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Minneapolis, Minnesota
Allow me to introduce four writers – Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe, Penelope Freeh, David Frum, and Nicholas Nash – whose words I find valuable for various reasons. Collectively, their thoughts fit within the mission of Minnesota Mist: Writings about dance, the arts, politics, and culture. Links to their blog sites are listed in the left-hand column of this blog, under "My Favorite Places on the Web."
Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe pens and posts Empowering Thoughts for Dancers. She also chairs the Dancer Council of Dance/USA, the national service organization for nonprofit dance in America. Currently, she performs as a member of the American Repertory Ballet in New Jersey, and appeared last summer in a solo program in Germany and Italy. I have known Brittany and her husband, Matthew Keefe, for several years; both danced with James Sewell Ballet during my tenure as its executive director. Born in Idaho, Brittany grew up in Seattle where she studied dance at the School of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Her performance credits include Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Ballet Memphis, and Minnesota Dance Theatre. Brittany has developed a dance therapy program for children with special needs and is certified in the GYROTONICS® exercise system.
Penelope Freeh has written Thoughts on Dance for three years, since January 2006. A native of Ohio, Penny started her dance studies at the Dayton Ballet before moving to New York City where she danced with several companies. She came to Minnesota in 1994 to join James Sewell Ballet, where she continues to perform and serves as artistic associate. As a choreographer, her work has been produced by the James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Orchestra, Walker Art Center / Southern Theater, Weisman Art Museum, and Ballet Builders. Penny is the monthly dance writer for TC METRO magazine; she wrote a feature column for Dance Magazine in May 2008.
I have been aware of David Frum since his days as a special assistant and economics speechwriter to President George W. Bush in 2001-2002. During last fall's campaign, some members of the conservative movement branded him as a traitor and persona non grata for questioning the credentials of Sarah Palin and her fitness to serve as president. I wrote to David on Nov. 14, following his appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC:
For a few brief moments last evening, you and Rachel Maddow had very human and real conversation. You and I are not fellow travelers, politically, but I appreciated your quoting of Gandhi and planting a seed with Rachel – whose style I mostly enjoy – regardless of whatever combination of things motivated you. Thanks for making the appearance.
He replied to thank me, and I have since followed his writing. Regardless of the party in power, we need a strong, loyal opposition, one that is reasoned, principled, and civil. David's voice provides that on the new website he edits, NewMajority,com. The site is dedicated to the reform and renewal of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. I do not vouch for the other writers he features, nor do I share his objective of a new majority of the right, but he provides an intellectually honest discourse with his own words.
Born in Toronto, David earned BA and MA degrees from Yale and a law degree from Harvard, and became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 2007. He is a resident at the American Enterprise Institute, the author of six books, and a regular commentator on American Public Media's "Marketplace." Like me, he is a fan of Abraham Lincoln and American Civil War history. His wife, the author Danielle Crittenden, is a contributor to the HuffingtonPost.com. Here is an example of David's viewpoint from a recent post:
Today's Republican Party is an unhealthy and unhappy organization. ...Parties do not rebuild by shutting out their members – or engaging in tough guy talk when asked basic and obvious questions about past promises. They rebuild with transparency, responsiveness and competence. Let's have some, please.
I have known Nicholas Nash for many years through my work in Minnesota's arts community, and always have regarded him as what "they" used to call a "true gentleman and scholar." Like me, he has had more than one Scottish terrier in his life and household, and that is just the beginning of the good character traits of this self-described teacher, school administrator, professor, public radio program director and broadcaster, entrepreneur, and theater aficionado.
Educated at Harvard, Nick carries the title Le Grand Fromage at The Nash Company where his largest selling products include nose flutes and conducting batons. He is a man of character, conviction, and subtlety who maintains several blogs, including Hobbling Through The Zeitgeist, Islay The Scotty, and Thoughts While Shaving. Here is a sample of this Renaissance man's prose:
You should be willing to discover our own contemporary artists and composers with enough oomph so that whether their time comes now or not for another century and a half, they might believe that their commitment to their art will always have value.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The website of MusicalAmerica carries an account of the meeting held in Washington last Thursday among members of the Presidential Transition Team and the CEOs of 20 arts service organizations. Bill Ivey, former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, convened the gathering whose attendees included people from Opera America, Dance/USA, Chorus America, League of American Orchestras, Association of Art Museum Directors, Theatre Communications Group, and Meet The Composer, among others. Interestingly – and encouragingly – the agenda was not all about obtaining more money for the arts!
Miami, Florida
This past week, July 12-20, has been my third visit to Miami, occasioned by the quadrennial GALA Choruses Festival. The festival was a week of 15-, 30-, and 60-minute performances by more than 140 GLBT choruses and smaller ensembles presented and attended by 5,000 singing delegates from around the world. Members of the South Florida public also attended. The logistics of making it all happen were a wonder to behold. The organizers did a great job.
All of it was more than a person could absorb or process. I fear it will become a surreal blur of memory in short order. All of my Miami visits have had a surreal quality. Unlike travel to New York, San Francisco, Jacksonville, and other coastal cities, Miami feels like a different planet.
My first trip to Dade County started on a Sunday afternoon, July 2, 1972, as the principal driver of a new, black Oldsmobile 88, equipped with a mobile telephone. Four other staffers of Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign and I were driving south from Washington, D. C., to the Democratic National Convention; the oldest of us was 21.
We passed through Richmond, Virginia, well before dusk and continued through the night. Around 4am, the darkest time before dawn, we managed to get lost somewhere in southern Georgia. Although we had a letter of introduction from the U.S. Secret Service, we had been warned not to stop along the way unless it was imperative. Unwilling to ask directions, we gutted it out for what seemed hours until we found our way across the Florida state line around 6:30am.
If you must drive the length of Florida quickly and can avoid using A1A, do so. Although this often scenic highway runs along the coast, it passes through every stop light and traffic jam in every village and city along the way. We were getting nowhere in a great deal of time when someone pulled out a map and noticed there was an interstate freeway running parallel to us about three miles inland.
Although sleep-deprived and loathe to miss my first glimpse of the fabled scenery of Cape Canaveral, Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and the rest, I yielded. It was one of many occasions when I have had to accept that a group’s wisdom might exceed mine.
We arrived at our hotel headquarters, in the vicinity of 69th Street and Collins Avenue, before dinner, and called our Secret Service contact in Washington to check-in only a few hours past our expected arrival time. From there, we jumped into doing whatever passes for important work at a national convention. Democracy was never intended to be a tidy and rational process, and political campaigns embody that reality.
My memory of those two weeks is a mix of blurred and disparate images. I recall the press conference where HH withdrew from contention for the nomination; the ocean's aquamarine color; our dorm-like accommodations; strawberry pie at Pumpernik's deli; kissing a young woman on the beach at night; ferrying people to and from the Miami airport endlessly; a party on a boat; and passing out souvenir booklets at the convention center.
I also recall feeling totally grateful that a young man traveling from Germany turned-up and offered to drive the Oldsmobile back to D.C. (Two weeks later, he and I, with another friend, from Australia, drove the car and a U-Haul from D.C. to Minneapolis.) There was one campaign charter flying back from Miami to Washington on July 14. After the desolation of losing the nomination fight I was desperate not to be left behind on the ground.
The next time I saw Miami was six years ago, in June 2002, while attending a Dance/USA Roundtable conference. About 400 dance artists and administrators from around the world gathered at the Marriott Miami Biscayne Bay for several days of workshops and networking. While I attended conference activities, my partner, James Davies, spent time across Biscayne Bay figuring out how Miami’s South Beach works. We took part of a day to tour the Art Deco District, the Jewish Museum of Florida, and other sites. One evening, all of us toured the facilities of the Miami City Ballet, and on a number of nights we attended performances of the Florida Dance Festival. At the conclusion of the Roundtable, James and I flew to Jacksonville to visit relatives.
During this past week, we again lodged at the Marriott. The Trinity Episcopal Cathedral stands across the street and next to the Venetian Causeway. Organized in 1896, it is the oldest church within the original city limits of Miami. The cathedral's distinctive Mediterranean appearance derives from Romanesque, Byzantine, and Italianate elements combined by the architect, Harold Hastings Mundy. The building is on the Register of National Historic Places. James woke early on Monday and Wednesday to volunteer with the Feed My Sheep program that provides breakfast for 150 homeless people at 6:15am.
Some of us attending the GALA Choruses Festival discovered the S & S Diner four blocks from the Marriott. Part of a small, local chain hailing from 1938, the S & S is located across the street from the Biscayne Park Cemetery. Its 23 seats at a horseshoe-shaped counter make it a great place to have breakfast or lunch for less than $8 and to hold a neighborly conversation. The wait-staff knew more about the Festival gossip than we did.
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is two huge structures situated across Biscayne Boulevard from each other: the Knight Concert Hall and the Ziff Ballet Opera House. Located three blocks south of the Marriott, both buildings are stunning, particularly the Knight. Although the Miami community spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the center, it required an infusion of $30 million earlier this year from Adrienne Arsht, a banker and philanthropist, in order to stabilize its finances. Things that still need fixing: (1) doors leading into both auditoria make an inordinate amount of noise when opening and closing – new closer hardware should fix the problem, and please get rid of the noisy rubber seals where the edges of two doors meet; and (2) the electrical outlet receptacle, located center stage at the base of the lowest riser in the Knight needs to be rotated (or removed!) so an extension cord can be plugged in without being seen by the audience. God lives in the details.
It is billed as "an international phenomenon" where "St. Tropez meets Miami chic." It claims a reputation as "a party playground for jet-setters, celebrities, VIPs" and others. Nikki Beach is a large, oceanfront complex with an outdoor beach club and a restaurant and night club. The Friday evening concert by gay Billboard sensation Ari Gold was fabulous, and it was great to dance 10 feet from where he was singing. Nonetheless, I just don't see the glamour of it all. I was glad to have passed through the gates of what is simply a state of mind for people who don't sweat – except for Ari. Most of the time, that glistening moisture on their bodies comes from turquoise pool or sea water.
The World Erotic Art Museum in the Art Deco District displays 12,000 square feet of erotic art from all cultures and time periods. The Wolfsonian showcases American and European decorative and fine arts produced between 1885 and 1945. While contemplating an exhibit of New Deal art, tears came to my eyes accompanied by a nostalgic feeling for an era I did not live through.
My visits to Miami have provided many blurred memories which are becoming a treasure trove of rose-colored and emotion-laden realities.
Miami, Florida
Twenty five years ago, GALA Choruses, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, took flight on its mission to serve the fledgling GLBT choral movement.
Now, with 120 member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Australia, ranging in size from five singers to 250, GALA represents the artistic, communal, and political aspirations of 7,500 singers and, by degrees of separation, their audiences.
More than 5,000 of those singers are gathered in the center of Miami this week for Festival 2008 to celebrate and perform from a growing body of GLBT choral work as well as "mainstream" standards.
The assembled ensembles will present 141 performances in 27 concert blocks at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts through July 19.
I traveled here from Minneapolis on Sat., July 12, with 122 delegates of the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus and 38 delegates of One Voice Mixed Chorus. Most of us are lodged at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, Double Tree Hotel, or Hilton Hotel, located within a block of each other.
They build structures tall and skinny here to maximize views and income potential. James Davies and I are on the 18th of the Marriott's 31 floors, with a balcony view of the marina below and across a sparkling Biscayne Bay to South Beach. We stayed here in 2002 while attending Dance/USA's Roundtable conference.
While many more are under construction, I am told there are 40,000 condos for sale in the immediate area; people can't or won't pay for the hurricane insurance.
Saturday's opening ceremonies, sponsored by acfea Tour Consultants, featured engaging and spirited performances by Ann Hampton Callaway and the massed choruses of Florida.
There are lines everywhere for everything. Surprisingly, despite the scale of its convention and hospitality facilities, Miami feels under-prepared in some respects to handle 5,000 people; there is a degree of "not quite right." Maybe, it is just us.
People have located the IGA grocery store, four blocks from the hotels, and are stocking in-room refrigerators. Everyone is settling in for the duration.
The positive energy is infectious!
Chicago, Illinois
Friday started with two presentations summarizing the changes in audience behaviors. Subscriptions are down. More single tickets being sold later -- often in the last 24 hours. It is daunting to do marketing in this environment, and few have the $$ resources to "be there every step of the way."
News flash: People 25 and under no longer use email. It is very yesterday. Now, they exchange messages among their networks by way of instant messages on their MySpace pages and other postings. No longer good enough to have a great website; companies now need a MySpace and YouTube presence. Yikes!
The remnants of live journalists from San Francisco, Boston, and cyberspace reported on how best to interact. Newspaper writers are split: some want email press releases only, while others want the hardy copy follow-up. Apparently, the internal mechanics of newspaper work require both. If one wants coverage: previews or reviews, there have to be current photos available, in a color option, that pertain to the work being performed. Photos need a striking central image, high resolution, good contrast, and cannot be generic.
M presented the half-hour all-conference gathering on Career Transitions for Dancers with ease, authority, articulation, and moderation. I sat in the front row to encourage him. Proud of him.
We bused to the Columbia College Dance Center for another reception and showcase performances by Muntu, Lucky Plush Productions, Hedwig Dances, Human Rhythm Project/BAM, Mordine & Co., Dance Colective (sp), Giordano Jazz, River North, and Luna Negra. Ninety minutes without intermission.
Saturday evening, what started as a group of four, increased to eight, 12, and eventually around 20. We went to Rumba restaurant for dinner. When live Latin dancing got started, lessons were given in salsa and cha-cha. Four of us left the group near midnight. No one was in the lobby at 6:30 Sunday morning when I caught the airport express.
Following the February 2006 Dance/USA meeting in D.C., I got a bit mouthy -- as they invited us to do -- about the poor schedule dynamics and other shortcomings. In the hallway after the final blessing on Saturday, Dance/USA's executive director looked at me and said "Well?"
"It was the best ever!"
"That's what I want to hear!"
Chicago, Illinois
The published business agenda of the Dance/USA Councils gets gaveled to order this morning, but two days of other real business already has happened.
A fair number of people came to Chicago on Wednesday in order to catch the six dance companies on Wednesday night at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Muntu, Oregon Ballet, Lubovitch, Limon, Complexions, and Hubbard Street). There was a pre-performance reception at the museum. A Joffrey director hosted a post-performance reception at his home downtown.
The Dance/USA board met all day Thursday, while non-board members wandered into town. The opening night reception happened from 5:30-7:30 on stage at the 1,500 seat Harris Theater next to Millennium Park.
The energy here is very high with a swirl of generational mix. It is striking how so many of us, so suddenly, look definitely older. There is a whole group of newer, younger people. Such a swirl of unfinished conversations...
Tonight's reception is at the Dance Center of Columbia College. Followed by a 90-minute showcase performance.
