Media
Local Movement: Five Decades of Dance in Ann Arbor - Directors' Cut
"The national 'dance boom' of the late 1950's through the 1980's expanded audiences and support for dance. Federal grants supported the development of college dance programs and touring dance companies. The University Musical Society brought dance to the University of Michigan’s Power Center for the Performing Arts, built in Ann Arbor in 1971. Both at the University and in the community, Ann Arbor became a destination for dance. Low-cost performance and rehearsal spaces, community support, and grants helped create and nurture a vital dance scene, and Ann Arbor became home to numerous modern and jazz dance companies including Dance Theater 2, Hydra, Whitley Setrakian’s People Dancing, The J. Parker Copley Dance Company, Jazz Dance Theater, and The Peter Sparling Dance Company. Recurring community dance showcases, such as Spring Dances, Fall Dances, Dancing in Summer, and others took place throughout the year, allowing many choreographers to share their work. The film Local Movement, by Aimee McDonald and Terri Sarris, explores modern dance in Ann Arbor from the 1970's through today." - Terri Sarris
This is the directors' cut of Sarris and McDonald's 24-minute original created for Ann Arbor 200.
Media
Local Movement: Five Decades of Dance in Ann Arbor
"The national 'dance boom' of the late 1950's through the 1980's expanded audiences and support for dance. Federal grants supported the development of college dance programs and touring dance companies. The University Musical Society brought dance to the University of Michigan’s Power Center for the Performing Arts, built in Ann Arbor in 1971. Both at the University and in the community, Ann Arbor became a destination for dance. Low-cost performance and rehearsal spaces, community support, and grants helped create and nurture a vital dance scene, and Ann Arbor became home to numerous modern and jazz dance companies including Dance Theater 2, Hydra, Whitley Setrakian’s People Dancing, The J. Parker Copley Dance Company, Jazz Dance Theater, and The Peter Sparling Dance Company. Recurring community dance showcases, such as Spring Dances, Fall Dances, Dancing in Summer, and others took place throughout the year, allowing many choreographers to share their work. The film Local Movement, by Aimee McDonald and Terri Sarris, explores modern dance in Ann Arbor from the 1970's through today." - Terri Sarris
And for more stories from the film, check out the 46-minute directors' cut.
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AACHM Oral History: Leah Bass-Baylis
Leah Bass-Baylis was born in 1954 in Ypsilanti. Her parents Thomas and Louise Bass–a doctor and teacher–were influential members of Ypsilanti’s Black community. She studied dance at Ypsilanti’s Randazzo Dance Theater and graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta in 1976. She also holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Change from the University of Southern California. Bass-Baylis was a dancer and choreographer for many Broadway shows, including performing in The Tap Dance Kid. In her later career as an administrator, she developed arts education programs in Los Angeles. She and her husband Doug Baylis have four children.
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Sonabai: Another Way of Seeing - Dr. Stephen Huyler
As part of the Rasa Festival, Dr. Stephen Huyler presents a fascinating talk that recounts an amazing story of the discovery of a rural Indian woman's beautiful art.
While imprisoned by her husband for fifteen years, a woman in central India invented an entirely new art form that expresses life's joy. Although Sonabai was illiterate and untrained, her artistic vision is now globally acknowledged. Her work has been the agent of significant social and economic improvement in her region. Sonabai's astonishing story confronts us with our own choices: do we allow ourselves to be victimized by our current issues or can we use our own inner resources to find creative solutions?
An exhibition of Sonabai's art was on view at the Riverside Art Center in Ypsilanti throughout the month of September 2018.
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Tales of the Tango With Tango Expert Mabel Rodriguez
It's time to learn about the Tango! The Tango evolved from new dances that immigrants brought into Argentina more that 150 years ago. Learn more when Tango expert Mabel Rodriguez will discuss this fascinating dance and its history, complete with live Tango demonstrations. Mabel Rodr?guez is currently the coordinator of the Intermediate Intensive Spanish program at the Residential College at the University of Michigan and has been an active member of the Michigan Argentine Tango Club of the University of Michigan since 2002.
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Capoeira Mandinga Michigan: Afro-Brazilian Dance and Martial Arts
Enjoy Afro-Brazilian dance and martial arts with performers from Capoeira Mandinga Michigan. The only indigenous American martial art, Capoeira was developed by African slaves in Brazil in the 1600s and it became a strong weapon in the life and death struggle against their oppressors. With strong aerobic and dance elements, Capoeira is both an art form and self-defense. Watch performers incorporate aerobic and dance moves that are as graceful as a panther and as treacherous as a snake.