Saturday, September 23, 2017

STRONG GIRLS DO KARATE: IRELAND'S JESSE-JANE MCPARLAND

STRONG GIRLS DJ: LIVIA PAYS TRIBUTE TO RUN DMC



Check out:  DJ Livia on FB

STRONG GIRLS DANCE: TAYLOR HATALA AND KYNDALL HARRIS



P.S. - Taylor and Kyndall are backup dancers for Janet Jackson.

STRONG GIRLS SWING: LUCY ON THE TRAVELING RINGS AT SUNSET

SRONG GIRLS DO WOODWORK: LUCY MAKES A GIANT SPOON



Lucy's dad set up a hallway woodworking station where she could engage in her own projects. Currently, she is making a giant spoon.

STRONG GIRLS SWING: LUCY ON THE TRAVELING RINGS








STRONG GIRLS SWING: GWYNETH ON THE TRAVELING RINGS


I met Gwyneth while hanging out with friends at the Riverside Park Traveling Rings in NYC.  I helped Gwyn practice until she was able to go from the first to the second ring. Gwyneth, who will be 8 in a few weeks,  said "This is the first time I got to the second ring two times in a row!" Gwyneth, who takes videos of herself when she travels to different parts of the country, would like to create a blog for other young people which features these videos.  Go, Gwyn, go!

To learn more about the traveling rings, see this video.

MEET ELLIE CAREY, 6-YEAR-OLD BMX CHAMP



She learned to ride a bicycle without training wheels at the age of 3 and kept going from there. Her goal is to win a gold medal at the Olympics.



Saturday, September 09, 2017

I AM MY ANCESTORS' WILDEST DREAMS: Q AND A WITH TAP CHOREOGRAPHER AYODELE CASEL


Ayodele Solo and with Cast from Really Rosie

Close to two decades ago, I had the honor of seeing tap dancer and choreograhper Ayodele Casel perform in Savion Glover's dance troupe Not Your Ordinary Tappers (N.Y.O.T.).  I was so excited to see a female holding her own in the world of tap, and was elated to see a recent article about her in the New York Times.  There, I learned that she had performed her own one-woman show While I Have the Floor, and was in the midst of choreographing the musical Really Rosie for City Center.  In July, Ms.Casel won the prestigious Hoofer Award for her outstanding achievements in the world of tap.
After meeting Ayodele in person after a performance of Really Rosie, she was gracious enough to do a Q and A for Creative Times.  For more information about Ayodele, visit her website.

Q:  Really Rosie was a cast of young people.  What was your philosophy and/or approach to working with children and teens when it came to choreographing for them?

A:  I work with young people quite often throughout the year and am constantly amazed by their level of maturity and ability to process material that is complex and that even adults have a hard time grasping. The biggest consideration for this process was time. I knew they were capable of a high level of work. The challenge was giving them the right combination of complexity but easily digestible material so as not to overwhelm or overly complicate the City Center Encores! process.


Q:   What did you appreciate, respect, or admire about the young folks you worked with?

A:   I was inspired and floored by their professionalism, their enthusiasm, their talent, and the openness to try anything we threw at them. They had about 6 days to learn an entire production! That's incredible. They learned music, choreography, script, staging, made acting choices, everything in such a condensed amount of time and they brought their joy and work ethic to each and every rehearsal. We were all so impressed with every single one of them for bringing it the way they did. Our show was the only one of the New York City Center Encores-Off Center season to be off book by our designer run. I was and remain so proud of them and we all became very close in the process. I'm still so thrilled when I see their Instagram feeds filled with photos of their recent gatherings. I think it's a testament to Leigh Silverman's superpower ability to gather great souls and energy in a room. The cast and creative team all bonded very quickly!

I'm grateful to Michael Friedman for selecting Really Rosie to be a part of this season's Encores and to Leigh for including me. It was one of my greatest professional experiences to date.


Q:  Can you say a bit about your mantra "I am my ancestors' wildest dreams"?

A:  I love that mantra. It spoke to me immediately when I first read it.  I just try to live my life with the awareness that I am able to do my work as freely (literally and figuratively) as I can and with such vigor because of the work and sacrifice of those who came before me. It is a humbling way of moving through the world for me. I am deeply grateful for the path my ancestors have paved and my successes as an artist, as a human, are their victories as well. 

Q:   What are your thoughts about what it would take to get the respect and recognition due to women tap dancers and choreographers?

A:  I am so inspired by women. I have the greatest respect for how we work, think, nurture, motivate, create, and kick ass in so many arenas on a daily basis. I  saw Wonder Woman recently and so "warrior" also comes to mind. I think we need to keep creating work and taking up space everywhere. Demanding that we be seen and heard.

Q:  You've been tapping for a long time.  What has kept you staying with this art form?

A:  My love and deep respect for tap dancing. My search for understanding on how to dance with it gracefully and accept the challenges head on. I dance to voice the names of the women tap dancers who came before me.  Jeni LeGon, Lois Bright, Juanita Pitts, Louise Madison, Cora LaRedd, to name a few. I dance to expose audiences to the genius of the art form and it is my mission to always do so with the utmost integrity. And I dance because I love it, it's fun and it provides me with an incredible outlet for self expression.

Q:  What advice do you have for young or aspiring female tap dancers and choreographers?

A:  Do YOUR thing. Don't sell yourself short. Have integrity. Study. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Be a warrior. A champion in the ring. All of that. AND be authentic. Authenticity rocks.

Q:  What would you like for yourself both personally and professionally in the next year?

A:  I would love to continue to collaborate with artists and art venues that I respect and admire. It was a dream to work with Leigh Silverman, Michael Mayer, Jeanine Tesori in the past year. I look forward to sharing my one-woman show While I Have The Floor in NYC in the next coming year. I am looking forward to touring with my incredibly talented friends in a different show, teaching young people, vacationing and also, I'd really love a Tesla Model X! Ha ha!

Sunday, September 03, 2017

QUESTLOVE VS. PRINCE


One of my favorite animated videos of all time!  For more Questlove stories about Prince, read Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove.

STEVIE WONDER ON KEYS OF LIFE: AN ANIMATED INTERVIEW



For more interviews with amazing artists, please check out Blank on Blank Animated Interviews.

KING, SENDAK, CASEL: SEEING REALLY ROSIE AT CITY CENTER



I was excited to see Really Rosie at City Center for multiple reasons:  First, I was familiar in a general way with the musical because a group of my friends had been in a production of Really Rosie when I was in middle school.  Second, it was based on a book by the late, great author and illustrator Maurice Sendak (of "Where the Wild Things Are" fame) and lyrics by the famed singer/songwriter Carol King. Third, the show was choreographed by Ayodele Casele,  a tap dancer who I had seen perform on several occasions with Savion Glover 20 years ago.  Fourth, the show was comprised of a cast of young people, except for Ayodele, who made a brief appearance, and also for the adults who made up the live orchestral accompaniment and background adult voices of the children's parents.

Typical of Sendak's works in general, the themes in the songs and dialogue were often macabre in nature, focusing on death, bodily harm, or the threat of these things.  While the production was clearly aimed at a young audience, the subject matter seemed more appropriate for adults.

There was a touching post-finale piece where the cast came out holding a banner with Sendak's name and dates of of birth and death on it.  They played an excerpt of a recorded interview with Sendak, where he shared his thoughts, including this one, about children and childhood:

I've always been interested in how children maneuver and decide how to live. It’s hard. I’ve always had a deep respect for children and how they solve complex problems by themselves. I think [they do this] through shrewdness, fantasy and just plain strength; they want to survive. They want to survive. 

Friday, September 01, 2017

MY RAD LIFE: A JOURNAL





I swung by the store Books are Magic tonight and found this gem called My Rad Life: A Journal.
Created by Kate Schwartz and Miriam Klein Stahl, the same two women who created Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide, this journal contains inspiring black and white sketches of famous women coupled with quotations.  There are also prompts with lined and blank pages for readers to write their responses.

A sketch of writer, feminist and civil rights activist  Audre Lorde is  accompanied by her quotation "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important wthether I am afraid."

A page about J.K. Rowling shares this message and prompt: " J.K. Rowling was rejected by more than 10 publishers before she found someone to publish her first book, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.  Imagine if she'd given up? Write about a time when you wanted to give up on something, and kept trying."

STRONG GIRLS, GREAT DADS

Dads play an important role in helping their daughters build confidence in their own physical strength. Here, in Carroll Park, in Brooklyn, New York, Ian helps his 4-year-old daughter Orli learn to skate on the playground.


* This photo is one of a series of posts that I am dedicating to strong girls and women