or forward through the pages]. Note that flash player is required to view this (download the latest version of Flash).

Some quick facts from the report:

1. Over half of all US Adults (53%) participate in arts related activities through electronic or digital media.
2.  7.9% of US Adult population participated in dance related arts events through electronic or digital media.
3. People who participate in the arts through electronic media are nearly three times more likely to attend live arts events as non media participants (59% vs. 21%). They also attend twice as many live arts events on average  – 6/year vs. 3/year.
4. Arts participation through digital media does not appear to replace live arts attendance, personal arts performance or arts creation.
5. Arts participation through media tends to encourage- rather than replace – live arts attendance.

by Brendon VotipkaMuhlenberg Weekly

The Department of Theatre and Dance presents its annual Master Choreographers dance concert in the Empire Theatre February 5 through February 7 at 8pm and an additional show on February 7 at 2pm. Tickets are 5 dollars for students and can be purchased in the Box Office.

This concert features dance pieces in range of styles, from classical ballet to modern dance and tap. Under Artistic Director Karen Dearborn, Muhlenberg College faculty and guest artists present original choreography showcasing the talents of student dancers in a professional caliber setting.

Concert highlights include choreography by internationally recognized guest artists Meredith Rainey and Charlotte Boye-Christensen.

Rainey, of Philadelphia’s Ballet X, premieres a contemporary ballet titled “Before They Fall.” Danish choreographer Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Associate Artistic Director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City, Utah, returns to Muhlenberg to set a modern dance on a cast of seven women.

Faculty choreographers include Karen Dearborn, Charles O. Anderson, Corrie Franz Cowart, and Kathleen Bibalo.

READ MORE…

On Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 7:30pm, Philadelphia Dance Projects (PDP) will kick off their 2009 season with an Informance by Jennifer Monson at the Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia. PDP Presents annual series strives to give fresh insight into adventurous dance trends by showcasing local artists alongside their national peers.

Jennifer Monson and her intrepid troupe of dancers have followed the migration routes of Gray Whales from Baja California, Mexico to Vancouver Island Canada; Ospreys from Maine down the Eastern Seaboard through Cuba and Venezuela and Ducks and Geese from Coastal Texas up the Mississippi Flyway to Northern Minnesota. Her daring BIRD BRAIN Projects links the natural world with her experimental dance practices. She has investigated migratory patterns and habits of birds and animals as well as their bio physical and metaphorical relationship to humans, contemplating the way we traverse the world together.

In this PDP Informance, Monson will talk about her migratory dance project BIRD BRAIN (2000- 2008) as well as its evolution into a series of urban migrations that radically impose dance into the urban environment. This presentation will include video excerpts from the international projects, as well as excerpts from Urban Migration including the 14th Street Migration and Flocking Dances in Times and Union Squares and Fulton Street Mall in Brooklyn.

She will generate an open a discussion about the metaphorical implications of bird migration and border crossings as they relate to the migrations of culture. Birds link global ecosystems in similar ways that human migrations link economic and cultural systems. How does dance in particular capture the fluid adaptive systems of culture? How does culture connect us across distances? What creates sustainable habitat for the rich biodiversity that allows systems to thrive? Dance, like migration patterns is imprinted through the body. What kind of physical intelligence transfers across cultures? What metaphorical links can we make that inform the delicate balance of healthy, adaptive cultural systems?

For Monson, her experience dancing is a rich connective language that translates across borders of language and cultural difference. With BIRD BRAIN she employs many of her long held strategies as an artist. Its fluid, traveling format aims to weave a web of connections between diverse communities of artists, scientists, environmentalists and students that will support and provoke a dialogue about the symbiotic, contradictory and confrontational relationships between art, technology, environment, power and place.

Monson’s dance work illuminates the issues of migration, navigation and conservation, artistic creativity and freedom. The audience is invited to engage in this dialogue through the lens of migration in culture.

If you go…

Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents ’09
Jennifer Monson
January 31, 2009
7:30PM
Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia
Tickets are $15 and available online on Dance Box Office. Seating is limited and advanced ticket purchase is recommended.

Lauded as “visually stunning and beautiful danced,” (Dance Magazine) Lar Lubovitch Dance Company premieres two works and its “American Masterpiece,” Concerto Six Twenty-Two, January 8-10 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA.

International Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award nominee, choreographer /artistic director Lar Lubovitch is known for his lush, lyrical, and musically-driven romantic style fusing classicism and modernism. Philly premieres include the playful Little Rhapsodies (2007), a trio to Robert Schumann’s “Symphonic Etudes” and the luscious Dvorak Serenade (2007), to Antonin Dvorak’s “Serenade in E Major.” Set to Mozart’s “Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra,” Concerto Six Twenty-Two is a powerful ensemble work. With a male duet as the centerpiece, it broke new ground in male partnering. This work has become a regular attraction at AIDS benefits after its 1987 Dancing for Life performance at Lincoln Center, NYC. Lubovitch notes, “it is a work that maintains its resonance.”

Performances will take place on Thursday, January 8 at 7:30 pm; Friday, January 9 at 8 pm; and Saturday, January 10 at 2 pm and 8 pm. Ticket prices are $48, $42 and $38 (evening) and $42, $36, $32 (matinee). Tickets may be purchased by calling the Annenberg Center Box Office at 215-898-3900 or by visiting www.pennpresents.org . Dance Celebration is presented by Dance Affiliates and Penn Presents. Its 27th season under the artistic direction of Randy Swartz salutes The Dancemaker.

Concerto Six Twenty-Two premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1986 at the height of the AIDS epidemic. It opens with twelve dancers dressed in white, swirling and swooping through space in circular formation. Jack Mehler’s lighting design enhances the playful and airy mood that soon turns somber by the male pas-de-deux. This “Adagio” section performed by Jay Franke and George Smallwood examines fidelity and friendship through a series of lifts, extensions and embraces. The closing section, “Rondo, is “a gleefiul, intoxicating finale.” (Daily Gazette) Little Rhapsodies features three men, Jay Franke, Attila Joey Csiki and Jonathan Alsberry, in a playful infectious romp to Schumann’s piano music. New York Times exclaims, Little Rhapsodies is “a companion piece to Lubovitch’s Men’s Stories – a fond affirmation of his male dancers’ distinctive gifts.” Dvorak Serenade, a suite of four dances, closes the program performed by six men and women in Wendy Winters sheer white tunics and pants. This work exemplifies Lubovitch’s masterly gift for sweeping patterns and whirling motions that ebb and flow through the space, marked by lyrical lifts and lunges. Dance Magazine notes, “I had a smile on my face the entire evening.”

Lar Lubovitch studied with Martha Graham, José Limón, Anna Sokolow and Anthony Tudor while at The Juilliard School. His New York City-based company has performed 100 of his dances worldwide. Lar Lubovitch’s dances have also been performed by many other major companies. His dances on film include Othello (broadcast throughout the U.S. on PBS’s “Great Performances” and nominated for an Emmy Award), Fandango (winner of an International Emmy Award) and My Funny Valentine for the Robert Altman film “The Company” (for which Lubovitch was nominated for an American Choreography Award). Mr. Lubovitch has made a notable contribution to choreography in the field of ice-dancing, having created dances for Olympic skaters John Curry, Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, Brian Orser, Jo-Jo Starbuck and Paul Wylie, as well as two one-hour ice-dances for television: The Sleeping Beauty (PBS) and The Planets (A&E) (nominated for an International Emmy Award, a Cable Ace Award and a Grammy Award). His work on Broadway includes Into the Woods (Tony Award nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award) and the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I. Founded in 1968, 2008 marks the company’s 40th Anniversary.

In addition to the performances, the company will conduct a free master class, Friday, January 9 at 1pm and Student Discovery Series Performance for Schools Friday, January 9 at 10:30 am. For Dance Celebration Outreach information, contact Dance Affiliates 215-636-9000 ext.110 or visit www.danceaffiliates.org

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company Concerto Six Twenty-Two was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Dance Initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Significant funding for the 2008-2009 Dance Celebration season is provided by the William Penn Foundation and also in part by Business Friends of Dance (Affiliates), The Connelly Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Friends of Dance (Affiliates), Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Presenters, The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Virginia C. Mulconroy Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation.