Hello BDA Community,
Happy Election day! I hope you danced your way to a poll and ensured your voice was heard as we take next steps towards the future of our country. Amidst the turbulence, I also hope you find sometime for yourself, maybe watching some exquisite dance in the area or dancing it all out yourself.
In other news, we are bringing back our Dancewear Distribution program! After a brief hiatus as we were working through leadership transition, we are excited to redistribute over 20 boxes of unworn dance clothes and shoes to those who need it the most. If you are a BDA member who works with low-income dancers in need of dancewear, remember to fill out the request form by Monday, November 11, 11:59 PM. Our team will work diligently to get our inventory sorted and provide your dancers with what they need! As always, let me know if you have any questions: crizzo@bostondancealliance.org.
Have a great week,
Carmen S. Rizzo, Operations & Membership Associate
BDA Member Events This Week
FREE! – Join Dance Caliente for Dancing Joy. This interactive ballroom show, performed by Eileen Herman-Haase and Raul Nieves, is designed to engage you visually and physically. Feel the passion with dances like the Waltz, Argentine Tango, Swing, and Merengue. After a performance of each style, Eileen and Raul will share the joy by teaching you some of the moves. Thursday, November 7 from 7-8 PM, at the Peabody Institute Public Library, 82 Main Street, Peabody. Registration required.
Abilities Dance Boston is premiering their ballet “Tales from the Crips: Reimagining Fairy Tales from a Disabled Lens“, inspired by the book “Disfigured” by Amanda Leduc. Audio descriptions will be provided (for blind/low-vision audiences), and captions and ASL interpretations will be provided (for deaf/hard of hearing audiences). No flashing/strobe lights. Sound variability can happen with a live orchestra and pre-recorded descriptions so they welcome folks to bring headphones/ear plugs if easily overstimulated. They also provide unlimited free/sliding scale tickets for live and live streaming audiences who can’t afford to see the work. Friday, November 8 & Saturday, November 9, 8 PM at the Strand Theatre, 543 Columbia Rd., Boston. Livestream option available. Tickets: $0-$35.
SOLD OUT! – Subject:Matter explores where tap dance has been, where it’s going, and what it looks like right now. Presented by Global Arts Live, the company will perform With Far Hand, a work featuring exciting explorations in tap dance composition. Friday, November 8, 8 PM, at the ICA, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston. Tickets: $36-$40.
With a rotating variety of unique companies and artists, The Dance Complex presents a world tour exploring our roots en route to a fully dynamic and moving experience. Featuring: beheard.world, Modern Connections, Nino de los Reyes, Yu-Ling Hu, Jean Appolon Expressions, Rebecca McGowan & Alexandra Williamson, Accumulation Dance, Anjali Nath & Labonee Mohanta and Carmen S. Rizzo & Dancers. Programs vary each day. Friday, November 8 & Saturday, November 9, 8 PM, and Sunday, November 10, 4 PM, at Arrow Street Arts, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge. Roots and Routes also features a series of dance classes on Saturday, November 9, starting at 11:30 AM and an informal showcase on Sunday, November 10, 1 PM.
TriNethra – the third eye festival of dance was set up to provide the Bharathakalai School of Dance dancers an elegant stage and payment for their art. Join the event filled with mesmerizing performances by talented dancers locally and from around the world. Get ready to witness the beauty and grace of various dance forms that will truly “open your eyes” to the magic of movement. Saturday, November 9, 3-7 PM, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington. Tickets: $25-$200.
Heidi Henderson / Elephant Jane Dance presents the Rhode Island premiere of untitled sad piece, set to the music of The Carpenters. Examining the sensation of a sinking heart, featuring quiet solos, touching duets, and a wild burst of galumphing, dancers respond to the deep sadness in the grain of Karen Carpenter’s voice, initiate from the dancers’ hearts, and find tenderness. Audience members are encouraged to dress in 1970’s attire and can skate after the show, for an additional fee. Thursday, November 7, 7 PM, at United Skates of America, 75 New Rd., Rumford, RI. Tickets: $20-$50.
Boston Ballet School’s Professional Division at Walnut Hill School for the Arts presents a Fall Showcase. The performance offers a glimpse into the dancers’ class routine with barre and center before transitioning into a fabulous showpiece of physical arts. In contrast, a world premiere for the Professional Division students choreographed by Levi Marsman, 2005 Walnut Hill graduate and former member of Alvin Ailey and Complexions, takes the performance into a creative, current, and relevant example of movement and ingenuity that showcases our students’ diversity and individuality. Friday, November 8, 7 PM, Saturday, November 9, 2 PM & 7 PM, and Sunday, November 10, 2 PM, at the Keiter Center for the Arts, 146 Bacon Street, Natick. Tickets: $15.
FREE! – Wendy Jehlen (ANIKAYA) hosts another The Women Gather this fall, responding to a deep and persistent need to acknowledge and share grief. These Gatherings are movement and sound-making workshops open to anyone who self-identifies as a woman. The Women Gather is a shared communal experience, a ritual of healing.Following the workshop, these practices will be taken into public space in a culminating collective public ritual. Saturday, November 9, 2-5 PM at the Boston Center for the Arts, Studio 414, 551 Tremont St., Boston. RSVP.
Welcome the sweater weather and cozy up with tea and cookies to enjoy music and dance for a Swedish living room. The pages of the manuscripts that this program will draw from are loaded with dance music. Incorporating original and historic notated choreography, Julia Bengtsson will help this music come alive through 17th-century dance. At Home in Sweden takes place Saturday, November 9, 3 PM at United First Parish Church, 1306 Hancock St., Quincy and Sunday, November 10, 3 PM at the Somerville Music Spaces, 1060 Broadway, Somerville. Tickets: $10-$20.
Northeast Youth Ballet opens their season with the Spirit of Ballet. NYB’s 2024 Fall Series will highlight some of our audience’s favorite ballets from the classical and contemporary repertoire. Saturday, November 9, 7:30 PM & Sunday, November 10, 2:00 PM, at the J. Everett Collins Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Shawsheen Road, Andover. Tickets: $31.50-$46.50
Twelve musicians of Palaver Strings and eight dancers of little house dance perform Noisefloor, a new project that seamlessly blends music and dance—dancers are involved in the composition process and musicians are involved in little house’s movement language. Playing with the subjectivity of human experience, Noisefloor uses architecture and acoustics to transform the theater into an atmospheric cave. Musicians and dancers move throughout the stage and surrounding areas in an immersive physical, visual, and musical experience. Saturday, November 9, 8 PM, at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston. Tickets: $36-$40.
Circus Up’s annual benefit will include a raffle, treats, a scavenger hunt, refreshments and of course performances! All funds raised from this event will go towards supporting their mission to use circus arts to overcome social barriers and build community with people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. Sunday, November 10, 3 PM at the Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville.
MIDDAY is partnering with the Boston Center for the Arts this season on the BCA’s Dance Lab Residency and MIDDAY’s Rough Drafts program. This partnership will encourage collective learning and project planning in a cohort format and deepen professional development conversations and opportunities. Up to six artists/companies will be selected to participate in this pilot program. Application Deadline: November 10.
a MAKE iT/SHARE iT/SHOW iT (aMaSSiT) Lab is a Dance Complex program that continues to adapt to the ever changing needs of dance makers and other creatives. The Dance Complex has partnered with Monkeyhouse Co-Artistic Director karen Krolak over the last few years to bring ever-evolving content to aMaSSiT’s offerings. A cohort of artists will be chosen via application to participate in this series of learning, making and informational sessions over the arc of the course winter to spring. The program culminates in a public sharing/showing of the participants’ journey that can include performance and/or articulations of process and practice developed over the 3 months+ course. Applications are now open!