?Open for Dancing,? the biennial festival from Newport?s Island Moving Company, is back, with two days of site-specific performances taking place next weekend in prominent landscapes around the city. And the nice thing is anyone can join in, regardless of skill level.
This the fifth installment of the festival, which began 2002 and has attracted a ?who?s who? of choreographers specializing in site-specific work, said Island Moving Company?s Dominique Alfandre.
Besides the performances, which take place on Saturday and Sunday, classes in yoga, Qi Gong, and tai chi are being offered, along with dance master classes.
Ballroom dancing is on the lineup for Saturday afternoon, after which participants head for Long Wharf and dance the fox trot. Lunch is also provided, when you will have a chance to meet some of the artists.
The event brings together a mix of choreographers, musicians, professional dancers and people from the community, like the one woman who spent her days working on a computer for IBM and decided to branch out and try something new, said Alfandre. She signed up for the festival in 2006 and has been doing it ever since.
This year?s festival seems pretty tame compared to previous efforts, said Alfandre, even though one of the dances planned for next weekend takes place in a tree on Bellevue Avenue. Alfandre said in the past she has had to come up with a piano for a performance on a beech, and work with the Navy to stage a piece on an aircraft carrier at the base.
?We would do it every year,? said Alfandre of the festival, ?but it?s just too big. There are a million moving parts.?
This year, three choreographers have prepared dances. They will spend three days rehearsing with the dancers and musicians, from Wednesday to Friday, then put on three performances a day on Saturday and Sunday.
Perhaps the most unusual offering comes from Christine Sandorfi, who has prepared a piece that will be performed in an ancient beech tree on Bellevue Avenue. Sandorfi, who has danced with Island Moving since 2006, is something of a specialist with it comes to aerial dance. She helped create the aerial routines for the company?s spooky ?Dracula at Belcourt Castle.
Marta Renzi, who has worked in dance and film for the past 20 years, has designed a piece for the Yew Forest at the Norman Bird Sanctuary that will feature local musicians led by Mike Fishman.
Renzi, a Williamstown, Mass. native, has developed a reputation for staging site-specific dances in urban streets and public places, and she has been commissioned to create projects throughout the United States and abroad. Her film ?Porch Stories,? which documents a project using professional dancers as well as people from the community, was a finalist in the Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, Co.
Zach Morris, a Bessie Award-winning choreographer whose output includes site-specific dance performance, as well as installation art, video and multimedia projects, will be using the newly refurbished Northeast Casemates at Fort Adams for his piece.
Morris, a frequent award winner, is a co-director of New York?s Third Rail Projects, which puts on dance projects in public spaces. He is also organizer and moderator of the New York City Dance Film Lab, and creator of the annual Steampunk Haunted House in New York City.
Alfandre described the work of both Morris and Renzi as ?very theatrical,? and involving a lot of set pieces and costumes.
About 65 people have signed up, she said, and all told probably 100 people will take part in the event, which will take place rain or shine. There is no way such an elaborate undertaking could be rescheduled for another weekend, said Alfandre. And besides, you can?t move these performances indoors, because they are designed for a specific outdoor spot.
Yoga classes are given mornings at 9 in Ballard Park and Queen Anne Square in the middle of town. And instruction in the ancient Chinese art of Qi Gong will be given at Purgatory Chasm in Middletown.
Participants pay $150 for the three days of rehearsals and the performances. The cost for students is $75.
For information call (401) 847-4470, or check out the Island Moving Company website at www.islandmovingco.org.
Source: http://www.projo.com/lifebeat/content/rhode_island_moving_09-18-11_OBQB3M7_v13.8843c.html
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