tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43373379993860176552024-03-13T09:38:54.979-07:00Urban Acrobatics: A Circus and Graffiti SpectacularAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-46319708856607888452014-04-21T10:41:00.000-07:002014-04-21T10:42:47.297-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics Chicago: Day 4, Performing Evolution, and Risk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday marked the culminating performance for our week of Urban Acrobatics Chicago. Held at Alternatives, Inc., the show combined live graffiti, acrobatics, painting, clowning, and rapping, offering the audience a snapshot of what it would mean to inflect circus with a graffiti aesthetic, and put graffiti surfaces into <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100405714566830&set=o.752561184777235&type=2&theater">spectacular motion</a></b>.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young audience member experiments with the hula hoops. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The show was planned under compressed conditions. We had one day to run workshops to introduce youth to the fundamentals of graffiti and circus, a second day to discuss how to put these two art forms in conversation, and a third day to perform tentative relationships between the art genres.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natalie Zombie applies a worm image to Werm's face. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce<br />
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<span style="font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The resident face painting expert, Natalie Zombie, did some pre show face paintings to show the youth the possible images they could select. Our graffiti writer, Werm, chose to represent a worm on his face. Natalie's deep knowledge of color composition and graffiti style is evident in her rendering which is almost identical to Werm's throwup on the Alternatives lockers.</span></div>
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A worm on Werm. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</div>
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Importantly, one of the largest challenges was communication. Writers and circus performers use and possess distinct idioms, frameworks for what collaboration, improvisation, and stylistic emphasis mean. Writers often divide the labor of a masterpiece spatially, giving one person a character to do, another the text, another the background. For circus artists, each body comprises an integral part of the landscape and such a division may be spatial, but it is also temporal. When a pyramid is formed creates an image that may enable other bodily movements or shapes to be layered onto it. Although illegal writing require speed the when of collaboration becomes less urgent in a legal context.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The birthday girl practicing the "human canvas" portion of the show. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Opening with sound clips from the panel discussion, the room was filled with the voices of circus artists, scholars, and graffiti artists and historians discussing the demonization of the above genres, as well as the potential inspirational power of these public art forms for the masses.<br />
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After hearing speech about graffiti and circus the audience was presented with another kind of visual noise: the persistent hiss of paint cans as Werm, Melon, Jae, and Kard began working on their walls. The word "evolve" took shape in turqouise against the black background of the temporary wall, evoking decades of conversations among graffiti communities about the inevitability, but also positive need for evolution. Evolution from, and towards what?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evolve outline. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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In a sense, evolution to maintain its relationship to the present. Graffiti is threatened on the one side with negative stereotypes and a punitive legal environment, and on the other with commercialization and commodification that disarticulates it from its roots in urban youth protest, progressive hip hop based politics, and relationships to marginalized communities. To evolve then is to develop stylistically, implying increasing nuance and growth, but also to evolve to maintain relevance in changing times.<br />
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The show performed the various paths that evolution may take. First, the audience was presented with the development of a burner (an elaborate piece that involves characters in addition to complex enlarged lettering). Then, the burner became the background to moving bodies. Then, one of the six youth from Circ Esteem involved in the show took the stage, juggling three paint cans. I knew from rehearsal and planning that this youth was anxious about being alone on the stage, and about the scrutiny of the audience. Such anxieties echoed Roy Gomez-Cruz's earlier explanation that circus involves putting the body on the line, making it visible and thus susceptible to the scrutiny of one's peers for successful (or unsucessful) deployment of visual and physical syntaxes of circus art. The juggler, who I knew was one of the more advanced students, and had boasted of juggling knives, occasionally dropped one of the cans, but kept on going. They were a new medium to him, heavier and less aerodynamic than the balls, scarves, knives, or beanbags he was a accustomed to. His performance, which was not a virtuoso display of mastery, offered something different but equally important: an exhibition of the discomfort and hiccups involved in engaging with a new medium, and also, a different mode of physical comportment and relationship to his environment. Juggling the cans made the act of juggling, his particular niche in the circus world, strange.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben juggling paint cans. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The young juggler was joined by his five other peers, who proceeded to make four different pyramid structures, and different formations of surfaces for Werm and Melon to paint on. Sometimes with their backs to the audience, sometimes facing forward, the writers tagged the circus artists with simple strokes: a star on the chest of the boy, and hearts across the torsos of the girls. They too where learning a new medium, that of interacting with moving, circus bodies.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pyramid, two high. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit, Caitlin Bruce.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pyramid, three high. Werm painting suits. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce.</td></tr>
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Writers like Werm and Melon who learned to write in an illegal context possess amazing speed. They can write their names in a but a few seconds. However, adding in moving, wriggling, balancing bodies demands yet <i>more</i> dexterity and swiftness. The wall is no longer a given.<br />
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This experimentation with surface and implement continued further with Polly and Melon's duet where, while she was suspended off the ground by her fabric, he pushed her around as a make shift ink can, painting where he moved her body.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly as extension of paint can with Melon. Alternatives, Inc. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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"I realized as he was moving my body what he was trying [to get me] to write," Polly noted, but also acknowledged that it was "difficult to use the can...to have a steady flow of ink." Can control emerged as a difficult terrain for the young circus artists, with cans misfiring or getting on hair, but then, becoming an exhilarating tool for marking up the space. Bodies were also placed in poses in front of the walls to provide surfaces that could "walk away," playing with the ephemerality of graffiti and the risk it always can leave (and reappear, ad infinitum).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Walking," walls. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">"Walking," walls. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The risk of failure (work being destroyed or gone over or dissed, or stumbling, falling, or otherwise not completing a combination) was performed and then made comedic in a balloon sequence. Each of the Circ Esteem youth had a white baloon, which they drew on with fabric markers. Polly made and ecstatic face at her simple drawing, and then Antoinette walked over, popped the balloon, and laughed (silently) riotously at Polly's distress. But the show must (and did) go on. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Balloon sequence. Alternatives, Inc. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Werm One then took the stage, doing four songs: Paint the Pain Away, 10 Graff Commandments, Wrong Side of the Tracks (Remix), and a new song. Urging the crowd to "Put your paint cans up!" he rapped about the pain and struggle he has faced, his search for redemption, and some of the stereotypes he is subjected to as an artist. "I'm not a vandal, I'm an artist!" he exclaimed at one point, eliciting cheers from the crowd. It was powerful to see the way that Werm uses two elements of hip hop: rapping and graffiti, together, as materials for both. Evolution, in his work, figures as a personal journey but also a complementary relationship between the spoken and the written (painted) word. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm One rapping. Alternatives, Inc. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm One. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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While Werm rapped, Melon continued to paint, and the young circus artists formed a line behind him, mimicking his movements. When he moved to a different section of the wall, they moved, when he raised his right arm and drew a curved line, they did as well. This infinity mirror of bodies helped throw into relief the centrality of movement in the making of graffiti as well as its resulting aesthetic.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Infinity mirror of performers following Melon's gestures. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Infinity mirror. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The young circus artists then introduced movement into their painting, one hula hooping and painting, while the other held the canvas out for them. The resulting images were spectacular, astronomical arrays of paint splatters and partially completed names. It was difficult for the young circus artists to use the cans, since they were novices (toys), and so the images were choppy and incomplete, but nevertheless held traces of their movements.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elizabeth and Vanessa working together. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The kids experienced (and performed) the joy of writing with aerosol paint for the first time, first cautiously writing their names of each others' paint suits, and then more ecstatically tagging the drop cloth, canvases, and each other.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Signatures. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Youth working on the drop cloth. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly and Melon preparing for their next duet. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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During the next sequence, Polly, Melon, and Werm, performed a group piece where Polly, on the silk fabric, assumed a series of poses that manipulated the fabric in different directions, creating an ever-changing canvass for Melon and Werm to paint on, the textural equivalent of an etch-a-sketch board. Painting with a new kind of paint (sugar paint, versus the Montana, Bubble, or Ironlak cans to which graffiti writers are more accustomed) on an uncertain and transforming surface, was difficult. Melon noted afterwards: "It was kind of frustrating, because I would write something, and then it would disappear." At the same time, he described the experience as "amazing, beautiful to watch [Polly] perform on the silks, and to try to be part of it." As the sequence progressed it became more collaborative, Melon passed paint cans up and down to Polly as she painted the fabric above her, also a difficult process for someone who has little experience with regulating pressure of the can to create a steady line of color. Natalie painted the youth's faces, and Polly's body in preparation for the sequence.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly having her body painted before the fabric manipulation sequence. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly, Werm, and Melon collaborating for the fabric manipulation sequence. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A busy, but beautiful scene of circus/graffiti collaboration. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly and Melon. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly and Melon. Passing paint cans. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm, Kard, and Jae hard at work. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Intense focus. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The show concluded with the youth performing a movement sequence that they had developed in workshop on Thursday. Starting with an airplane pose, followed by a squat, then a calm standing pose, then a kneeling pose, and then a lunge, followed by yet more sequences, their faces and costumes were covered in paint, making them moving, living graffiti pieces. The show, which began with blank surfaces and quiet painting, concluded with the accumulation of color, movement, and a shared vocabulary for creation between circus and graffiti artists. It was, and is, an evolution that we hope to continue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">A profound thanks to Polly Solomon, my collaborator and childhood friend for her vision, hard work, talent, and the love she brought to this project. Thank you Carmen Curet, Andy Bellomo, Valerie, Steven, Tim, Israel and the rest of theAlternatives staff for trusting us with your space and your students, and your support, space, and positive energy. Thank you W. Keith Brown and Evanston Art Center for hosting us on Tuesday. Thank you Flash and Roy Gomez-Cruz for your brilliant insights. Thank you Werm One, Kard, and Jae (and Tommy) for your talented performances, and your logistical help throughout the week. Thank you Melon for your insights, energy, beautiful painting, and moral support. Thanks Natalie for your beautiful face painting and playful approach to the project. Thanks to Ben, Chantal, Elizabeth, Antoinette, Vanessa, and our new participant, whose name I didn't get, for your spirited performances and help throughout the week. Thanks to our audience members for coming through and showing us so much love. Finally, a thanks to Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts for the funding that made this project possible.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Face painting by Natalie Zombie on our young performer. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natalie and Eden, post show. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly and Eden become one with the art. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly's uniform. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melon James, Polly Solomon, Caitlin Bruce, Werm One. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Uncle Hek</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Evolve" by Wermelon. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-80654607754266359472014-04-18T20:37:00.000-07:002014-04-18T20:37:14.266-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics Chicago Day 3 Performance Planning: Bodies that Can MoveToday was a day for idea development, discussion, and imagination. I spent most of the afternoon prepping the new wall for live painting, while Polly, Natalie Zombie, Werm, and youth from Alternatives worked together to brainstorm what tomorrow's performance will bring.<br />
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Crowding in together at one of the cafeteria-style tables in the main area, we discussed the goals of the project, to create interaction and collaboration between circus and graffiti styles, and solicited ideas from our participants.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Planning session, serious business. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The main conceit of the show is that everything starts out blank, either white or black, and gradually accumulates color and movement. Natalie does elaborate face-painting, and will painting performers' faces in an array of images including monster bunnies, monster chicks, and possibly a worm, among other animals and colors.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young performers spellbound as Natalie describes potential face painting options. Alternatives, Inc. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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She suggested that as an extra challenge, she could do live face and body painting that will involve developing layers of spheres, splatters, and auras, color patterns that are evocative of 1980s old-school graffiti. She also offered to clown about, a comically obsessive graffiti clown, perhaps. Yesterday, Polly had led the youth in different human pyramid building exercises. I suggested that, similar to the formations used in Sao Paolo to make Pixaçoa style graffiti, performers could make a human ladder in order to life the top person to a higher plane of the temporary wall. Werm, who is also a rapper, will do live painting, rapping <i>about</i> graffiti<i>, </i>and also will collaborate with performers to create walls that run away, by painting on the costume of a performer as part of the canvas who will leave when done, leaving the wall partially exposed. Additionally, performers can play with the movement of graffiti writers to emphasize how graffiti is, in fact, a balletic composition between wall, writer body, and the paint.<br />
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Werm experimented a bit with circus equipment, helping us rig the fabric to the ceiling and climbing to the top, putting to use his writer skills of fearlessness in the face of great heights. He demonstrated some of the costume painting techniques on one of our young performer's plain black t-shirt.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm demonstrating his t-shirt painting skills. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Werm." Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Kard and Jae helped me to put together one of our cellophane surfaces, a concept that we got from French writers Astro and Kanos, <b><a href="http://www.cellograff.com/blog/">cellograff</a></b>. Cellograff enables writers to paint in places where they wouldn't otherwise be invited, it is low impact, and ephemeral.<br />
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While I finished priming the wooden wall, Polly led our young circus performers as well as the intrepid Natalie in a series of movement exercises. She challenged them to come up with four pyramid formations that involved all six participants. The resulting formations were dazzling:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traditional pyramid, hands and knees. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standing pyramid. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modified pyramic with hand stands. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interlocking limbs formation. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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With a traditional pyramid on hands and knees; a standing pyramid; a pyramid with enframing handstands; and a complex snowflake shaped formation of interlocking arms and legs our performers illuminated all the different ways in which bodies can move together to create images, team work and collaboration create shapes that are more than the sum of their parts.<br />
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You can see live painting, acrobatics, juggling, and rapping tomorrow at 4:00pm at Alternatives Inc. Come one, come all!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-78425170632363521792014-04-18T08:24:00.003-07:002014-04-18T19:52:12.055-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics Chicago Day 2: The Workshops<br />
Yesterday we held back to back workshops at Alternatives, Inc. The first, a tagging workshop, was led by Werm. After a run to home depot with some of his family to pick up materials for the temporary wall for the show, which involved a discussion of what CAB stands for "Chrome and Black," among many other titles, and putting up a Werm on the already heavily tagged lockers in Alternatives, he wrote out an alphabet in his hand written style with upper-case and lower-case letters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wall-to-be. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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With waves of five to six youth arriving every twenty minutes, he broke down tagging into six steps. "First, you have to write your name in legible letters, spaced apart." He walked around checking on youth's work, helping them space and increase the size of their letters. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Attentive students. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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"Next, you need to put an outline around them." "Like bubble letters?" a student asked. "It can be." He wrote WERM on the whiteboard in black marker. Some of the students picked up the form easily, writing large proud letters on their sheets of paper. Others had to go through several versions, first finding that when the letters are too small, they crowd together and an outline is not possible. After the outline stage Werm signaled the next step. "Now we make a three-d. You have to have short lines extend from the edges of the letters all in the same direction." </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm demonstrating making three dimensional letters. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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This step was harder to follow, some students with colliding lines creating multiple planes of movement. He walked around explaining how the shadow must fall, and pointing to the board. The final step was to connect the edges of the three-d shadow. Finally, students were directed to choose a lighter color for the inside, and a darker outline for the outside. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tagged by one of the more advanced students. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Wrapping up, Werm demonstrated how one could draw an aura around the letter in the form of a cloud, shapes, shine, and so on. We concluded by describing the project to the students, and suggesting that in the circus exercises they should think about how they could integrate graffiti styles, or even the practice of painting. One of the more eager Circus students tried juggling paint cans, an object he had not juggled before.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Juggling paint cans. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The tagging workshop was followed by some circus exercises, led by Polly. The first was a movement exercise where students were put in a circle and each had to imagine a movement that either positioned the body up in the air, a standing level, or low down. A movement level could not be repeated twice, so, for instance, if someone did a pose on the ground, the next pose had to be standing or up high. With eleven participants, the movements were repeated over and over to make, what one student described as a "weird dance," but a dance that was collectively written by the participants. Following the dance, the smaller group began working on making pyramids, and team-work exercise that requires clear communication and collective effort. "You can't just climb up on someone," Polly cautioned one of the smaller students who would be on the top of the pyramid, "You have to tell them, and make sure it's ok." </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Human Pyramid. Alternatives, Inc. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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After directing the students into making a vase-like shape with one level of the human statue facing in one direction, and upper level facing the opposite way, Polly suggested that the students find their own shape that includes every participant. What resulted was an elevated bridge-like structure that visually mimicked the shape of Chicago's bridges and overpasses connecting both sides of the river, surfaces that are important targets for tagging.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teamwork, to make two bridges. Alternatives, Inc. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Today will begin the planning for Saturday's performance. We hope to see you soon!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm making his presence known at Alternatives. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-24428669576955296242014-04-16T22:56:00.000-07:002014-04-16T22:56:55.228-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics Chicago: Day One, Panel DiscussionOur <a href="http://dailynorthwestern.com/2014/04/15/city/local-artists-students-discuss-lesser-known-art-forms/">panel discussion session</a> took place at the Evanston Art Center, and was chaired by the EAC Director of Education W. Keith Brown. Keith opened the session by discussing the a hip hop and street art as pedagogy series of programming that he developed in the spring of 2013, which investigated how subcultural practices like breaking, dj-ing, rapping, and graffiti, the four elements of hip hop, are subcultural practices that also deserve to be recognized as legitimate art forms. Crucially, the weekend explored what it was for a subcultural form to move from margin to center. The weekend was also part of a broader desire on the part of the Evanston Art Center to make it a space for a range of art forms that are accessible to a broad public, not just more traditional art forms. The Urban Acrobatics panel, then, functioned as a bridge to continue the conversation about art forms that may occupy marginal positions even though their effects are intensely public: circus and graffiti.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evanston Art Center. Photo Credit: Polly Solomon</td></tr>
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I opened by summarizing some of the inspirations and premises for the project: struck by reading about Twyla Tharpe's "Deuce Coup" performance in 1983 where young writers painted a rolling canvas behind the Joffrey Ballet, I had contacted my long-time friend, Polly, about staging encounters between circus and graffiti artists around three elements that I saw in common aesthetically and politically: publicity, spectacle, and movement. Graffiti, I elaborated, is an aesthetic based on movement, being both the "visual equivalent of the freeze," (an insight from Flash), and letters that possess a dynamism, linked to a history of trains and travel from post-WWI rail inscriptions to the 1970s New York City Subway graffiti movement. In New York we began to explore these themes, particularly in staging the circus artist as an urban acrobat that can perform graffiti from daring angles: upside down on silks, perched upon Lyra, or juggling while sporting painted attire. Polly led stop-motion drawing exercises to impact images with movement and then attempted to repeat the exercise from the air.<br />
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Gabriel FLASH Carrasquillo, who is an engineer, artist, photographer, and educator, shared some of his vast archives of Chicago-based graffiti and street art that go back to the 1970s. He is in the process of collaborating on a book that chronicles the history of Chicago graffiti from the 1970s to 2003 (when the first Chicago Meeting of Styles) took place. It was a treat to see early throw ups on the Red Line Chicago stop; Logan Square and Wicker Park before gentrification; and the evolution of Chicago style. Flash noted that "sprinkles of color and fades..dustings of pinks and blues" versus the screaming reds and oranges of early New York subway pieces distinguished Chicago early on. Flash started writing in 1983, after the moving "Style Wars" came out, and was influenced by Chicago youth who had returned from New York after picking up graffiti styles. He received the name "Flash," because he was known for carrying around a 35 millimeter camera. He was part of ABC (Artistic Bombing Crew), who were among the first Chicago-based crews, and painted all over the city. After retiring in 1987 he returned to the scene in 2003. Flash's retirement coincided with the disappearance of a "whole generation of writers." Although when graffiti started in Chicago it was met with confusion or indifference, "CTA workers would say 'Good night writers,'" Flash had joked, by the 1990s it was an all out graffiti war.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flash autographing our poster. Evanston, IL. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Even today such disproportionate treatment in response to graffiti continues. Flash explained that different city departments: CTA, Streets and Sanitation, and the Parks Department, have their own graffiti buffing budget. What if such funds were turned towards finding legal venues for youth?<br />
This is Flash's mission, creating space for the old school and the new school, which will also educate a broader public about graffiti's artistic potential. Flash curates a set of walls in Logan Square, the neighborhood where he "did his damage" in the 1980s as a way to give back.<br />
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"Project Logan," includes a large wall with 174 sections, a slightly smaller crew wall, and a yet slightly smaller dedication wall, on which works stay up for a long period of time. Finally, there is a little "two spot" section which is exactly that: two spots, for two people, which stays up for two weeks at a time. Yet, even during the seemingly short period of two weeks the wall, which is viewable from the blue line, will be seen by over two million people. Project Logan is a visual extension to Flash's book project, where he displays work from artists who were pioneers but part of that "lost generation."KLTA was one of the first artists who were displayed on the wall, a street artist who, between 1983 and 1987 had works on over seventy rooftops throughout Chicago.<br />
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Creating legal venues like that of Project Logan is crucial to giving youth an outlet. Flash explained: "They will always have the paint, and if they don't have a legal spot...they will paint somewhere else." Flash's work at Project Logan exhibits a relationship of stewardship between the old school and the new school: older generations of graffiti artists, and younger. Such a relationship involves imparting "a culture and a code." In cities like Chicago, Flash argued, many non initiates are blinded by a culture that is imparted by strict anti graffiti laws, preventing artists (and art lovers) from benefiting from a market that is vibrant across many cities outside Chicago. The past mayoral administration(s) continued this culture of demonization, even buffing permission walls, or "blowing up paint cans," a "no write" policy that fomented an antagonistic relationship between city officials and writers that is captured in the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQJihJo_9Y">"I Write on Stuff."</a> Flash contrasted Chicago's anti graffiti culture with that of Paris, where, he suggested "permission pieces stay up for a hundred years."Such a climate is changing, Flash added, hopefully, with the new mayoral administration.<br />
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Roy Gomez-Cruz artfully discussed some of the spatial and social dynamics of learning about circus art in Chicago, performance scenes that are inflected by changing industrial landscapes, and bodies that engage, resist, and transform prevailing gender binaries. However, learning how to do circus acts involves putting the body on display in ways that are uncomfortable, involve judgment, and "risk and failure." The idea of learning a public art genre that requires the practitioner to confront ongoing possibilities of failure and risk resonates with Flash's formulation of the risks of writing, in terms of the ephemerality of the work, social judgement (and misjudgement), and the risk of it being denigrated. "Circus training lets the body become spectacular," Roy opened, "through body to body encounters...[that] puts bodies at risk" in ways that are physical and also social. Focussing on Aloft Loft, Roy analyzed his experience as a newcomer and a male in a largely female aerial acrobatics community as an encounter with discomfort, uncertainty, and feeling not at home. However, such feelings of being out of place are not necessarily bad, they provided, in his account "opportunities to exercise self reflexivity." The circus world(s) Roy engages largely engage in an avant-garde form of circus, and he has been attending shows regularly since 2011. In one such show, Roy observed Aloft Loft founder Shayna Swanson manipulating a German wheel in a masterful performance of strength, endurance, and industrial materials, "dominating gracefully the circus apparatus [in] a performance [that] is an extension of the landscape outside." As a new practitioner, Roy notes that the "body is mute as a new practitioner." This idea of being ineloquent in a new aesthetic form carries across genres-- in graffiti new writers must practice the tag over and over to get it down to a deft art. Although circus training involves risk and vulnerability, Roy concluded, perhaps such training may "allow us to meet others."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image compilation by Polly Solomon</td></tr>
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Flash's discussion of Chicago graffiti, which is met by the general public by a mix of misunderstanding, intrigue, interest, and fear, mirrors some of the misperceptions surrounding the circus scene. Contextualizing the Circus Now movement, Polly Solomon explained that in the U.S. federal arts funding agencies, including the NEH specifically ban circus projects from consideration under the rubric that they are "not art." This designation of "not art," is one familiar to graffiti writers. Moreover, Polly marked that graffiti and circus share elements of danger. Illegal writing has dual elements of risk or danger: the risk of getting caught, and penalized, but also the risks attendant in illegal underground practice of tripping or falling from great heights. Acrobats and writers perform feats of daring that defy the imagination.<br />
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In both genres practitioners use movement in the creation of their art (swinging from trapeze, dance, acrobatics for circus, bent knees whole arm movements and sometimes climbing out of the way places for graffiti) but also in the circulation of their own bodies. Referencing our conversation with Melon the other day, Polly remarked that in doing graffiti some writers are so close to the micro details of their work that when they step back they are amazed about what has been created. In a similar sense for circus performers it is difficult to see the visual picture one is painting while doing an act. Notably, the train figures as an important trope in graffiti and circus lore. Additionally, Polly noted that in both graffiti and circus culture there is an intense reliance on one's crew or troupe or team. Such reliance comes out of necessity, one needs a spotter, or a lookout, or a partner for a complex pose or act, but also for a sense of community and identity. In many communities of practice the practitioners have a sort of volitional family.<br />
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Polly defined circus as: "a release from everyday mundane into extraordinary
for audience for feats not achievable for everyday person such that it takes audience out
of their world, [feeling] different than [just] walking down the street." She concluded by emphasizing that creativity is about inspiration, which is quite literally taking breath. "One of the ways that we can inspire [lies] in how we treat the next generation coming up, and teach
them and let them teach us." This generational obligation, or ethic of care, resonated with Flash's "Project Logan" walls, as well as the potential Roy sees in circus enabling practitioners to teach and learn body-to-body encounters that may be generous and transformative. In Chicago, a city of industrial blocks, sharp class and racial division and inequalities, and sprawling neighborhoods, both circus and graffiti practice offers ways of being in common that rest on respect, risk, vulnerability, and inspiration that may shape more equitable, and more oxygenated urban spaces.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-57561676361729877542014-04-14T18:41:00.002-07:002014-04-14T18:41:58.721-07:00Urban Acrobatics Chicago: What Does Inter-Genre Collaboration Look Like?What connects circus and graffiti, and how, aesthetically, can they be put into communication? This is a question that we will attempt to broach through discussion tomorrow, but today two of our performers, Melon James and Polly Solomon, began to imagine what it may look like through performance and shared movement.<br />
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Meeting with Melon, Polly first tried to describe what painting opportunities aerial acrobatics would allow, primarily by describing the relationship between her moving body and the fabric that sustains her in the air, lifts her up, and allows her to do <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afGkPTTazjI">fifteen to twenty foot drops. </a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Urban Acrobatics NYC. September, 2013. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara.</td></tr>
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What became increasingly clear is that in doing an aerial routine, it is not just about bodily poses, but the dance between texture and the body, a play with positioning, extension, gravity, and folds. "I move into different poses, and can sometimes hang out, for a slow count of ten or more," Polly explained, "and will drape the fabric so that it unfolds vertically or horizontally." Melon responded, "I am thinking about what I could paint in ten seconds...its like a game, because the fabric will shrink down, so [the question is] what <i>can </i>be painted?" What can be painted in ten seconds on a moving canvas that will have visual impact even as it is contorted, reversed, and turned upside down? A tag can be written in ten to twenty seconds, but can the tag retain its impact when spatially manipulated?<br />
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For the performance on Saturday, little is pre-written. All that exists are the constraints of space, and the opportunities afforded by materials and surfaces. There will be a drop cloth, a cellophane wall, the silk, and wooden panels. The challenge is to introduce moving bodies among and within those materials that can make the scene dance.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Melon, in progress. Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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We mused about music, the soundtrack for the performance. For our New York show Polly mixed soundbytes from interviews I had conducted and selections from the panel discussion along with music, including a song about Chicago graffiti by writer and rapper Demon/Dmnology, but a different kind of soundtrack came to light: that of the paint cans themselves.<br />
<br />
Lavie Raven taught a spraypaint workshop last year at the Evanston Art Center where he emphasized that to do graffiti one must develop an intimate relationship with the can and consider the energy and sound of the can as an extension of one's own breath. If the can breathes cleanly, lines will be clean as well. When watching live painting, then, it is as important to pay attention and <i>listen</i> the persistent hiss of aerosol paint and its steady, practiced rhythms,<i> </i>as it is to watch the unfolding of confident lines, pure colors, and deft fades.<br />
<br />
Melon calls this "graffiti yoga." He explained: "I call it graffiti yoga, because, for me, since I'm not very tall, to get a line from here [gestures to floor to left] to here [gestures to upper wall to right], I have to really stretch to get a clear, straight line."Such practice is intimately related to animating the letters, keeping one's knees soft, shoulder contracted, and arm straight, which requires, even in the drawing stages, breaking free from the limits of the page. "Do you know Cove? He...influenced me...and told me, 'Don't limit yourself...you have to get off the sheet [of paper]." In such a sense, doing graffiti involves visible traces but also physical movements that are only visible in the dynamism of resulting lines. I mentioned how Ruben Aguirre, Like, mentioned at the same panel discussion in Evanston in 2013 that doing graffiti offered him a deep sense of quiet, and was an almost meditative practice. Melon mused that in his work he too falls into a meditative trance, one time falling so deep that he simply did not hear ten minutes of conversation. "The idea of breath...this is related to creativity as a process," Polly responded. "To inspire, that is drawn from the fact that the word inspire means [etymologically] inhalation, taking in breath. When you inspire them you become part of them, transforming them."<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10251886_10100882592878615_7576629225440501783_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10251886_10100882592878615_7576629225440501783_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A work by Melon, in progress. Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Inspire, exhale, and stay tuned for more updates tomorrow.<br />
<br />
You can follow us on twitter <complete id="goog_930557870"><a href="https://twitter.com/UrbanAcrobats/status/455791262348505088/photo/1">@UrbanAcrobats</a> and on instagram at urban_acrobats.</complete><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/10271477_10100882593212945_7400206343680546543_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/10271477_10100882593212945_7400206343680546543_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tired but inspired Polly. Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-51294556403075213792014-04-13T19:44:00.001-07:002014-04-13T19:44:03.942-07:00Gearing up for Tuesday's Discussion: Shared Histories The panel on Tuesday at the Evanston Art Center will serve as a way to open up discussion and jumpstart creative imagination about how circus and graffiti can communicate and collaborate.<br />
<br />
Some questions that we will be working on:<br />
<br />
* How does movement figure in the production and circulation of circus and graffiti art?<br />
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* Who is the public, or the spectators, that both genres are addressed to?<br />
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* What role do circus artists and graffiti artists play in public discourses in Chicago? Marginal actors? Heroes or heroines? Villians?<br />
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* How do graffiti and circus artists create, maintain, and develop space in Chicago, and how does the changing conditions of these spaces (economically, materially, socially) impact the performance of art?<br />
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* How, why, and for whom does circus and graffiti elicit wonder?<br />
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* How are both genres treated by art funders?<br />
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Check out the program below! Join us Tuesday, April 15th, at the Evanston Art Center at 6:30 for a panel presentation and discussion, followed by a reception.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-79478497537714631662014-04-10T20:27:00.000-07:002014-04-10T20:27:03.173-07:00Urban Acrobatics Chicago Preparation: Visit to Alternatives and Paint Shopping with WermYesterday I got to visit Alternatives, Inc. to meet the director, the wonderful Carmen Curet, and talk logistics with her and resident artists Andy Bellomo. Alternatives provides after school programming for youth, boasting classes in dance, circus, DJ-ing, computer technology, painting, and more. Walking around the site I got to see classrooms, kids working at computers, youth rolling around on unicycles, and an array of beautiful masks for their upcoming annual fundraiser. The front of the building, as well as walls in the hallways are covered with colorful mosaics.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://z-n.ak.fbcdn.net/z-1-scontent-b.xx/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/1378886_10100877978211445_2744865062594261209_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://z-n.ak.fbcdn.net/z-1-scontent-b.xx/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/1378886_10100877978211445_2744865062594261209_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exterior of Alternatives, Inc. Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Urban Acrobatics will be hosted by Alternatives, Inc. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so come and check it out!<br />
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Today I went to <b><a href="http://iammodest.com/">Modest Skate Shop</a></b> in Oak Park with Werm to select paint for the performance. Along the way we got to discuss his history as a graffiti writer, recent musical projects, and future goals.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Werm picking out colors for the Urban Acrobatics performance on Saturday, April 19th. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Werm started painting when he was 12, and in 1994 was able to join CAB crew, of which he is now the leader. He makes a living off of his art, doing signs, airbrushing, and murals. You can see his work all over the city, most recently at a wall that features a "He Man" action hero theme. His pieces often feature a worm character, curving in on the outsides to create a larger "w" shape. He is also a prolific rapper, best known for his songs <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBXPgaQUKU&noredirect=1">"Paint Away the Pain"</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDiElO1u9Q">"Wrong Side of the Tracks."</a></b><br />
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"Paint Away the Pain" is a remix of Mobb Deep's song, <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4khA1Nle68">"Drink the Pain Away,"</a></b> and gestures to the cathartic release that writers can get from painting, a kind of artistic means of working through everyday problems. "Wrong Side of the Tracks" is an homage to the Artifacts, who, according to Werm, were the first rap group to feature live painting in their music video for their version of the song, <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GuCjVD-TEY">"Wrong Side of the Tracks."</a></b> His songs, like his artistic work, is fresh, powerful, and honest. One of Werm's goals is to paint in every major city in the world. To that end, he will be painting at the Houston Meeting of Styles in addition to the Chicago Meeting of Styles.<br />
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Anyone interested in learning the basics of tagging should check out his workshop, which will be on Thursday April 17th at Alternatives, Inc. from 5:00 to 6:45pm. You can check out his bio and soundcloud page on the <b><a href="http://circusgraffitispectacular.blogspot.com/2014/04/urban-acrobatics-chicago-edition.html">April 8th post</a></b>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://z-n.ak.fbcdn.net/sphotos-e.ak/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1464596_10100877978810245_6660090002356773717_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://z-n.ak.fbcdn.net/sphotos-e.ak/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1464596_10100877978810245_6660090002356773717_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colors for the Urban Acrobatics performance. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Until tomorrow!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-86080631328961988172014-04-08T09:45:00.002-07:002014-04-10T19:52:45.105-07:00Urban Acrobatics Chicago Edition: Schedule <br />
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We are thrilled to share our schedule for the upcoming week of Urban Acrobatics festivities based in Chicago.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtDumm-K-m1xkPJbf1kU2zrfJjLJcS-a0WIeAE9ti_-cqhKfrgdakHQY30gF2cRvRKAH4IxA62F3OlQmgCeMQz491gi0ThoEHGR5lH7e7OqFOqDsRUvhBPKUzSDiJe0LpeQ1GLSNwPddE/s1600/UAChicagoPoster.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtDumm-K-m1xkPJbf1kU2zrfJjLJcS-a0WIeAE9ti_-cqhKfrgdakHQY30gF2cRvRKAH4IxA62F3OlQmgCeMQz491gi0ThoEHGR5lH7e7OqFOqDsRUvhBPKUzSDiJe0LpeQ1GLSNwPddE/s1600/UAChicagoPoster.jpg" /></a><br />
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As always, all events are free and open to the public.<br />
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Tuesday April 15:<br />
Our first event will be a panel discussion on the history of circus and graffiti in Chicago. Our panelists are Polly Solomon, Gabriel FLASH Carrasquillo, Roy Gomez Cruz, and Caitlin Bruce. The panel begins at 6:30pm and will run to 8:00pm with a reception afterwards. We are grateful for the Evanston Art Center providing space for this event.<br />
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Thursday April 17:<br />
From 5:00 pm to 9:00pm we will be hosting back to back tagging and circus workshops, led by Werm Oner and Polly Solomon. We will provide markers, paper, and space to draw and tumble in. This event is being held at Alternatives, Inc.<br />
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Friday April 18th:<br />
From 5:00 to 9:00 pm our artists will brainstorm and prepare for Saturday's performance, which will offer a fusion of graffiti and circus styles. Our performers will include Polly Solomon, Werm Oner, Natalie Zombie, and Melon James, among others. This will take place at Alternatives, Inc.<br />
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Saturday April 19th:<br />
From 4:00 to 6:00pm we will present the result of our week of discussion and collaboration in the form of a performance, a Spectacular. This will take place at Alernatives, Inc.<br />
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Some background on participants:<br />
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<b>Polly Solomon: </b><br />
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<a href="https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash3/t1.0-1/c50.0.200.200/p200x200/1621742_10100355170742060_123598834_n.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash3/t1.0-1/c50.0.200.200/p200x200/1621742_10100355170742060_123598834_n.jpg" /></a><br />
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Polly Solomon has been working in theater for fourteen years in NYC's biggest venues and throughout the NY tri-state area. While pursuing her degree Polly started training as an aerial acrobat and incorporating circus into dance and theater pieces. She performs and teaches circus in school, after-school, camp, studio, and theatrical and circus productions settings. Polly has directed several shows for the American Youth Circus Organization, most recently at the 2014 Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival this January. <br />
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<b>Werm Oner: </b><br />
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<a href="https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/1235162_10152304669664288_106814384_n.jpg"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/1235162_10152304669664288_106814384_n.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
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EPK <a href="http://epresskitz.com/Werm312">http://epresskitz.com/Werm312</a> download songs at <a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/wermone">www.soundcloud.com/wermone</a> subscribe on youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/312werm">www.youtube.com/312werm</a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/werm312">www.instagram.com/werm312</a> </div>
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Biography: I grew up in all the slums of chitown. Grew up in a bad environment. We were always broke and moving from house to house. Grew up in all the slums of the south side of Chicago. I always heard "NO" when asking for toys as a kid ,so at a young age started stealing.I found if i wanted something I had to take it. By the age of 12, i started doing graffiti. Cab 312 TFO was the best crew out (and still is). I wanted to be down for years, and finally in 1994 my dream came true. Ever since then I've taken all-city several times,an counting.....Graffiti took me all over the city , and made me feel a part of something bigger though my past was rough I wouldn't change a thing about it. It made me the man I am today. Its not where you been that matters, it's where your going that counts. I have three wonderful lil girls who are my heart. They love me unconditionally an MAKE ME BETTER. They're the reason I hustle hard an don't settle for less,an strive for more. My next goal is to go on a world wide tour and paint every city I go to. Music and art are my passion, also my way of expression and my therapy. I use music to say whats on my mind and get it out. Graffiti is like an adrenaline rush, it makes me feel alive and lets the world know I'm here too, but at the end of the day my ultimate goal is to make a better life for my kids and give them the life I never had. I thank God for life and all the opportunities he gives. To all my fans I love you and appreciate you all, for all the love and support. peace WERM ONE<br /><a href="http://epresskitz.com/Werm312">Epresskit for Your Artistic Name Here</a><br />epresskitz.com<br /><br /><b>Melon James: </b><br />
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<a href="https://static.squarespace.com/static/51551a5ae4b0ec1768d221dd/5158f820e4b06ce822a2de80/5158f8ebe4b01a74bb83525e/1364785623341/IMG_3403.JPG?format=1500w"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://static.squarespace.com/static/51551a5ae4b0ec1768d221dd/5158f820e4b06ce822a2de80/5158f8ebe4b01a74bb83525e/1364785623341/IMG_3403.JPG?format=1500w" width="400" /></a><br />
Melon has been writing graffiti since the early 1990’s specifically in Chicago for the Renegades (RGS crew). Later he joined the military and like himself “graffiti will travel”. His pieces not only have cluttered the slums of Chicago but also Hawaii. Melon has never feared the use of color and it can be seen in all of his work as he fearlessly uses color. Melon’s achievements do not only include permission wall pieces. This guy also wrecked shop on street level. Known as one of the top most skilled in Chicago and Hawaii because of his notorious hand skills and elaborate graffiti pieces, this guy can go toe to toe with the best. His bombing style was as fearless as his color usage.<br />
Melon is a Chicago icon and will continue to be so long as Chicago is on the map. He has not only helped to push the art form in Chicago, but he is also renowned respected and up in Hawaii to. So keep on getting up because every production he does is eye candy. Follow him at: https://melonjams.squarespace.com.<br />
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<b>Gabriel FLASH Carrasquillo:</b><br />
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<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/574603_573133029415450_1467574293_n.jpg"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/574603_573133029415450_1467574293_n.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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Flash is an artist, an educator, and a graffiti historian. Growing up in Logan Square, he and his friends began writing after "Style Wars" came out in 1983. After a brief retirement from graffiti, Flash returned in 2003 and since then has been writing, teaching, and helping to get legal spaces for writers. He has given presentations at SILO Art Space, has exhibited at the 2013 Paint, Sticker, Paste show at the Chicago Cultural Center, as well as at Zhou B. Studios, among many other shows.<br />
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<b>Roy Gomez-Cruz:</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.communication.northwestern.edu/programs/ma_phd_performance_studies/images/Roy-GomezCruz.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://www.communication.northwestern.edu/programs/ma_phd_performance_studies/images/Roy-GomezCruz.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Roy is a PhD student at Northwestern University in the Department of Performance Studies.<br />
His research engages contemporary circus as a multidimensional performance space where varied forms of circus tradition and popular culture are being reinterpreted for global audience’s consumption; the politics of labor practices in the itinerant circus; and aesthetic in circus and the connotations of transgression, grotesquery and bestiality historically associated with traditional circuses.<br />
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<b>Caitlin Frances Bruce:</b><br />
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<a href="https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10151249_10201591307405071_3170377785616151890_n.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10151249_10201591307405071_3170377785616151890_n.jpg" width="355" /></a><br />
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Caitlin is a PhD in Communication Studies, and is part of the Rhetoric and Public Culture Program at Northwestern University. Her research explores public art, urban space, and critical theory. She has worked with graffiti artists and muralists since 2010 in Chicago; New York; Mexico City; Ciudad Neza; León Guanajuato; and Paris, conducting interviews and writing about shows. She has published in Invisible Culture, Advances in the History of Rhetoric, Inopinatum, Sixty Inches From Center, Art Threat, Art Nerd, and on her blog Kinesthetic Urban Rhetoric.</div>
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<b>Natalie Zombie: </b></div>
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<a href="https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/p320x320/1911691_872652256093571_2010065727_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/p320x320/1911691_872652256093571_2010065727_n.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Natalie is Chicago based artist who does multimedia work as well as face painting (largely in monster/zombie genres). You can see some of her most recent work at Silo Art Space's Spring Fever show.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVlGmsmLa0ruFL3aBiHONGEIH8IGSqUhHz13n2Q3-WZ4vHaj35fUHs3P-u0lC_bO_sAJKE3pNr4lhDkEGZqeNcLlwm_OgAsp4XTRuGgiS3m5i-t2gNlr1HTPobPaPUsGKm3m3_xTzAARE/s1600/DSC_0178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVlGmsmLa0ruFL3aBiHONGEIH8IGSqUhHz13n2Q3-WZ4vHaj35fUHs3P-u0lC_bO_sAJKE3pNr4lhDkEGZqeNcLlwm_OgAsp4XTRuGgiS3m5i-t2gNlr1HTPobPaPUsGKm3m3_xTzAARE/s320/DSC_0178.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paint cans. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCLLI9H-VA-jpCLRTaoi3L5SgKyO_fd1yHAUYxN1b0zUz8-JRbzOJEwXvtBvxsqZ9xrnwPPkaE3Z2sj5d4v05ZMZsxkZk21cpXrpW-kSQI8SW1hP1jTANqDGN7xq8_MmKczfkKQsMNytk/s1600/DSC_0607.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCLLI9H-VA-jpCLRTaoi3L5SgKyO_fd1yHAUYxN1b0zUz8-JRbzOJEwXvtBvxsqZ9xrnwPPkaE3Z2sj5d4v05ZMZsxkZk21cpXrpW-kSQI8SW1hP1jTANqDGN7xq8_MmKczfkKQsMNytk/s320/DSC_0607.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The troupe painting silks. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgciLjMLxAz98Jgm9ewIqsxhpcSTt3cCFvzYD6OBxQAOVHBTtb1kh_LoZiqljo6RfXs7ipFZe9aOiwsAgiKmdaTkpEMMNAb6NzDa3pSf8Me4v07WMlMpSAiFa0kTbiWKjqrCZHuKKgP61Y/s1600/DSC_0645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgciLjMLxAz98Jgm9ewIqsxhpcSTt3cCFvzYD6OBxQAOVHBTtb1kh_LoZiqljo6RfXs7ipFZe9aOiwsAgiKmdaTkpEMMNAb6NzDa3pSf8Me4v07WMlMpSAiFa0kTbiWKjqrCZHuKKgP61Y/s320/DSC_0645.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feegz at work. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA_76UTeF8CZWX2FYn8aD1eVn8fkxnRGQF4cvhjEnmIsGpmuw11mVeEiPipEy2hWBe8gP9OTgnYHfc9S90wSFzmOpFs1lETmjq_L27TejKf4tIGV-avapWdAxVyAOb_4499w5WX7oAMZ8/s1600/DSC_0667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA_76UTeF8CZWX2FYn8aD1eVn8fkxnRGQF4cvhjEnmIsGpmuw11mVeEiPipEy2hWBe8gP9OTgnYHfc9S90wSFzmOpFs1lETmjq_L27TejKf4tIGV-avapWdAxVyAOb_4499w5WX7oAMZ8/s320/DSC_0667.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly upside down. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZ77pMlgCR0DlOKmD7yr-4TfKLVY8XNmYBpq2YhMGDdOOyJDN4KRFCthIwt2IzW60OHpnDTze7aZukDjzmdcFpU6Z1a69WJGEeGRO95Pn_HJTDLe3CGlUma2ub-vTTEd77mNOYR_Ko1c/s1600/DSC_0669.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZ77pMlgCR0DlOKmD7yr-4TfKLVY8XNmYBpq2YhMGDdOOyJDN4KRFCthIwt2IzW60OHpnDTze7aZukDjzmdcFpU6Z1a69WJGEeGRO95Pn_HJTDLe3CGlUma2ub-vTTEd77mNOYR_Ko1c/s320/DSC_0669.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4RB8dXiSYfLQoN5YQXZNxJEOIreJ7wObRfdWeTbtRzLhjxdNlQNqD1EiTcJLZQezFe_2xabKUxDsc8gmOtyDwfAfdbvqki2O8J_ZzMrXAEuQSMFpuNe4-qOMUQOFE_Udytt933yHaurA/s1600/DSC_0673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4RB8dXiSYfLQoN5YQXZNxJEOIreJ7wObRfdWeTbtRzLhjxdNlQNqD1EiTcJLZQezFe_2xabKUxDsc8gmOtyDwfAfdbvqki2O8J_ZzMrXAEuQSMFpuNe4-qOMUQOFE_Udytt933yHaurA/s320/DSC_0673.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1zSHBqiPSaa6LMDsixq8JkIgOWr5StHxa1SOp5ZUER61RAgb9ooIZFvPT_l8kWfprh2M9SWy55yJzbEYV9KD-KNVqNU7_QSPumU-yi6YViR6ka5BUVbA7HU29uc3Nw6Rj55-fTMm3mM/s1600/DSC_0678.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1zSHBqiPSaa6LMDsixq8JkIgOWr5StHxa1SOp5ZUER61RAgb9ooIZFvPT_l8kWfprh2M9SWy55yJzbEYV9KD-KNVqNU7_QSPumU-yi6YViR6ka5BUVbA7HU29uc3Nw6Rj55-fTMm3mM/s320/DSC_0678.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-3kdJ5XS4wML-Ij6oMA8S2LecDTTEX17-9mgVoCR9A2IkF0wRRJgVZ3odPTJXms8X5XY8SpidZhiYhSHgw9oiyLtpX1DwHBCmKdq1aJPkSTx_ChYutaK_9KcUqvbhqWQIzcvQqKEYu8/s1600/DSC_0693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-3kdJ5XS4wML-Ij6oMA8S2LecDTTEX17-9mgVoCR9A2IkF0wRRJgVZ3odPTJXms8X5XY8SpidZhiYhSHgw9oiyLtpX1DwHBCmKdq1aJPkSTx_ChYutaK_9KcUqvbhqWQIzcvQqKEYu8/s320/DSC_0693.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christi Painting Silks in the air. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-qvw8xPpAoULdX_FpcqXeoj_KIhPHbG9E5_NlGrCJdH_bnqmnvJahd0tjCLLicbOCfpdhuSohqOThosBgRLUOulinbExqB_6DhFISdkLxHdbNfCu_RlgHC2Gey1SSBUYMga2N27AKo8/s1600/DSC_0705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-qvw8xPpAoULdX_FpcqXeoj_KIhPHbG9E5_NlGrCJdH_bnqmnvJahd0tjCLLicbOCfpdhuSohqOThosBgRLUOulinbExqB_6DhFISdkLxHdbNfCu_RlgHC2Gey1SSBUYMga2N27AKo8/s320/DSC_0705.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young artists at the craft table after the show. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-ZTZA86LzNX-QHXOhPj3CjN4uDy5iThN_jtd19G__RLKEQDAgTNSfehkjCPxnkN5Wg2tcjCOhyphenhyphenHhd9kPfUbNNR-uwfGDmd7onUXLce8VAwiZXo6fMGbDIh10beLuIf3Q5Wc0X9p6dkw/s1600/DSC_0711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-ZTZA86LzNX-QHXOhPj3CjN4uDy5iThN_jtd19G__RLKEQDAgTNSfehkjCPxnkN5Wg2tcjCOhyphenhyphenHhd9kPfUbNNR-uwfGDmd7onUXLce8VAwiZXo6fMGbDIh10beLuIf3Q5Wc0X9p6dkw/s320/DSC_0711.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Jelly Fish Puppy. Created by kids and Goons at Word Up on Friday 9/6/13. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1Fkgz3g8ujLSNISQVQz0XlNJW8E3duoQO46sf9P-nsLLGn3r_uKfZaqtPdEbGuZP68yby2APIVzyOodOe3RXAOO55Q7kRfWkx2Uz_JNXETXTcoqi9ufx-rFu-Fafx87xip8mh7WNhIQ/s1600/DSC_0198.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1Fkgz3g8ujLSNISQVQz0XlNJW8E3duoQO46sf9P-nsLLGn3r_uKfZaqtPdEbGuZP68yby2APIVzyOodOe3RXAOO55Q7kRfWkx2Uz_JNXETXTcoqi9ufx-rFu-Fafx87xip8mh7WNhIQ/s320/DSC_0198.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caitlin and Polly. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_RhNWm9E1hzN_YWiYRsH4fd2zc4FWMJg-b0k53j6PAtxrWmzPiNYDytdVkcDx50MWwQ6O7d-YH8Axd-rHgxF8flmhGbtOZyCgBKB-JM3KQ4WBpYPjLehSGh9kSxtWAV8VSqbFVctfsk/s1600/DSC_0200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_RhNWm9E1hzN_YWiYRsH4fd2zc4FWMJg-b0k53j6PAtxrWmzPiNYDytdVkcDx50MWwQ6O7d-YH8Axd-rHgxF8flmhGbtOZyCgBKB-JM3KQ4WBpYPjLehSGh9kSxtWAV8VSqbFVctfsk/s320/DSC_0200.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caitlin and Polly. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12uDgiah-jzZFOn7BmtyZSWGxtK8hB5vT86_gufehVr5RDa_hUewNGn7M30Fut0DzQhCmzOS30UXmpdIf0z_isV1BBTC7qQWR-zCw1rjHxiO72sJfRXTkZ2LePhLQV5B26ezfhtGsS34/s1600/DSC_0215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12uDgiah-jzZFOn7BmtyZSWGxtK8hB5vT86_gufehVr5RDa_hUewNGn7M30Fut0DzQhCmzOS30UXmpdIf0z_isV1BBTC7qQWR-zCw1rjHxiO72sJfRXTkZ2LePhLQV5B26ezfhtGsS34/s320/DSC_0215.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paint at the ready. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vOWLaB4097FFaTW0zKfVeJwASw3O2KKLkbcKJMeWvNZAYspz8ixbYuiDRYlfEWF3DcER_OFVa_gEfD7oxemxTfJb_rvx8IBwNmwbr02ie1io7F7NwxRdwFPA3RSIdVxS4n1QIVyTl2c/s1600/DSC_0218.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vOWLaB4097FFaTW0zKfVeJwASw3O2KKLkbcKJMeWvNZAYspz8ixbYuiDRYlfEWF3DcER_OFVa_gEfD7oxemxTfJb_rvx8IBwNmwbr02ie1io7F7NwxRdwFPA3RSIdVxS4n1QIVyTl2c/s320/DSC_0218.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paint cans. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-OIaFGoub_mcTU4nk2b_YUkYzJdpiyhriqT2Vh-vXzDiohiErH7uMWBc5woAj3ehFErXAumvYyrgE8tgFev2ne89E3FPhbkServe9LgHyvk9fdJVlZ4qvM4PNwb41hWFyikyPgY2RKE/s1600/DSC_0224.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-OIaFGoub_mcTU4nk2b_YUkYzJdpiyhriqT2Vh-vXzDiohiErH7uMWBc5woAj3ehFErXAumvYyrgE8tgFev2ne89E3FPhbkServe9LgHyvk9fdJVlZ4qvM4PNwb41hWFyikyPgY2RKE/s320/DSC_0224.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Goons piece. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxa26F1QvbcQzdU6Hs8Ed8J8eqZhl1OzN9kA7cNoYEVJlbZ7Q71tDI0iOBNravm03186lex4aiscwuSzEDBwdX1hJOtFT5sLQeOhnHAhHLNMTwl5g-m6nd78LR-40RSVlDIUHyCwwSDPo/s1600/DSC_0237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxa26F1QvbcQzdU6Hs8Ed8J8eqZhl1OzN9kA7cNoYEVJlbZ7Q71tDI0iOBNravm03186lex4aiscwuSzEDBwdX1hJOtFT5sLQeOhnHAhHLNMTwl5g-m6nd78LR-40RSVlDIUHyCwwSDPo/s320/DSC_0237.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chriselle Tidrick on stilts. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CpgkwzEaJi_0x2nq3OwIcHOppDUg3nYHpkxkNgineYzMRK3RAKBbQLMsFhtvqG1poSX3PCMTyp6OdVYjCxD-WPL1G5GGpqYCyklhli2ZWAmL65HRRlbFhD8fUo96CYeMffsaelq5eLw/s1600/DSC_0425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CpgkwzEaJi_0x2nq3OwIcHOppDUg3nYHpkxkNgineYzMRK3RAKBbQLMsFhtvqG1poSX3PCMTyp6OdVYjCxD-WPL1G5GGpqYCyklhli2ZWAmL65HRRlbFhD8fUo96CYeMffsaelq5eLw/s320/DSC_0425.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making shapes. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-3U6WK6MrOSrql2v9D1tmQ2Of6qUBi2RpdZwk0zcw-jHLAkRLBQz0O_UQWW1bVtyMpHK_bjZWrLfxHX149T_PO_mldQeAH0pl64ngLt2nY6et_xJVMqtmC_v-qUmJTMQ5-7C91ZNFfw/s1600/DSC_0445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-3U6WK6MrOSrql2v9D1tmQ2Of6qUBi2RpdZwk0zcw-jHLAkRLBQz0O_UQWW1bVtyMpHK_bjZWrLfxHX149T_PO_mldQeAH0pl64ngLt2nY6et_xJVMqtmC_v-qUmJTMQ5-7C91ZNFfw/s320/DSC_0445.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The explorer." Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6BaimZezFv_CRR8YBKbIAtX_q05AjTsSvjzn3xT2YUXwRE1PzNTxviEUGYce4Thd_RwtyGxMS3Ol3-BaQuBYCKW-2POKiOdv_ADm2QPAjFI7cVwElrlHRLdFOG0PyD0GcZ4mBqWVnB3U/s1600/DSC_0447.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6BaimZezFv_CRR8YBKbIAtX_q05AjTsSvjzn3xT2YUXwRE1PzNTxviEUGYce4Thd_RwtyGxMS3Ol3-BaQuBYCKW-2POKiOdv_ADm2QPAjFI7cVwElrlHRLdFOG0PyD0GcZ4mBqWVnB3U/s320/DSC_0447.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Audience. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOWGoYfz3BbAfNDb6ZsxPrMNRGnA2BiJZzIic45nUp2yaKqcrvjXvxtV0QrULwA4IDwjVT9PAbybWnKIU9KzE5FNklFARpT6xd3v3J9kpuyHM3pG2ty-Hx3CtX7lAGTCmuSuLlJRGa2U/s1600/DSC_0479+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOWGoYfz3BbAfNDb6ZsxPrMNRGnA2BiJZzIic45nUp2yaKqcrvjXvxtV0QrULwA4IDwjVT9PAbybWnKIU9KzE5FNklFARpT6xd3v3J9kpuyHM3pG2ty-Hx3CtX7lAGTCmuSuLlJRGa2U/s320/DSC_0479+(1).JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbL6x6GHRrkVfpmvuVFACSJW7ZWbM-KwLcznohoQ4JmDmUvg-Qj5HV3y09g-pknYSJ5WW5bhoDVj_FKLw5_9KZiI5K9V_3m5-sFSjqLWdesDwEpxEiZwFwf8oZVod_N5pbEomGm3y7hw/s1600/DSC_0495.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbL6x6GHRrkVfpmvuVFACSJW7ZWbM-KwLcznohoQ4JmDmUvg-Qj5HV3y09g-pknYSJ5WW5bhoDVj_FKLw5_9KZiI5K9V_3m5-sFSjqLWdesDwEpxEiZwFwf8oZVod_N5pbEomGm3y7hw/s320/DSC_0495.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MfZh4N43n75H04n3AH4YIhrktQcImn-_9_HQPirUrNmegD3KODFe9Y-BglzXFQZiTKyfPR95eOgWLjYanFTlf6X0fT6NaYdNhPkgDYCCKVbFS1qj8F36qqloTsbqcMP457jR-iFB2BU/s1600/DSC_0519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MfZh4N43n75H04n3AH4YIhrktQcImn-_9_HQPirUrNmegD3KODFe9Y-BglzXFQZiTKyfPR95eOgWLjYanFTlf6X0fT6NaYdNhPkgDYCCKVbFS1qj8F36qqloTsbqcMP457jR-iFB2BU/s320/DSC_0519.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paris juggling. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paris juggling. Photo Credit: Sarah Alcantara</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-7108144625785952392013-09-08T18:50:00.001-07:002013-09-08T18:50:57.111-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics NYC: Day 6, Our Culminating Performance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd-nVovRYhNnZ0NXmVPZkTzXE0lhXqJTIjl4nF8KNls4S8y_VSeLy2Tk_9i0z4NEqcTGVhgkIHb2ljyrzFoo5DBXfG2mF-bvz2-HKAHluY6ExzdH0u7cISxB-7WKjHfOnie-HQKEpQhv4/s1600/IMG_2467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd-nVovRYhNnZ0NXmVPZkTzXE0lhXqJTIjl4nF8KNls4S8y_VSeLy2Tk_9i0z4NEqcTGVhgkIHb2ljyrzFoo5DBXfG2mF-bvz2-HKAHluY6ExzdH0u7cISxB-7WKjHfOnie-HQKEpQhv4/s320/IMG_2467.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly on Silks, Goons piece in Background. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Urban Acrobatics was in fact, a spectacular. Outside the
majestic Morris-Jumel Mansion, Flutterby the Magnificent stood tall, and the
performers had a lively audience of a hundred, a mix of families from the
neighborhood, tourists at the mansion, and people who had heard about the event
through word of mouth. The Fly ID team of E67, Clark, and their kids worked at
a three-panel wall on the south side of the grounds, while Goons’ piece stood
midway down the field, and Feegz stood his 3’ by 8’ panel vertically on the
north side of the grounds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Carol Ward, Interim Executive Director of the Mansion
offered a few words of introduction about the Mansion, and her desire to change
it from something that could be static, to a dynamic space for community
engagement. We played a compiliation of selections from the panel discussions
and interviews that we did over the past week, from Tatu on Xmen being a kind
of circus of different writers from every place in the world, Autumn on circus
being a life-risking enterprise, David Carlyon and bourgeois anxiety about
“unnecessary movement,” and Feegz on graffiti, hip hop, and long-running mass
public denigration of graffiti as an art, echoed by Polly and Chriselle. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Suddenly, Chriselle emerged all in black on four three foot
tall stilts, her hands moving --- bird-like, or even like the vapor of paint
from a spray can—was she lilted from side to side, engaging with the audience,
and then dancing with Polly. Then the other circus artists emerged, and made
dramatic shapes with their bodies, warming the audience up. Meanwhile, E67,
Clark, and Feegz painted, the Fly ID crew slowly creating a sky scene with full
bubble letters and wings, </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIcZMp9S50oBQ5cUTY_TOnX0plVGi5bfRNXwCkGty1VzFkD4WipYDVb4myg5Jf7fCFpqPCnXk0v-CbTuc6w-v7jCObI0hAzEG9t-DpO7uWjB8wgE9Bbguizk53O8gXVnqtzj1ia4GuBMU/s1600/IMG_2477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIcZMp9S50oBQ5cUTY_TOnX0plVGi5bfRNXwCkGty1VzFkD4WipYDVb4myg5Jf7fCFpqPCnXk0v-CbTuc6w-v7jCObI0hAzEG9t-DpO7uWjB8wgE9Bbguizk53O8gXVnqtzj1ia4GuBMU/s320/IMG_2477.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanking Fly ID Crew. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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and Feegz’s piece a more abstract play with colors,
can control, and post-office stickers, a detailed collage.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feegz at work. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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Each circus artist
had a solo; Leslie on Lyra, Autumn, Christi, Polly, and Leslie on silks, and
Paris revving up the clowd with his juggling set to the tune of “It Takes Two.”
Each circus ran to a graffiti artist and had their shirt painted, </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBX3qUJFKSaJyfyc57sQDHI89Oqhd2YYR_ExCEYedNgFKLxfkGeBs-GJPQ9lKRetFU53nN7sDAhVqZ1tA5-9-F6IHvNCc2xuhIeibKAkDALAEUt2vgc2oxsplOru99GVwXHePZK-xxOnM/s1600/IMG_2450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBX3qUJFKSaJyfyc57sQDHI89Oqhd2YYR_ExCEYedNgFKLxfkGeBs-GJPQ9lKRetFU53nN7sDAhVqZ1tA5-9-F6IHvNCc2xuhIeibKAkDALAEUt2vgc2oxsplOru99GVwXHePZK-xxOnM/s320/IMG_2450.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">E67, Clark, and Paris. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly's Tag by Feegz. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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or even
pants, while the circus artists on silks or on the drop cloth below created
painted swirls at high velocity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silk writing. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Forty minutes later the silks themselves, the canvas panels,
the drop cloth, and the artists’ bodies were works of art.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Present. Christi, Leslie, Paris, Autumn, Chriselle, and Polly. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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Polly and I concluded
by thanking our partners; NoMAA, Word Up, Critical Massive, Moose Hall Theatre
Company, the Morris Jumel Mansion, and Northwestern’s Center for
Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, and asking them, and also you, to stay
tuned as the project develops with our second series in the Spring in Chicago.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caitlin Bruce and Polly Solomon. Show wrap-up. Photo Credit: Ted Minos</td></tr>
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<br />
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Wonderfully, at least twenty kids and their families stayed
to paint, draw, and doodle with the crafts that we set out. Feegz worked with a
group of kids, letting them add to (and even color over) his work. Some parents
even got involved, letting the kid inside them play. Seeing dozens of smiling
audience members, and artists, is what this is all about. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moose Hall with the Circus- Post Show Merriment. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">E67 Fly ID, Clark Fly ID, and Fly Girl. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feegz at Work. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnQ-4iabGeZZ70-daVsPqxahmN5_E7gENO-_k7sodGGzCZlxmzTjxVpnvcR7NqwOYkvTCcgYY3h1gKxepdcOtADo268LPBR9H7wQ_-wrNcKhPqfRgKUTVmQ6NG0_WuMyPDuJsBxHuwlQ/s1600/IMG_2509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnQ-4iabGeZZ70-daVsPqxahmN5_E7gENO-_k7sodGGzCZlxmzTjxVpnvcR7NqwOYkvTCcgYY3h1gKxepdcOtADo268LPBR9H7wQ_-wrNcKhPqfRgKUTVmQ6NG0_WuMyPDuJsBxHuwlQ/s320/IMG_2509.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young artists. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-69409203382532542652013-09-07T20:20:00.000-07:002013-09-07T20:20:36.070-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics NYC: Day 4- Preparation<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQh-iL37kw4_sAs6p134CTay1Xa7tQePciwR8NJSKO9IHEAFRh0VJpcrq4Rk1-0IH4ZgBeCzmd-Zq19SRBGuFqFZR_l9p4jqqaiKaSCOrLnDNiRi8QNI-0N2XA7_32Scg3powKcWo6D9k/s1600/IMG_2356.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQh-iL37kw4_sAs6p134CTay1Xa7tQePciwR8NJSKO9IHEAFRh0VJpcrq4Rk1-0IH4ZgBeCzmd-Zq19SRBGuFqFZR_l9p4jqqaiKaSCOrLnDNiRi8QNI-0N2XA7_32Scg3powKcWo6D9k/s320/IMG_2356.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flutterby the Magnificent viewed from the Jumel Parlor. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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What a beautiful day. In the sparkling weather Goons, Polly, Chriselle, Leslie, Christy, and Autumn worked on preparations for the final performance. After assembling the rig, Flutterby the Magnificent, Goons arrived, and worked on a large scale Goons figure with India Ink, and "The Circus" in block letters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Circus Goons. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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At the same time, large and small groups flowed in and out of the historic Jumel mansion which provided a stately background to the proceedings. Several conversations were happening about modern dance, circus history, and Aaron Burr, all within the same space.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAJQVwabuksQlACF39rf8JxPHuKSUnqhKp8gUt2G2KqDq2DOvtF5u20nE9EaPJxOeYdVQJdf08clw_Cw3QJs2uB80EwLMJ2Vnrpp7YVdkT0-hDG_CoiNAzmMaLVzQuym5O2bdDZfuNFM/s1600/IMG_2362.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAJQVwabuksQlACF39rf8JxPHuKSUnqhKp8gUt2G2KqDq2DOvtF5u20nE9EaPJxOeYdVQJdf08clw_Cw3QJs2uB80EwLMJ2Vnrpp7YVdkT0-hDG_CoiNAzmMaLVzQuym5O2bdDZfuNFM/s320/IMG_2362.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Circus The Circus." Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Part of this project is research based, using interview and observation, starting to piece together "aha" moments of connection, illumination, and recognition.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcSpZKWayQbdZ-Yni3I3hp4-DP110YbkKfSBCAeDxK7hgUJrutezRnyBdrGMHOPXJt8XzRK8O26fMr2asJ6HoFU1vIEHdd0mxqTRdFZSUvlEYQFaudAH-dFq9S7K9np8sMkO9j9O5l1Lo/s1600/IMG_2359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcSpZKWayQbdZ-Yni3I3hp4-DP110YbkKfSBCAeDxK7hgUJrutezRnyBdrGMHOPXJt8XzRK8O26fMr2asJ6HoFU1vIEHdd0mxqTRdFZSUvlEYQFaudAH-dFq9S7K9np8sMkO9j9O5l1Lo/s320/IMG_2359.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the Mansion with the rig. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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I interviewed Polly Solomon, Chriselle Tidrick, and Leslie Robin over the past two days. All three are circus artists. Chriselle does aerial acrobatics, dance, and walks on stilts, and uses modern dance techniques in her circus work, that "carries through some idea or concept to the audience." For her circus is "about techniques...rather than it being in a tent...or some location." Instead, it is about taking skills to wherever they can take place. Learning about graffiti for her was more about learning about a subculture, and "figuring out how much overlap there is between circus artists and graffiti artists." The "idea of being outsiders," she elaborated, is shared, and that "both things are considered low art," a phenomenon she has "confronted often in the dance world...where people say that [circus] is a gimmick...or not real art...and I think graffiti artists thing something similar from the established art world."<br />
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Leslie works on Lyra, as well as other elements of circus, and began her journey into circus at the age of six, where at summer camp after some counselors found her climbing on a jungle gym, and asked her mother if Leslie would be interested in gymnastics classes. She defined circus as something that is "athletic" but also "artistic means of expressing yourself" but is "hard to define" because a lot of things "can be circus...if you put it in an environment that can be circus." In terms of aesthetic lineages Leslie was trained in a "more traditional" circus background, but what keeps her practicing is "more artistic and modern...about conveying emotion..." Leslie participated in all of the workshops this week, and has a unique perspective on the process. She noted that she was struck by the similarities in the intense color of graffiti and circus, and that both are art forms that "society does not want to acknowledge as art forms."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdlkZSap-ERm7UrBsAyCRXyVoejSMBu6Ma69FiQCIC9BN4f-rIGef-Grq4Xhois2N9PJBaebhIPUuaERj_YdGzs6Y0a_t2Bt2-s-ChndF6sfnK4aCuPIFUU8K_1jVcnhd9kzrU8wq6EY/s1600/IMG_2369.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdlkZSap-ERm7UrBsAyCRXyVoejSMBu6Ma69FiQCIC9BN4f-rIGef-Grq4Xhois2N9PJBaebhIPUuaERj_YdGzs6Y0a_t2Bt2-s-ChndF6sfnK4aCuPIFUU8K_1jVcnhd9kzrU8wq6EY/s320/IMG_2369.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leslie practicing as troupe members stand by. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Polly speaks of circus as wonder inducing, narrative, and expressive, "like watching the Olympics, where a part of your brain imagines that you could do it [the sport] but another part thinks that you never could."<br />
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It is with great anticipation that I await the performance at the Jumel Mansion tomorrow, at 3:00 pm. Come one, come all.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rig at the Ready. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-40226087138405542522013-09-06T20:47:00.000-07:002013-09-06T20:47:02.257-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics NYC: Day 3 Workshops at Word Up! 9/6/13Movement and imagination. These are the two key ideas that Polly, Goons, and the six amazing kids that spent the day with us at Word Up! learned, embodied, and taught.<br />
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Arriving at Word Up! at noon today, a little bleary-eyed from being up late from the adrenaline of last night's workshops, I was greeted by a girl from the neighborhood who had participated in the tagging workshops last night. "She stayed up all night drawing." Polly informed me. True enough, Sheli showed me the pages of her sketch book filled with pictures, of a little mermaid, a princess, and a page that said "I love you Mami and Papi." She helped us set up.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our fearless leader and her sketch book. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Kids who had participated in E67 and Clark's workshop returned, and Goons started off the second workshop. "So many of you know of graffiti as writing words, but you can also draw characters. Maybe today we can draw characters, would you like to do that?" The kids nodded. "Ok, well the best way to start is to create, so let's just start creating." He shared a foamcore board with Sheli and Isis, on of the other participants from the night before, and his iconic Goons characters, with big red lips and often a single eye, began to be joined by smaller, slightly more kinetic figures, splashes of color, and flowers, leaves, and other objects.<br />
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I was joined by the girl who wrote "Zebra" the night before, accompanied by her younger sister. We drew dogs and cats and rabbits, recounting mishaps with pet bunnies. Twenty minutes later we then, led by Polly and Goons, embarked on drawing a creature collectively. After much deliberation it was decided that the creature would be a "Bobble headed butterfly monster." Taking turns, each participant added to the monster, which was eventually christened "Wosterhead." Woster was a little dark: he/she ate both nectar and humans.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxKVC1HpEKfIuw0cVRe3MZ-R_NtKMJCoVZvSaYfrGDdnIzQaPuNlplMJmWlk5pfY82AvTZlUFoVCnMPnnwnltHz57AJ9H6gK5agXZlEmaE7IiIH9tMkjCUrr4ZMOr18FD0IVfoxMPPv4/s1600/IMG_2177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxKVC1HpEKfIuw0cVRe3MZ-R_NtKMJCoVZvSaYfrGDdnIzQaPuNlplMJmWlk5pfY82AvTZlUFoVCnMPnnwnltHz57AJ9H6gK5agXZlEmaE7IiIH9tMkjCUrr4ZMOr18FD0IVfoxMPPv4/s320/IMG_2177.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshyphenhyphenEYHDqyi_oPnjzayVppJ8imERwHqcqipPKKJ55SDHeAbEH_f8tl15KW-hWuxLgPbfLCyJbNEg2VfI_qxs4j6z0CubKdvJW2qRkf9ppxF4W0U9pY3vMtzndpkUwVAWApW85CufsLJHk/s1600/IMG_2185.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshyphenhyphenEYHDqyi_oPnjzayVppJ8imERwHqcqipPKKJ55SDHeAbEH_f8tl15KW-hWuxLgPbfLCyJbNEg2VfI_qxs4j6z0CubKdvJW2qRkf9ppxF4W0U9pY3vMtzndpkUwVAWApW85CufsLJHk/s320/IMG_2185.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Wosterhead", The Bobble-Head-Butterfly-Monster. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Then Polly made life more complicated. We had to draw another collective creature, this time a "Puppy jellyfish" but the catch was that not only would each person add part of the drawing, but they had to make up a dance move that the rest of the move would carry out whilst they drew. After which, we played a version of "drawing musical chairs" when, after the key word "banana" was uttered, we would have to move to draw on a different part of the board. The result was a more erratic, mobile, and energetic looking piece, reflecting the movement of the participants. Holding up the piece, looking at the sitting, and the standing results, we could see how physical movement impacted the aesthetic look of the pieces.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMl1gf-CDPcOx5hrYKbcD3e60SP26lIEyCoxMCs5LeSgCELF9XgM8yBUU9vjhubkT2KFuNdb9liBwRHk1bESKgFLZjr9O-0XrUpffwY9CaosYHw4oMPhvsMyjfMCMbMhYQmQHfymyr05U/s1600/IMG_2209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMl1gf-CDPcOx5hrYKbcD3e60SP26lIEyCoxMCs5LeSgCELF9XgM8yBUU9vjhubkT2KFuNdb9liBwRHk1bESKgFLZjr9O-0XrUpffwY9CaosYHw4oMPhvsMyjfMCMbMhYQmQHfymyr05U/s320/IMG_2209.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puppy Jellyfish. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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After thanking Goons for teaching us about drawing characters, and bravely participating in all of hte dance, scrambling, and moving about, Polly moved us into the circus workshop. Three more of the participants from the night before arrived, excited and ready to get into the work. I chatted with some of the kids while Polly set up the mats, learning that they ranged from age 6 to 10, most went to PS8, and one wanted to be a lawyer, and three doctors.<br />
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Polly went over the rules: "Safety, Fun, and Respect." She elaborated after asking the kids to define each term. "You have to be safe. Be careful of yourself, and of others. Have fun-- I think you all know what that is. And Respect. You have to respect your body, not doing anything that would hurt it, nourishing it, keeping it strong. And you must respect others, be aware of them. Finally, you must respect the space and the equipment that is being lent to us." The three rules were a touch-stone that we could return to when frazzled, hyper, or frustrated.<br />
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First we did a warm up, loosening our bodies, getting ready to move. Then Polly had everyone work on partners on balancing exercises, holding onto a partner's wrists while standing toe-to-toe, and then slowly leaning back. "You have to trust your partner," she instructed "and you have to take your tummy with you!" After some squeals of uncertainty the troupe each succeeded in doing an assisted lean. Things got more complex yet again. "Now we are going to do some standing poses, where the smaller partner stands on the bigger one. But you do not just jump on your partner!" Polly cautioned. "You carefully put your foot turning outwards on the middle of their thigh, while holding onto their wrists, then the same with the next foot. Then you both lean back." She demonstrated with Lesley, and Sheli, and we were underway. Suddenly, from basic leans, the kids were making a human pyramid, on hands and knees and even standing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Human, or, in Carla's terminology "People Pyramid." Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Possibly the most frustrating but also rewarding activity of the day was spinning plates. Plate spinning is deceptively simple when done by a pro: after a few subtle and expert spins on the lip of the plate, Polly transferred the wooden pole to the middle where it rotated smoothly and rapidly. In reality, keeping the stick at a straight angle while making small, smooth, and rapid circles is much more difficult. Plates clattered to the floor, bouncing on the mats, noses, and knees. Frustrated but not surrendering, the dedicated troupe followed Polly around, asking her to demonstrate, and the re-demonstrate the exercise. Finally, after working silently and intensely, the troupe was able to efficiently transfer a plate to each person and spin them in unison. Eyes locked above, mouths open or set, a message written in the Urban Acrobatics guest book had proved prophetic: "Concentration is key."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spinning Plates. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Of course, after every act, one must also conclude it with a flourish, called "The Present." The present can be thought of the circus equivalent of a graffiti style, the signature flourish one adds at the end of a particularly thrilling act.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1EMbR8LjAOHmrph7OCSxmj4xnaTKFAOKATgEVt_9wqpFtH7bgZzkg6AE3fUl5bgOiSQh6sAKqNMUL_x6BIfPMyvw3th4lrOH8M-xfDnoLQi6epSHQeJ3hp33V3BdszL_36ciLF6ikLuU/s1600/IMG_2323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1EMbR8LjAOHmrph7OCSxmj4xnaTKFAOKATgEVt_9wqpFtH7bgZzkg6AE3fUl5bgOiSQh6sAKqNMUL_x6BIfPMyvw3th4lrOH8M-xfDnoLQi6epSHQeJ3hp33V3BdszL_36ciLF6ikLuU/s320/IMG_2323.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Present." Successful Plate Spinning. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce<br /></td></tr>
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After a short late lunch break, where the troupe read on the mats, or colored in their new sketch books, we reconvened to juggle discs with partners. Finally, we sat together and discussed the events of the past two days. I asked each youth to tell me what they thought of the workshops, and what their favorite parts were. Surprisingly, many said that the plate spinning, though frustrating, was their favorite because it was exciting to be able to do it. Others loved the graffiti and that "you can draw bricks behind your name." They then requested dance music and boogied the rest of the afternoon away. Some may join us for the final performance Sunday.<div>
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A hearty thanks to Goons, Riley, Polly, Word Up!, Moose Hall, and the kids for their inspiring work today. See you tomorrow at the Practice Session at the Jumel Mansion.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-47602699178441594642013-09-05T20:26:00.003-07:002013-09-06T07:43:48.830-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics New York: The First Workshop Series<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxMXQl5LTqWGENPqy0O4guSIPXipAoLbilCtTRkU5-b9xZ9OupAts8WWXPBxoPUb7zGU1GY-n9yviCp6bpSx5xxkgXn_1enl9gFw02s6qROInUVgVGWmlrxy3S2a1DiXLapKDgzmxLH8/s1600/IMG_2066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxMXQl5LTqWGENPqy0O4guSIPXipAoLbilCtTRkU5-b9xZ9OupAts8WWXPBxoPUb7zGU1GY-n9yviCp6bpSx5xxkgXn_1enl9gFw02s6qROInUVgVGWmlrxy3S2a1DiXLapKDgzmxLH8/s320/IMG_2066.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">E67 Fly ID and Clark Fly ID leading tagging workshop. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Today we had our first workshop series at the beautiful Word Up Bookstore and community center, at 165th Street and Amsterdam. We started with a tagging workshop, led by Erotica67 Fly ID and Clark Fly ID, two long time graffiti artists from the Bronx. We had three circus artists, and seven kids from the neighborhood. Laying out some brown butcher paper on the floor E directed the group to sit alongside the paper "like at a table." Then she held up a large foam board and drew our attention to Clark's rapid, fluid tag. "Choose a tag, its like a nickname. Do you have a nickname?" One kid shook his head, "Then you can write something that you like, or like to do."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMXk1lwDTGXD28CX65Nl0k2VtvqJeHbt-kEkSQavfsTV6OIWb0ZNGtstCwNMO7MVjSqMBb7_JmcZCchOJdA4vmfIpLV7x_H3yQxvvSfMc5WyI3i8D0N1OoejRRCOXGouiWXJnivY9u0M/s1600/IMG_2071.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMXk1lwDTGXD28CX65Nl0k2VtvqJeHbt-kEkSQavfsTV6OIWb0ZNGtstCwNMO7MVjSqMBb7_JmcZCchOJdA4vmfIpLV7x_H3yQxvvSfMc5WyI3i8D0N1OoejRRCOXGouiWXJnivY9u0M/s320/IMG_2071.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">E67 Working with Youth on Tag</td></tr>
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Erotica drew a "skeleton" of letters and then "marshmellows" around them, and then, surrounded them with a cloud.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCoR21ek0PL6CRivCtKm1TtlMRLDYFikrJNCbwtXvqrftVPfN4yS1cawdRBqOMVIc01mbashQcczxSLxT0v-mdsgG6Gk61LO8Zd1Mw-h_5ebDhPlkyQF0SRGLUK18cyKNdoV6kAGjb0TE/s1600/IMG_2050.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCoR21ek0PL6CRivCtKm1TtlMRLDYFikrJNCbwtXvqrftVPfN4yS1cawdRBqOMVIc01mbashQcczxSLxT0v-mdsgG6Gk61LO8Zd1Mw-h_5ebDhPlkyQF0SRGLUK18cyKNdoV6kAGjb0TE/s320/IMG_2050.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Demonstrating tag "skeleton" and "marshmellow" letters. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Exhorting the kids to tag up the butcher paper and represent NYC, their neighborhood, or street, Clark, meanwhile, drew a more elaborate throw up with outline, shadow, highlights, and a brick background. A youth to my right, Carla, helped lead her younger cousins in working on their pieces, she drawing a multicolored pink and orange piece with a frenetic and layered sun.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhSyPGtqe12kv11_5bIaBhjBJkrs0GEo3PZWnGAMgXZ5OIJmOInbyXH8Zvc229Z9BoSIofJmA9LT_bSldFwxEn8RoPTvdVqQxMZm2SWN4qhOffv9IDXQJi0tFbm6pfjRYmBay-S6d_bM/s1600/IMG_2044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhSyPGtqe12kv11_5bIaBhjBJkrs0GEo3PZWnGAMgXZ5OIJmOInbyXH8Zvc229Z9BoSIofJmA9LT_bSldFwxEn8RoPTvdVqQxMZm2SWN4qhOffv9IDXQJi0tFbm6pfjRYmBay-S6d_bM/s320/IMG_2044.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cousins working together on tagging. Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Another girl joined in, and after explaining to me that her favorite animals were bears and zebras, embarked on drawing a "Zebra" tag.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIUQLSTWCV2X7LIPPwkC-zObmHJaB1DrDe3DOKwB9Znqj4nTZ5oq5MSNYivNOBee8pD3CxgY71X_8u29se6rcxcDnQpW4PvAVE508NIPD4VNece3Jj2Z7NTyKkb1KwOoaViZy0_3QW-I/s1600/IMG_2072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIUQLSTWCV2X7LIPPwkC-zObmHJaB1DrDe3DOKwB9Znqj4nTZ5oq5MSNYivNOBee8pD3CxgY71X_8u29se6rcxcDnQpW4PvAVE508NIPD4VNece3Jj2Z7NTyKkb1KwOoaViZy0_3QW-I/s320/IMG_2072.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Zebra" Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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"One thing that I love about graffiti is that there is no such thing as a mistake," Erotica instructed, "And that you don't just have to draw letters, you can make characters. Like a sun with cool sunglasses" She drew a jolly sun sporting shades and a smile, "Or one that is giving a hug, because if you saw a wall like that, that'd make you smile." She then demonstrated how to draw a cat with two circles, triangles for ears, side whiskers, and then a squiggly tail. "You don't have to do your letters all neatly, like in school, they can be big, they can be upside down, or sideways." She helped the boy to my left draw a puppy, and Clark demonstrated how you can draw bricks in the background of your piece. Then Erotica demonstrated how to do shadows "Just remember the direction the sun is coming from," and an outline and shine. We then shifted from the butcher paper to large individual pieces of paper, and Erotica and Clark concluded by doing a raffle, having kids pick a number that had been secretly written down, and rewarding the winners with a sketch book.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3hj3dNr7f0uo5cU5guYrqR3SaJK6Jqt2SDJrdw1clYAu-a8ouev5av2VfuXto6I8rLJrSBNysF_gUD8uP8Tx3wA4ol9hBjtZc5r32Sxgr_5aidvY9oCGj9Py0YHB0pTLXmYGwaXcmgY/s1600/IMG_2070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3hj3dNr7f0uo5cU5guYrqR3SaJK6Jqt2SDJrdw1clYAu-a8ouev5av2VfuXto6I8rLJrSBNysF_gUD8uP8Tx3wA4ol9hBjtZc5r32Sxgr_5aidvY9oCGj9Py0YHB0pTLXmYGwaXcmgY/s320/IMG_2070.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Autumn's Philly-Inspired style. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce.</td></tr>
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We rapidly added more tumbling mats and Polly took over by directing a shape-making workshop. "Graffiti," she reminded us, "is a visual performance of breakdancing, and when you see a funny letter sticking out like this" <sticking out her foot> "its like a dancer actually sticking out their foot in a freeze. So we are going to do some shape making with our bodies." Each person picked a pose, and we had to name each pose, and repeat them, some the "boat of shame," or "cute!" or "the explorer" or "arrrgh" or "home run."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0wFoy9akm8AEffAY5RdajWBJicCmMDApn5MWJjw-_d_K5KdsuYUBthkufYGwnS43XyQPTi_FFgynkeaDRMUgDDlW16G9JKZ9s_5lyDzq-biVI8j4kZzsp1jwK4OKB2wCXeiFCtHaZJc/s1600/IMG_2085.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0wFoy9akm8AEffAY5RdajWBJicCmMDApn5MWJjw-_d_K5KdsuYUBthkufYGwnS43XyQPTi_FFgynkeaDRMUgDDlW16G9JKZ9s_5lyDzq-biVI8j4kZzsp1jwK4OKB2wCXeiFCtHaZJc/s320/IMG_2085.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"ARRRGH." Photo credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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After moving around in awkward, but exhilarating positions, sort of like musical chairs, Polly asked what you noticed. Someone said "shared energy!" "Thats right!" Polly exclaimed, "and when you work in a troupe, which is like a crew, you work together to share energy to create shapes together, that seem to come out of nowhere."<br />
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We shifted to doing some balancing exercises, working with a partner to work against gravity and to create more shapes, and then balancing objects (peacock feathers, plates, and on weebles).<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TATWatEj-qlBjNSKjJjR1lYhPgJkgpztevgie8QpDeCtQDOx0L81YWZczT8iEXqfMx4lGWqJZWFok3G6IJsqLnNTkNZZTK9fiG6XHEjdyrP60wUzpAgTUzRmlhsFgh9PTLC9ynnkanI/s1600/IMG_2116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TATWatEj-qlBjNSKjJjR1lYhPgJkgpztevgie8QpDeCtQDOx0L81YWZczT8iEXqfMx4lGWqJZWFok3G6IJsqLnNTkNZZTK9fiG6XHEjdyrP60wUzpAgTUzRmlhsFgh9PTLC9ynnkanI/s320/IMG_2116.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Fly Girl Balancing a Peacock Feather. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Finally, Paris led us in juggling exercises, emphasizing the way in which a juggler needs to hold their hands, palm up and relatively level, and direct their gaze (at two points a little above eye level), leading some to rapidly advance from juggling one bean-bag ball to three or four.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3IdyNA4aF1I4vfrrKH-ZqOoIM4TcG0I9DZTH9aKdrHAvoSRZzzwk1F6RzxThF1ytUJ3afESZkGmJosME1l8KqwOEi0oWFRZGOcFKSLKv3ZpD0UvUo26HF8T3u_-8kzNqktyBVpw4ABsU/s1600/IMG_2106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3IdyNA4aF1I4vfrrKH-ZqOoIM4TcG0I9DZTH9aKdrHAvoSRZzzwk1F6RzxThF1ytUJ3afESZkGmJosME1l8KqwOEi0oWFRZGOcFKSLKv3ZpD0UvUo26HF8T3u_-8kzNqktyBVpw4ABsU/s320/IMG_2106.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Paris and Polly Demonstrating Juggling Sight Lines. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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The sight of jugglers in the bookstore aisles was a little surprising for some, and we cajoled some unsuspecting bookstore visitors into taking off their shoes and joining us, learning that some had in fact done circus as children, or, never had before.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkQ-kagu7_a_B5jRySVW41QnMdZVWskl83efjDNP3myyNzdW2szjMFVp-jKwqF7RTl8YE5VKa1_TT9DnEA2eXceuVSMklkI88IqKA13bOylxKqURxLMLxEjSRK_9k7w96GPLVyxeHhJM/s1600/IMG_2128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkQ-kagu7_a_B5jRySVW41QnMdZVWskl83efjDNP3myyNzdW2szjMFVp-jKwqF7RTl8YE5VKa1_TT9DnEA2eXceuVSMklkI88IqKA13bOylxKqURxLMLxEjSRK_9k7w96GPLVyxeHhJM/s320/IMG_2128.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Word Up. A Spectacular Venue. Autumn Juggling. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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In these exercises, which worked from the very basics of movement, we began to see an architecture of expression based on shared kinetics, intense engagement with objects, and the animation of spaces, that points to some potential spaces for (physical and aesthetic) conversations between genres of graffiti and circus.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4pfH6O8TRPSvJnLQsM5tyMOjHw7nohMHNJG_aD_PmjYWmaiLdsJV6SxSyYI7RsA8gaPOKOC3KKAr0y-w-UfvnoKTw5fZN1fy-5El624D8Rsf_uAVM0_yFwoOIoQVtCplWFDIJQ6Lx9Bk/s1600/IMG_2117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4pfH6O8TRPSvJnLQsM5tyMOjHw7nohMHNJG_aD_PmjYWmaiLdsJV6SxSyYI7RsA8gaPOKOC3KKAr0y-w-UfvnoKTw5fZN1fy-5El624D8Rsf_uAVM0_yFwoOIoQVtCplWFDIJQ6Lx9Bk/s320/IMG_2117.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Tenacious Circus/Tagging Student Balancing Peacock Feather. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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Thanks to E67, Clark, Polly, Paris, Word Up (Emmanuel, Will and the rest of the Word Up crew), and our tenacious participants, adults and youth included. See you tomorrow.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polly Solomon Juggling. Photo Credit: Caitlin Bruce</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-80404098070961889542013-09-05T09:17:00.000-07:002013-09-05T20:09:14.613-07:00Dispatches from Urban Acrobatics New York: The Panel Session<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hkpxNttaNsMFGhk5nXqxNu6hy6isFjtFeSLJ_KECmHIaNk426UUdtKWZhky862fSR1hJtHiogUAu6KH-JO4Hp0I-PXjyMIOGfdqYqcE9NDffRA2tbkDKkN9vO4a8UHix0hM88A8poME/s1600/IMG_2025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hkpxNttaNsMFGhk5nXqxNu6hy6isFjtFeSLJ_KECmHIaNk426UUdtKWZhky862fSR1hJtHiogUAu6KH-JO4Hp0I-PXjyMIOGfdqYqcE9NDffRA2tbkDKkN9vO4a8UHix0hM88A8poME/s320/IMG_2025.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yesterday we held our inaugural panel discussion, titled, "Interrogating Shared Histories: Publicity, Movement, and Spectacle in NYC Circus and Graffiti." It was held at the NoMAA (Northern Manhattan Art Alliance) Gallery. We had about twenty people with us, a mix of circus artists, graffiti artists, and other artists form the Northern Manhattan area. Although a range of issues were discussed, from the colorful aesthetic that both genres may share, the emphasis on movement, migration, and even being subject to public fear because of immigration/strangeness, ephemerality, and public stigma for being low-brow or "not art," another key theme emerged.<br />
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Polly Solomon, project co-organizer explained during her presentation: "I think what all artists can share is that you dance, tag, or circus, because you <i>have </i>to. Because you love it." She went on to explain that being an artist, particularly within an art community that does not receive much public funding or valorization, requires an intense commitment to one's craft, to such an extent that painting, dancing, or circus-ing is equivalent to breathing.<br />
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Ralph "Tatu Xmen" Perez recounted how when doing graffiti, particularly illegal work, one is taking one's life in their hands. Autumn, a circus artist in the audience later nodded, explaining that acrobats too risk their lives every day, for the love and the beauty of their craft. The XMEN crew, founded by TATU, who has been painting since 1979, is an island of misfit toys, a "Circus", that is a medley of ages and ethnicities. He further highlighted that graffiti has existed since the dawn of time and is tied a basic human need for expression.<br />
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David Carlyon explained how graffiti and circus share the paradox of the public and the private: both are public <i>products</i> but the doers behind the works are often "there...and then gone!" The phenomenon of there and then gone, he went on to explain, also perhaps underwrites some of the fear of both the circus and graffiti, because, as itinerant art forms, they seem strange, and historically, what is strange is often seen as dangerous. He emphasized how both practices threaten decorum: arms out of place, voices raised too high. Graffiti as visual noise, and circus as excessive and even mad movement, challenge the strictures of bourgeois respectability. In my framing speech I explained the rationale for this project, mentioned in the first post of this blog, as being about thinking about how graffiti as the visual analogue for breakdancing IS an aesthetic of movement, with a long history on the trains.<br />
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Finally, Carlos Dominguez Martinez/FEEGZ reminded us that even within subcultural histories there are layers of exclusion and forgetting. Playing a video of Phase 2, he pointed out that Washington Heights, which was the home of old school writers like Julio 204 and Taki 183, often get written out of histories of graffiti when Brooklyn and the Bronx become the focus. He further explained the relationship between hip hop and graffiti, noting that graffiti is the least commodified pillar of hip hop.<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Marginality, movement, spectacle, and strangeness all emerged as key elements.</span><br />
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Thanks to the wonderful panelists, and our lively audience, for kicking off this project with such pomp and circumstance, and particularly NoMAA, for hosting us.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdqtEEvxMU-dc7wCrjCZnw7nWAltfGr1WTK3Es0hNcLZqshZHN7me7lgN1cIJfR53cW6bczWejmThkcpUdWFhBJkpXlFZchzhRaxRwOIQ94jB_MkzSwgWdjz7Sj2xI-WVBrLH8jlII0o/s1600/IMG_2033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdqtEEvxMU-dc7wCrjCZnw7nWAltfGr1WTK3Es0hNcLZqshZHN7me7lgN1cIJfR53cW6bczWejmThkcpUdWFhBJkpXlFZchzhRaxRwOIQ94jB_MkzSwgWdjz7Sj2xI-WVBrLH8jlII0o/s320/IMG_2033.JPG" width="320" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-10548744530462168582013-09-04T14:04:00.001-07:002013-09-04T14:04:39.655-07:00NYC Series: PressHi All,<br />
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The project begins today, and it is pretty exciting. We are so grateful that Sherry Mazzochi of the Manhattan Times did an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypXf_-yihFQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UU2iHA-Rt32co59Vt5gn-Ddw">interview</a> and article on the project.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-57923867745411417592013-09-03T10:40:00.000-07:002013-09-03T10:40:47.530-07:00Final Schedule for NYC Series!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-83600197456068998832013-08-29T08:39:00.004-07:002013-08-29T08:39:40.071-07:00Preliminary NYC Urban Acrobatics Series<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Please see our initial lineup below-- workshop details will be finalized by next Monday</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-63524114070988546932013-08-28T21:57:00.001-07:002013-08-28T21:57:19.066-07:00Shared Marginalities? Circus, Graffiti, and Arts Funding<br />
This is a theme that we will explore more over the course of the year, but a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323407104579034872070639700.html">recent article</a> that Polly alerted me to reminded me of one of the more implicit research interests for this project: investigating some of the shared <i>challenges</i> that both circus artists and graffiti practitioners face in being recognized as arts proper.<br />
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This debate in graffiti is a long and storied one. Joe Austin, Ian Bourdland, Jeff Ferrell, Susan Stewart, Nancy Macdonald, and many others point to the way that illegal graffiti works within an idiom that is incongruous with art world categories. Exchange value, autonomy, and singularity do not line up with illegal graffiti standards for publicity (on public spaces that cannot be sold or reduced to a quantity), communication practices embedded in ongoing social exchange, and proliferation and reproducibility. Of course, since the 1980s writers have found ways to adapt their styles, and pieces, for gallery scenes, some of which I have followed in Chicago and can be found <a href="http://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/archive/?author=474">here</a>. However, at the level of large-scale city funding and major sponsors, commissions are irregular at best.<br />
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Circus bears a different history but has some similar difficulties in working within a sellable, and hence, sponsor-attracting frame. Performance based, circus acts are singular but leave no trace, performances are spectacular but often challenge traditional narrative frames, and importantly, perhaps residual anxiety about circus' different outsider, and freak-show histories, it is challenged for not being a real art form, sentiments that bubble up in the Wall Street Journal article mentioned above. United States circus practitioners have been pushing for greater recognition, drawing attention to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/sunday/moving-beyond-the-big-tent.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">severe disparity</a> between institutional and public support for circus in the U.S. and in cities in Europe. Duncan Wall explains that circus is an evolving form, and demands new audiences. A similar argument could be made about graffiti.<br />
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Why is it that highly public, gravity defying, and innovative art forms are not being supported in the same way as say, Shakespeare, or American Gothic studies may be? Why is 5Pointz <a href="http://www.complex.com/art-design/2013/06/iconic-new-york-graffiti-hub-5-pointz-to-be-demolished">slated for demolition </a>when it is as much of a cultural icon as PS1? To what degree do the differences between arts funding in cities like New York and Chicago, and Paris and London, index social values about the importance of creativity, wonder, and the need to energize public spaces? We hope as the project continues we can continue discussing, and creating, more spaces and opportunities to consider a more durable trajectory of recognition for both art forms.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-77886686463343171312013-08-15T13:23:00.002-07:002013-08-15T13:23:38.319-07:00An Experiment in Counterintuitive Location: Old Buildings, New ArtTo preface, I'll just say that we are thrilled that the Morris-Jumel Mansion will be the site of our first performance on Sunday September 8th, 2013. Carol Ward, Director of Education and Public Programs, met me there today to show me the grounds and discuss the event.<br />
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Ward emphasized that they were interested in transforming the building, which <i>could</i> just be a "static" historical house into a dynamic space for community creativity. "I want this house to be full," Ward expressed as we looked at the beautiful lawn in front of the towering building. She has supported contemporary art exhibits in the building, and, on October 12th, there will be an all day art festival, all of which contribute to bringing the space into the present.<br />
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Ward's suggestion that historical spaces do not have to be static monuments is a helpful one for thinking about the nature of public art, community engagement, and participation. <i>Movement</i> emerges as a key component, imbuing artistic works with an evolving temporality.<br />
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The MJM is crucially located in Washington Heights which played a central role in the evolution of graffiti in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. Perhaps a site that may have been precisely that which figures like Mayor Lindsay strove to <i>protect</i> from graffiti, it is now a stage for the evolution of graffiti as a permission based and collective art.<br />
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Finally, this adventure in space acquisition continues to reveal spaces of permission, generosity, friendship, and intimacy in different parts of New York. What George Washington, who occupied this Mansion during the Revolutionary War, would say about it becoming the backdrop to a circus and graffiti spectacular, one can only guess.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-24160781149917165652013-08-06T12:36:00.002-07:002013-08-06T12:36:29.538-07:00The New York Workshops: The Politics of Public Space in Permitting RulesWe are in the planning stages for our New York installment of the workshop series and are in the process of finding a venue for the culminating performance. Since it will be in early September, we had hoped to hold it outside to really make the performance visible, accessible, and classically public.<br />
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A Parks District permit phone call today immediately illuminated some of the (less visible) limits on the kinds of public practices in place in canonical public places, like parks. </div>
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At noon today: </div>
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Parks official: "We do not allow acrobatics, and we do not allow graffiti. We spend a lot of time and money keeping graffiti out of the park"</div>
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Caitlin: "Well, it will of course not be on park property, it will be on boards, and fabric, and we could use washable paint."</div>
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Parks official: "We do not allow graffiti."</div>
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Caitlin: "Don't people paint in the park?"</div>
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Parks official: "On canvas."</div>
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Caitlin: "OK, but what about if it was on canvas, or cardboard, or paper?"</div>
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Parks official: "It cannot be on the grass, and that area is full of barbeque-ing anyway."</div>
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Caitlin: "What about juggling instead of acrobatics."</div>
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Parks official: "We do not allow acrobatics."</div>
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Caitlin: "This is just a little strange to me. In Chicago there is live painting all the time. What is the reason why it cannot happen here?"</div>
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Parks official: "Yes, in Barcelona, in other places, but not here. There are rules on the website. There is no painting in any city parks, and no acrobatics."</div>
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What is interesting here is first, the demonization of particular mediums. That an <i>individual</i> painting on canvas is less threatening than, say, a group of artists demonstrating the mural process on board or, cardboard, suggests an intense anxiety about <i>collective expression</i> and practice, as well as the persistent fear of the aerosol can as a tool in New York City, a hang-over from Mayor Lindsay (and later Rudy Guiliani's) War on Graffiti. Resistance to graffiti admits also a specifically <i>classed and raced</i> model of public space where a form of art that is still discursively linked to impoverished zones and "broken windows theory" serves as a nightmare for urban planners.</div>
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Second, is the fear of acrobatics-- a body doing gravity defying and spectacular movements. The worry I'd conjecture is about liability, a fear of bodily injury or vulnerability. What kinds of bodies (and movements) then <i>ought</i> to take place in the park? Baseball has high injury rates, as well as soccer, running, basketball, tennis. Here, I think, we see some of the uncertainty surrounding purely expressive and non competitive (teleological) physical activity that is about story telling rather than clear utilitarian goals like fitness, weight loss, or competition. Notably yoga, tai chi, and <b>capoeira</b> take place on the lawn in the park, all intensely acrobatic activities.</div>
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In both instances, the aesthetic figures as a site of anxiety, a space of confusion, and a zone that must be rigorously contained from polluting supposedly pristine natural sites. It also, however, serves as a way to erase the histories of park use that were intensely public, namely, the use of parks as meeting sites for young writers, parks as spaces for skaters, bboys and bgirls, intense scenes for constructing hip hop publics.</div>
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A later call was more illuminating and helpful: the Parks Department is concerned about circus rigs and art pieces because installation digs into the ground, and nothing is allowed on trees for fear that it will injure them. Here it seems to be more a question of competing understandings of the public good, one where maintaining the botanical integrity of a space is elevated above other kinds of use. We discussed potentially using pre-painted displays on a concrete surface, and "dance" instead of "acrobatics." The rhetorical gymnastics involved here are astounding. Instead of a direct conflict I was engaged in a process of discursive maneuvering and compromise, an affective scene that was decidedly less hostile, and might lead to us being able to stage a public performance.<br />
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But what is fascinating here is that already the attempt to experiment creatively with graffiti aesthetics in a site as historically charged as New York City is unfolding, illuminating the fickle and often empty character of what is understood to be "public" in an ever-privatized city. Moreover, the politics of park permitting helps us ask broader questions about what is prioritized in different cities, and what is devalorized. The pastoral identity of public parks in New York has a long and storied history, and the short exchange I had with the Parks Department points to residues of environmental uplift ideology that animated Fredrick Law Olmstead's Central Park design and subsequent debates over modernist urbanism. In a brutally pragmatic phone conversation environmental philosophy, public space ideology, fear of a litigation society, and urban sociology emerge as continuous components in the practice of trying to claim a right to the city.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337337999386017655.post-74932209857233607402013-07-31T10:26:00.000-07:002013-07-31T10:26:04.867-07:00Recuperating the Legacy of 1973: Thinking through Urban Acrobatics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In 1973 Twyla Tharp choreographed <i>Deuce Coup</i>, a collaborative piece between the Joffrey Ballet and several talented young writers who were part of the heyday of the New York City subway graffiti movement.<br />
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As the dancers pirouetted, grand-jetéed, and leapt across the stage writers crouched in the background writing their names on monumental panels that loomed behind the dancers bringing what then was commonly framed as the "urban jungle" aesthetic of 1970s New York into the pristine dance world.<br />
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The late 1970s and early 1980s offered scenes for tentative experimentation with graffiti in the gallery world, with Basquiat and Keith Haring becoming the (not entirely representative) poster children for a hybridized street-gallery art.<br />
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What would have happened if <i>Deuce Coup</i> became a more elongated conversation? Can we see its traces in body painting? Or perhaps, the whole arm movements and diagonal knee to nose strokes of the writer during a live paint jam? Graffiti is an art that has a history of movement, in terms of post WWI freight train monikers,the train-and-freight canvases that offer the most iconic images of 1970s New York, traces of diasporic migrations in <i>placas</i> and <i>cholo </i>inspired writing in Los Angeles but also the <i>practice </i>of writing itself: feats of daring to reach overpasses, billboards, subway tunnel throwups, rapid alleyway tags, and multi-story productions.<br />
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Such daring movements point to another genre of movement that has migratory histories and a dynamic aesthetic: the circus. Aerial acrobats climb hundreds of feet in the air to create astounding shapes by contorting their bodies and playing with gravity. Even more so than graffiti, such art leaves no trace. The train figures in circus history as a mechanism of travel, but also a space for living.<br />
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Notably, practitioners of both art forms have historically figured as social outsiders, and yet, participate in forms of expression that are spectacularly public, offering fascinating oscillating scenes of secrecy and publicity.<br />
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Circus and graffiti art offer each other productive sites for conversation around movement, publicity, and spectacle. We can see hints of a desire to cultivate such conversations in pieces like 7Doigts <i>Traces </i>performance, which combines acrobatics, drawing, and an urban atmosphere.<br />
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This project, to take place initially in New York City in early September 2013, and Chicago in early April 2014 will begin such an undertaking.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10356346338655774845noreply@blogger.com0