Don't Miss Dance @ Wassaic Festival this weekend- Friday, August 2 - Sunday, August 4.  The lineup for this year includes: Earl Mosley's Institute for the Arts,  Adia Tamar Whitaker (Ase Dance Theatre Collective), Katie Rose McLaughlin, Alexis Convento, Lauren Slone (Empty Nave Projects), Barbara Mahler, and Pauline Legras (Caliince Dance). 

Read more about dance - http://wassaicproject.org/dance/

The Wassaic Project Summer Festival is a FREE, annual, multi-disciplinary celebration of art, music, dance, and community featuring over 100 artists, 25 bands, film screenings, dance performances, and much more! Housed in the unique buildings and property of the Wassaic Project, the festival escapes the white walls of traditional art spaces and focuses on site-sensitive installations and performances. The festival creates a weekend-long opportunity for artists and performers of all mediums to come together, exchange ideas, learn new things, and engage in a thriving community. Participants are encouraged to come for the day or stay the weekend, camping onsite. Programming is cutting-edge yet family friendly. The beautiful Hamlet of Wassaic is remarkably accessible from NYC and a short walk from the Wassaic MetroNorth train station.

Read more about the Festival - http://wassaicproject.org/festival/about/

Lincoln Center Out Of Doors opened July 24 and continues until August 11.  This week it's Kyle Abraham / Abraham.in.Motion; The Living Word Project.  The rest of the dance calendar includes:  ZviDance; Dance Heginbotham;  A Tale of Two Nations: Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante;  La Casita;  Heritage Sunday: The S(e)OUL OF KOREA; and Sacred Drums.  Visit - www.LCOutofDoors.org 

August 3 only! - Desiree Godsell and Lia McPherson’s The Pearl, a mixed media dance concert series which gives choreographers and artists the opportunity to present new work, returns with guests artists Rashad Bailey, Jamila Raegan and the Brooklyn Colored Girls Dance Team. Email - liamcpherson@gmail.com.   Visit - http://wholelottaproductions.com/thepearl.

The US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) announced  the three  American dance companies selected to participate in the fourth season of DanceMotion (sm) USA—the cultural diplomacy program that supports United States foreign  policy goals by engaging international audiences through educational  opportunities, performance, and cultural exchange. DanceMotion (sm) USA is a people-to-people international exchange initiative of the US  Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs,  produced by BAM.


Season four features the following companies, world regions, and touring periods:

David Dorfman Dance, from New York, NY, will travel to Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in April–May, 2014.

CONTRA-TIEMPO, from Los Angeles, CA, will travel to Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador in May–June, 2014.

Mark Morris Dance Group, from Brooklyn, NY, will travel to Burma, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste in October–November, 2014.
               
As in the three previous seasons, participating dance companies will embark on consecutive, four-week-long  international performance and exchange tours to underserved regions around the world.  DanceMotion USA will again offer high-caliber artistic work to global audiences that might not otherwise have access to American artists. Companies will  participate in outreach events, workshops, master classes, media  interviews, performances, and discussions about arts management and  technical production with local artists and audiences in a wide variety  of venues and settings. A US-based cultural exchange component will  bring a Central Asian dance ensemble to the United States for  collaboration with David Dorfman Dance in late
2014.

For more information visit - http://dancemotionusa.org/

See my AmNews interview with Benoit Swan-Pouffer on his new position as choreographer for the new Broadway show "Soul Doctor"  (link below)

http://www.amsterdamnews.com/arts_and_entertainment/benoit-swan-pouffer-choreographs-new-broadway-show/article_ebcf05fe-efc6-11e2-9eb1-001a4bcf887a.html

For more information on the show -
http://souldoctorbroadway.com/?gclid=CKC0kt6JxLgCFYie4AodbVYArg

Watch Joan Myers Brown Accepting the National Medal
of the Arts
 
Watch PHILADANCO  Founder/Executive Artistic Director Joan Myers Brown accepting the National Medal of the Arts -- the nation's highest civic honor for excellence in the arts
-- at a ceremony that took place today at the White House.
 

 Click here to view the ceremony.  
 
The 2012 National Medal of Arts recipients are:
 
Herb Alpert, Musician and Producer
Lin Arison, Arts Patron

Joan Myers Brown, Dance Company Founder and Director 
 
Renée Fleming, Soprano
   
Ernest Gaines, Author
    
Ellsworth Kelly, Visual Artist
          
Tony Kushner, Playwright
         
George Lucas, Director and Producer
          
Elaine May, Writer, Director, and Performer
         
Laurie Olin, Landscape Architect
          
Allen Toussaint, Musician and Producer      

FRESH FRUIT FESTIVAL presents
ALL OUT DANCE - 11th ANNUAL FRESH FRUIT FESTIVAL
9 LGBTQ Dance Works. 1 Evening.
Saturday, July 13 at 9:00PM  at The Wild Project
195 E. 3rd St. (between Ave A & B)

Featuring:  BUTCHQUEEN by Ferdinand De Jesus (NY Premiere) An ode to the LGBTQ  ballroom community.  Other artists on the bill are Jason Torres Hancock, Michael  Clark, Robert Mark Burke, Diane Tomasi, Alvin Rangel, Okwae Miller,  McKenna Birmingham and Barry Webster. 

For more information visit - http://www.freshfruitfestival.com/

TAP INTERNATIONALS, part of the  week-long annual TAP CITY Festival  (July 6-13), presented by the American Tap Dance Foundation happens on July 11 at Symphony Space and will feature a mix of  international artists, including soloists, ensembles, tap masters, who will combine tap dance with world music,  body percussion, gumboot, funk, swing, step dance, vocals and storytelling.  

Participants include  Brenda Bufalino (US), Flavia Costa (Brazil), Felipe Galganni (Brazil), Corey  Hutchins (US), Chikako Iwahori (Japan), Ryan Johnson (US), Kazu Kumagai (Japan),  Lisa La Touche (Canada), Winston Morrison (Australia), Claudia Rahardjanoto  (Germany/Indonesia), Rumba Tap (Cuba), Lynn Schwab (US), the Tap City Youth  Ensemble (Africa/US), and Nicholas Young (US).

For more information visit http://www.atdf.org/

Read the story below by Michael Granberry - The Dallas Morning News - Arts and Features - 
 
Ann Williams, the founder and artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre, said last week that she will be stepping down next May after 37 years of running the company.

 “This is my last year,” Williams said in her office in the Dallas Arts District, where Dallas Black Dance relocated to a renovated building in 2007. “I have had the opportunity to mentor more than 300 beautiful people that are out around the world doing their own thing.

“Many have their own companies, their own dance schools. Many dance in Broadway shows, many are at colleges and universities. I feel good about the experience I’ve been able to give them. I call them all my kids.”

But at 75, Williams says she’s hoping to spend more time in her time-share condominium on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. It’s a whole new phase of her life, which began on a farm in the central Texas town of Mexia. “It was never my desire to die in this job,” she said with a laugh. “I wanted to build an institution, and I think I have done it.”