Road Trip: Chautaqua: A Thinking Person's Vacation

So where exactly do ex-philosophy majors vacation? May I suggest The Chautauqua Institute, where there is actually a Greek temple called “The Hall of Philosophy.” Some of the world's most prominent intellectuals graced the temple during their daytime lectures. Just this summer alone such big thinkers such as Karen Armstrong, E. J. Dionne, Frank Deford, Joyce Carol Oates, E. L. Doctorow, Carl Zimmer, and Gary Trudeau have held council in the temple. While I was there Jane Pauley enlightened the crowd with “Talking about Mental Illness.” Ms. Pauley engaged the overflowing crowd with her humble and honest story.

And if you like a little art with your deep thoughts, you will find the performing and visual arts here in abundance as well. Just footsteps from my hotel room in the historic Athenaeum Hotel, the familiar tunes of Bizet's Carmen, came wafting through my window ,performed by the future opera stars of the voice program,. (Technically, my room was located in what might have constituted the balcony.)

So what's up with this place? For that answer one needs to delve into Chautauqua's rich and unusual history. Started in 1874 by Methodists Lewis Miller and John Heyl Vincent as an experiment in vacation learning, the idea is that education is a life-long pursuit. I am happy to report that experiment is ongoing. Amazing things have happened there: FDR gave his famous “I Hate War” speech there on August 14th, 1936, Bill Clinton practiced for the 1996 debates there; nine presidents in total have made through way through the Chautauqua grounds. You could spend hours holed up in the archives reading about all the famous people and events that took place there, or just walk around and see what's unfolding that moment, like a ballet rehearsal where students are practicing Balanchine's masterpiece, Stars and Stripes, for the first time, or take a tour of the inside the organ, or a walking tour of the scale model of Biblical Palestine on the lake shore.

Heavy thinkers like to combine relaxation with learning, and Chautauqua is just the place to do it. With a nine-week summer season organized by such timely themes as “The Ethical Frontiers of Science,” “Healing the Globe,” or “Restoring Legitimacy to our Election System,” there is much to keep the gray matter engaged. Day time lectures and night time performances are a daily adventure.

Under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, ballet flourishes at Chautauqua. With one of the most competitive programs in the country, you can expect frequent performances throughout the summer. Resident professional companies, The Chautauqua Dance Company and North Carolina Dance Theatre, perform throughout the season.

As to where to stay and how best to visit, that's entirely up to you. Come for a day, pick a week that matches your passions, or heck, stay the whole summer. As to where, your choices are boundless, from a modest B & B to the the elegant Athenaeum, the first hotel to have electricity. Apparently Edison delivered his invention himself.

So suppose you are a serious thinker traveling to a more traditional (read: loafer) vacationer. Not a problem; there's golf, boating, sunbathing, shopping, a spa, and plenty of places to just park your body, stare into the sparkling lake waters, and let others contemplate the big questions of our time.

Reprinted from Culturevulture.net.

Friendhunting on Facebook

Karen Stokes, Susan Schmaeling, Leslie Scates, Becky Valls
at DSH's Clear Skies Party
Photo by Catalina Molnari

It must have been national get on Facebook week for dancers. Check out these handsome babes at the DSH Clear Skies bash hosted by Christina Giannelli. DSH joined, along with yours truly, hence my journey from dancehunter to friendhunter.

The conversation went something like this. "I'm thinking of joining spacebook," I told my son. "That's a bad idea," he responded. "It's Facebook mom, not spacebook. Also, it's a huge time suck. You start out waisting time and then it just gets worse."

Being of the suspicious school of momhood, I wondered how much his reluctance had to do with ol' mom checkin in on his Facebook. "Not at all," said the little chap. Right. Apparently it's the social kiss of death to have your mom on Facebook. Too bad, kiddo. I'm on.

All's well with the little fella, we decided to remain mother and son as opposed to friends. Getting friends was a big worry. After all, as a critic my lifelong goal is to be popular. Lucky for me, I pressed the button that invited the entire universe to be my friend. All in all, not a bad way to go.

It's been a good week for Houston dance on the web. In addition to DSH getting facebooked, dance fan Toby Atkinson started a smart new blog, Out in the World.

Do check it out.

RENGEN DEN

This is Patricia Martin, founder and author of RENGEN, Renaissance Generation.

A bunch of eager arts enthusiasts gathered on a stormy day inside HAA's cozy conference room to discuss how to snag the RenGen consumer. You know the person that likes indie movies, drinks cool Vodka, twitters, facebooks, buys organic loafers, cares about the earth, cleans with vinegar, and so on.

Martin came to Houston last spring and apparently made a huge splash. I missed it. Others that did think she's the OBAMA of arts marketing. So yesterday I became a hooplahunter for three hours. I left thinking I had better read the book. Went to an indie movie myself today in the burbs, 4 people, low RENGEN count.

You too can get up to RENGEN speed at Martin's website and her blog, Culture Scout.

Dance Houston offers a sneak peek of what's to come for the Fall Dance Season

This is Ghost Crew from Dance Houston's Winter Formal. Pat Garrett of Ghost Crew crafts his hip-hop dances like stories and it works. Garrett spoke passionately at the post show Q & A about making Houston a destination dance city. Imagine people coming here instead of leaving. Amen Pat. Let's do it.

While the rest of you were watching Michael Phelps earn Gold Medal number #7 I was glued to another seat, at Dance Houston's City Wide Festival at Wortham Center. There was a good deal of dance to get excited about, and here's the good news, the show was like a teaser for events to come.

Revolve, the dance company that just keeps getting better, showed another Wes Veldink piece called Consequence. Veldink has this way of infusing his dances with movements that we have seen and done in our everyday life. It's a new, fresh jazz language, and aren't we ready for that? Read my Houston Chronicle preview on Veldink's collaboration with Revolve here.

Here's Revolve in Consequence of Sound, another Veldink piece.

Urban Souls, possibly Houston's newest dance company, made yet another impressive showing with Across the Waters, which dealt with the Darfur conflict. You can read my Houston Chronicle preview of this fine young company here. Be on the lookout for future performances.

In a stoke of programing genius Urban Souls' heart-wrenching piece was followed by the healing moves of Ad Deum in Libera, choreographed by Randall Flinn, which will be performed again at "A Weekend of Contemporary Dance" at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Get the whole scoop here.

Fly Crew performed Full Circle. My, they have grown in a year. Slick as ever, this group of now- teens, rocked the house with that shiny polish bestowed on them by Rhonda Valencia and former director Kathy Wood.

Dance of Asian America showed two sparkling pieces, Ladies of Dai and Penelope's Song. You can catch more on DAA in their upcoming show, "Splendid China III -Discovering China" on Oct 10 & 11 at Miller Outdoor Theatre.

Also on the festival program were Houston Dance Theatre, Irsan And Cami, Exhilaration EnCompassed Dance Company, Wyld Styl, Second Generation Dance Company and Sabor Mexico Theatrical Company. All in all, a big fun festival.

Liu Yan's Tragic Fall

This is supposedly (you never really know with YouTube) the lovely Lui Yan, the famous Chinese dancer who fell during rehearsals for the opening ceremonies for the Bejiing Olympics. She may be paralyzed. News of the accident was, as expected, repressed until after the opening. Read the story in The New York Times here.

Will dance on TV keep Fans home?

Ok, so TV dance is hot. Here's an interesting piece from AP about just exactly how hot. Some of the concerns, and major ones at that, is that will all the dance happening on TV who's going to leave the comfort of the couch and actually go see live dance. With the price of gas people even have a viable excuse to stay home. Go ahead, read the piece dance people, but let's prove otherwise. If you really love dance you can't be fed by dance on TV alone. Heck, it's in a box!

Why not turn this thing around. If dance is hot, why limit its hotness to just one medium?

Another Big Dance Feast from Dance Houston: Andrea Cody on this summer's festival

Houston's own dance maverick Andrea Cody has been thinking big since starting Dance Houston in 2003. Cody fills DSH in on this summer's line-up for her upcoming city-wide dance festival.

Dance Source Houston: I have always thought of you as a gutsy person. You blew into town one day and started a festival the next. That's one strategy for getting acquainted with a city and its artists. How did it work for you?

Andrea Cody: I'd been working as a dancer and choreographer for years, but it was hard for dancers or choreographers to get noticed in this big city. For that very reason, I decided to put my own work aside to organize an event that could provide dance companies a sizeable audience. As a descendant of Buffalo Bill Cody, putting on a show with hundreds of performers seemed to me something I could do. Returning home from competing at a national level in lindy hop, sure, I was nervous stepping out of the swing dance community and into the big, wide world of dance. Thankfully, people have been very supportive of me and my work.

DSH: If you can think for a moment like a presidential candidate and proudly taut your accomplishments, what would you say?

AC: Dance Houston played an important part in developing Urban Souls Dance Company. I noticed their Founding Director Harrison Guy when he danced in our first shows. He'd be on his headphones, listening intently to his music, running through his piece while warming up. Aside from having total dedication to his own work, he was also fully supportive of everyone else. On stage, he was athletic, versatile, bold, and creative. We gave him a chance to debut his company at Dance Houston, and followed up by helping him administratively to get his company off the ground. After contributing for four years to our festival and the Black Dance Festival, Urban Souls recently debuted its first full-length concert at Houston Baptist University.

DSH: Any other developments that have been a result of the front or backstage synergy between groups?

AC: There seem to be offshoots of Planet Funk springing up left, right, and center. Shawn Welling's studio is a bright shining beacon to aspiring hip hop dancers from across Houston. He gives so many dancers their start on stage, and his program builds their skills and confidence to the point that they strike out on their own. Four of the most accomplished hip- hop dance companies in Houston can all trace their roots to Planet Funk. This year's Dance Houston presents two of them, Ghost Crew and Wyld Styl.

DSH: Let's talk about the line up in Dance Houston's City Wide festival for 2008. It's a leave no genre out approach wouldn't you say?

AC: Yes, you can always count on us to offer a vast array of dance styles, yet this year expect to see a lot more contemporary dance than ever before. Even some of our seemingly cultural dance companies are presenting contemporary or fusion work. Sabor Mexico's ballet folklorico is taking on a modern feel through Jeremy Choate's lighting design, and Dance of Asian America is showing off their versatility in both a contemporary and Chinese folk dance.

DSH: Do you curate or can anyone apply?

AC: Through an online application process, we keep our door open to all Houston-based companies who wish to work in our environment. Most companies enter the festival through that channel, and we often have never even heard of a company before we get their application. What fun it is to review their videos and learn about their histories and visions.

DSH: I know you are a biz wiz. Got any sneaky ways of getting the word out and packing the house?

AC: Dance Houston is always on tour in Cyberspace. Our youtube site is a big hit, with just over 200,000 views, which is icing on the cake for dance pieces that have already been seen by thousands of locals and tourists. Our website currently averages 6,200 hits per day (up from 2,000 one year ago). Through a generous grant from Google, we've been spending thousands of dollars a month on online pay-per-click advertising. The big shocker? Even with all those advertisements, more than half of our clicks come from Myspace--absolutely free.

DSH: Let's talk audiences. I imagine your hope is that these groups are increasing their visibility. Is there any way of tracking audience growth?

AC: Sure, we sell our own tickets and keep close tabs on our numbers. Over the years, the audience for our summer festival alone has grown from 600 to 1600. We're also raising awareness for other dance events through our monthly e-newsletter with readership approaching 3,000.

DSH: What else does Dance Houston do besides the twice a year festivals?

AC: We've done two biennial Flamenco concerts in collaboration with the Spanish Institute of Dance, recently renamed Alegria Dance and Performing Arts Company. This year, we're blowing this one up into a Latin Dance Festival on Cinco de Mayo. We're excited about the expansion and plan on continuing this project on an annual basis from here on out.

We also run a popular dance camp for teens. Ten stars of Dance Houston give the kids intense dance training in diverse style from hip hop, Chinese, ballet folklorico, flamenco and 5 kinds of jazz (count them: traditional, modern, Latin, street, and contemporary!) This year, special Guests Kathy Wood of FlyWorks and Susie Boudwin of Houston Rockets Power Dancers gave the kids professional development seminars. The camp ended with two packed performances at Barnevelder that showcased the promising potential of tomorrow's dancers.

Dance Houston also works with individual dance companies in facilitating their own presentations.

DSH: Big dream?

AC: We want to help instill cultural pride and promote inter-cultural exchange in and amongst children of all backgrounds. Seeing one's own heritage displayed in a respectable environment is an empowering and inspiring experience. A model of this kind of presentation is the way Dance Houston presents diverse styles of dance in state-of-the-art theaters with top-notch artists. We not only want to inspire kids to participate in and appreciate the arts, we want them to see that their unique backgrounds make a significant contribution to the today's culture. We envision working with the school systems to facilitate field trips, school tours, and teacher workshops.

DSH: I am sure you would have made Buffalo Bill proud.

Dance Houston presents its city-wide festival �Celebrating Diversity in Motion� on August 15 & 16, 2008 - 7:30pm at The Wortham Center, Cullen Theater.713/526-1049 or www.dancehouston.org

Reprinted from DSH.