Докладът на Мария Дражева е публикуван в Интернет

10 държави участват във фолклорния фестивал във Варна

Участници от 10 държави ще се представят на 16-тия фолклорен фестивал във Варна, който е под патронажа на вицепрезидента Ангел Марин.Музикалният форум ще бъде от 5 до 9 август, съобщи днес Жасмина Станчева, експерт в общинската дирекция „Култура“ и организатор на феста. Стартът ще бъде поставен с традиционното дефиле на всички участници от центъра на Варна до Летния театър.

В рамките на феста зрителите ще имат възможност да видят състави от Армения, Гърция, Германия, Португалия, Румъния, Турция, Грузия, Македония. За пръв път ще се представи и ансамбъл от Венецуела. Сред българските участници ще бъде и ансамбъл „Филип Кутев„.

Освен в Летния театър гостите ще изнасят концерти на специални сцени в районите „Владислав Варненчик“ и „Аспарухово„.

Част от съставите ще се представят и в Шумен. В рамките на феста е предвидена и конфенеция на тема „Традиционната култура и фолклор в условията на глобализма“.

Доцент Георг Краев от Нов български университет и Мария Дражева от Асоциацията за БМТФ са поканени лектрори на конференцията.

WOMAD or World of Music, Arts and Dance

WOMAD stands for World of Music, Arts and Dance, expressing the central aim of the WOMAD festival – to bring together and to celebrate many forms of music, arts and dance drawn from countries and cultures all over the world.

WOMAD was originally inspired by Peter Gabriel: „Pure enthusiasm for music from around the world led us to the idea of WOMAD in 1980 and thus to the first WOMAD festival in 1982. The festivals have always been wonderful and unique occasions and have succeeded in introducing an international audience to many talented artists.

„Equally important, the festivals have also allowed many different audiences to gain an insight into cultures other than their own through the enjoyment of music. Music is a universal language, it draws people together and proves, as well as anything, the stupidity of racism.“

As an organisation, WOMAD now works in many different ways, but our aims are always the same – at festivals, performance events, through recorded releases and through educational projects, we aim to excite, to inform, and to create awareness of the worth and potential of a multicultural society.

The WOMAD Festivals

Since the first festival in Shepton Mallett, England in 1982, WOMAD has presented more than 160 events in 27 different countries and islands.

Having established its presence in the UK, WOMAD‘s unique nomadic indentity evolved gradually during the eighties. In 1988, the festival began to be presented internationally, with initial events in Denmark and Canada. Since then, WOMAD‘s worldwide profile has grown quickly, now embracing events in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Canary Islands, Sicily and the UK each year.

The festivals are often weekend-long, family-oriented, active and diverse musical events, featuring simultaneous performances on two or three stages, including participatory workshops and special events for children, as well as music and dance sessions hosted by many of the visiting artists.

The WOMAD Foundation organises the WOMAD festival workshops as well as other educational and outreach projects. The Foundation is a registered educational charity established in 1983 and is the educational arm of the WOMAD Festival organisation. For more information on the WOMAD Foundation click on the ‘WOMAD Foundation’ button on the right.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Information on two of our upcoming programs for the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Smithsonian Global Sound Explore and download the world of musical traditions. Thousands of rare recordings. Free radio streams, videos, and lesson plans.

Explore Culture Educator Resources Publications Cultural Policy Online Exhibitions

Featured Projects The Folkways Collection Podcast Subscribe to this 24-part series on the music and history of Folkways Records. Folklife Festival Flickr Project Help us document the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival by uploading your photos to our SFF2007 Flickr group. NEA National Heritage Fellows Discover the many National Heritage Fellows on Smithsonian Global Sound.

After Xmas Bulgarian Custom Dance

Легендата разказва, че българските майки са използвали кръвта на петлите за да маркират с тяхната кръв домовоете си – така еничарите са пропускали техните къщи и не са отнемали невръстните им деца.

Мария втъкава в хореографията на този ритуален танц минало и съвременност.

По думите на проф. Ан фендер от Gettisburg College,

това е едно успешно дръзко преплитане на тъжна историческа действителност и жизнерадостта на българския народ.

Погледнете част от 18 минутната композиция:

Martha Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights

In the years since creating her seminal and critically acclaimed Garden of Earthly Delights (1984), Martha Clarke realizes Hieronymus Bosch’s inspired painting at ADF for a new generation of viewers. Awe-inspiring in its time, Clarke’s re-examination of Bosch’s fevered vision of earth, heaven, and hell through dance, music, and exquisite aerial work promises to have a similar effect now. A stellar cast of dancers and musicians, working with Richard Peaslee’s newly arranged score, will create a fresh, 21st century version of Garden (work in progress) to open the Festival. Clarke will be mounting the re-envisioning while in residence for four weeks at ADF, and the completed work will appear Off Broadway later this year.

Looooooooooooook

Commissioned and produced by the American Dance Festival and co-commissioned by Duke University.

Definition: Choreography

cho·re·og·ra·phy (kôr‘ē-ŏg‘rə-fē, kōr‘–)
n., pl. -phies.

1. 1. The art of creating and arranging dances or ballets.
   2. A work created by this art.
2. Something, such as a series of planned situations, likened to dance arrangements.

[French chorégraphie : Greek khoreia, choral dance; see chorea + -graphie, writing (from Latin -graphia, -graphy).]

choreographic cho‘re·o·graph‘ic (-ə-grăf‘ĭk) adj.
choreographically cho‘re·o·graph‘i·cal·ly adv.

Learning steps for the dance of life

By Kimberly S. Wetzel, MEDIANEWS STAFF

Their backs arched and the gentle glow of stage lights emphasizing their sleek, black leotards, the middle-schoolers stand graceful and still as they wait for the pianist to begin.

The group — dressed the part of postured, classic ballet dancers — is easily mistaken for seasoned young professionals.

But when AileyCamp ballet instructor Willie Anderson asks them to assume the pointe position, the jig is up: The students’ bodies jerk in and out of balance, their arms totter up and down, and their ankles twitch with tension.

Anderson watches and offers advice, forcing the students to hold the position long after comfort expires.

„Higher, higher!“ he commands as he moves through the wobbling crowd, tilting heads upward. „Hands up, thumbs in!“

Soon, Anderson relents and lets the youngsters drop to their heels. Onlookers exhale with smiles of relief, though the dancers do not, instead hustling into the next position.

It’s difficult to believe that most of the 11- to 14-year-old dancers never have taken a dance class before. Many also come from low-income families, have only one parent at home and live in neighborhoods that can be rough.

Regardless of such circumstances, organizers of the AileyCamp — a six-week program sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley’s Cal Performances that teaches at-risk youths dancing and other life skills — aim to mold disciplined, focused, well-behaved young adults who develop a passion for the arts through holistic learning. Founded in 1989 in Kansas City by legendary dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, AileyCamp is a national program that helps youths learn self-expression and self-respect through dance and personal development classes. The AileyCamp overseen by Cal Performances is the only one of its kind on the West Coast.

This year, local organizers picked 80 students out of hundreds of applicants from West Contra Costa County, Oakland, Berkeley and Albany to take part in the African, ballet, modern and the program’s touchstone jazz dance classes.

Those selected must exhibit some or all of the camp’s at-risk criteria. Students receive transportation, uniforms, meals, dance lessons and personal development classes in which they learn about such topics as health, responsibility, self-esteem, conflict resolution and drug awareness.

„What we teach them is there are more important ways to behave,“ said Shawn Nealy, personal development instructor for the local program. „If they don’t remove any blockage that they have, they can’t perform well on stage.“

The students take classes Mondays through Thursdays, leaving Fridays open for field trips where they test out their swim strokes, bowl for a strike or learn sailing instruction through the OCSC Sailing School in Berkeley.

AileyCamp is free for its students, funded through corporate and private donations. It climaxes each year with a student dance production under the lights at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. This year’s performance, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for

Aug. 2.

„For a lot of them, they come in with a lot of challenges for kids their age,“ said program director David McCauley. „At the end of the camp, there’s often a huge change in many of them.“

Those changes include more confidence, improved behavior at school and a more worldly view, camp organizers say.

The curriculum is challenging: The students take four dance classes a day, and their instructors don’t tolerate a lack of focus.

„They just haven’t been exposed to other ways of walking in the world, other ways of thinking,“ Nealy said. „We really want to transform their lives.“

„You’re not listening!“ modern dance instructor M’bewe Escobar yells during a recent practice. „Go back! You start with a twist! You can do it, you just have to focus!“

Despite the hard work, the students say they enjoy it.

„I’m having a lot of fun,“ said Oakland resident Beautiful Spears, 12. „I really like the dance classes and am learning so much.“

Though AileyCamp appealed mainly to girls in past years, recent efforts to get boys involved have paid off, with 22 participating this year. Boys are not required to wear leotards but must wear black shorts and a white T-shirt.

„They get into it,“ McCauley said of the boys. „Dancing calls for a different set of motor control, but the instructors try to liken it to sports.“

The boys enjoy other portions of the program, too. On a recent sailing excursion, their „male“ side was apparent.

„That’s where pirates fight each other with swords,“ 11-year-old Oakland resident Sidney George Jr. said as he glanced up at the sails on their 82-foot schooner for the day, Seaward.

For many of the students, the sailing excursion is one of the highlights of the camp. Deckhands teach them sailing lingo, let them raise the sails and show them sea critters.

„Ooh, what the heck is it?“ 12-year-old San Pablo resident Mia Stewart shrieked as she wiggled some sea sponge in her palm. „It feels all gooey!“

Although many have never been on a boat and several are usually nervous beforehand, once they conquer their fear of the water, camp organizers say, they can see the immediate transformation.

The same is true of dance class — the children really start to get it.

„Some of them are out of their element and don’t know what to expect,“ Nealy said.

Reach Kimberly S. Wetzel at 510-262-2798 or kwetzel@cctimes.com.

The Kyoto Prize Laureates of this year

The 2007 Laureates / Arts and Philosophy Category / Theater, Cinema

Pina Bausch Germany / July 27, 1940 Choreographer and Artistic Director

„A choreographer who has broken down the boundaries between dance and theater and pioneered a new direction for theatrical art“

Applying an original choreographical approach that delves into the fundamental motives of human action, Ms. Pina Bausch has established a creative idiom that taps deeply into the sensitivity of both performers and their audiences. At the same time, she has broken down the boundaries between dance and theater, and opened up a new direction in theatrical art.

The Architecture of Dance

The Architecture of Dance

By Valerie Gladstone
15 Jul 2007

With Metapolis II, Frédéric Flamand’s Ballet National de Marseille and architect Zaha Hadid find a new way to bring structure to the Lincoln Center Festival.
If you wonder what the future holds for big cities and their denizens, Frédéric Flamand, the adventurous choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet National de Marseille, provides a compelling answer in his riveting 70-minute work Metapolis II, which will be presented July 25-27 at the New York State Theater, during the Lincoln Center Festival.

Long fascinated by the intersection between architecture and dance, Flamand has collaborated with some of the world’s top architects, among them Diller+Scofidio, Jean Nouvel, and Thomas Mayne. For this piece, he chose the daring, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid as his artistic partner to create a futuristic landscape where human beings struggle to keep their humanity.

„I was drawn to Zaha’s fluid buildings and drawings, which are inspired by both the Russian Constructivists and Arabic calligraphy,“ Flamand says. „I saw in her work ways to structure dancers’ movements. In a sense the body is architecture. It continually creates new architecture every time it moves. I like to connect and contrast what is alive and human and what is still by making architecture integral to my dances.“

Metapolis II by Frédéric Flamand, with design by Zaha Hadid.
photo by Pino PiPitone

Moved by the example of Los Angeles and other American cities, Flamand and Hadid explore what urban sprawl might look like in 25 years. They decided on a set with three monumental translucent silver bridges spanning 33 feet, which slide into different configurations. To this, they added a complex mix of audio-visual technologies that contribute to the wild, high-energy choreography. „The point was the space itself could dance,“ says Hadid, who was drawn to the possibility of realizing her designs in a setting unrelated to traditional architecture.

To a discordant, jazzy, techno score by Jacques Yves le Docte and George van Dam, the handsome dancers crawl, leap, and tumble across the blue-green lit stage, as disturbing, grainy, black and white images of traffic jams and subway cars are projected behind them. At times, they wear clothing with blue screens, so that they carry visual material that complements the projections behind them. And adding yet another visual layer, a cameraman onstage shoots footage as they dance, his material joining the mix.

„I tried to envision how human beings will survive in these new urban environments,“ Flamand says. „I accentuate their sensuality and fragility in contrast to the chaos around them. In this world dominated by machines and technology, I feel I have been forced to question the value of the human body.“

Valerie Gladstone writes frequently for Playbill.

Metapolis II by Frédéric Flamand, with design by Zaha Hadid.
photo by Pino PiPitone