Saturday, October 10, 2015

Profile: Nina Charity

Nina Charity is the Artistic Director of Baltimore Aerial Dance.

Freeform Arts Festival 2013
She received her B.A. in Dance from the University of Maryland, a program that is now a part of the college's Theatre, Dance, & Performance Studies department. And she hasn't stopped flying since. A cornerstone of the DC/Baltimore area aerial dance community, she has worked with multiple institutions including Air Dance Bernasconi, AirBorne DC, Ascension Arts, and Radiant Hoop.

Now with Baltimore Aerial Dance, as Artistic Director she is responsible for organizational leadership in carrying out their mission, which isn't just dedicated to their art but supporting community as well. Each show they produce benefits a local charity of the dancers' choice. A saying comes to mind:
A rising tide lifts all boats
So check out her company's website, and keep up with their work on Facebook, as well.

Dream Sequence from "Crazy Coconuts" student production choreographed by Nina Charity #aerialist #travelinghandstands...
Posted by Baltimore Aerial Dance (BAD) on Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Friday, October 9, 2015

Applications open for the 2016 Fringe Festival

The 2016 Capital Fringe Festival will run July 7 to 24.

The Fringe Festival is a self-producing performing arts festival where established and emerging artists can present their work free of a selection process. The Fringe Festival takes place over 22 days in July with over 140 productions, with roughly 800 individual performances, showcasing 5,000 artists for over 30,000 patrons each year. The Fringe Festival is DC’s largest and most anticipated performing arts festival.
Applications to participate are now open. There are two ways to participate, either at a Fringe Run Venue or by finding your own. Applications for Fringe Run Venues have two deadlines, an early bird at noon, October 16, and a final deadline when applications close at 5pm, Jaunary 8, 2016. The deadline for Find Your Own Venues, is noon on March 4, 2016.

Go to Capital Fringe's website, for more information and instructions to apply to participate in the Fringe Festival.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Duet Roulette with ReCreative Spaces

Are you free tomorrow or Friday, November 13? You might want to check out Duet Roulette, with ReCreative Spaces:


DUET ROULETTE brings together performing and visual artists of the DC community in an evening of inspiration, creation, improvisation, and surprise. Using an interactive selection process, audience members choose two artists at random to be paired together, who instantly collaborate; performing a short "duet" on the spot. There's no time for rehearsal, just spontaneous, participatory art! 
You are welcome to join us as a performer, an observer, or both.
Duet Roulette tickets are only $5 each, and the event runs from 7:30pm to 10pm both nights.

Go to their Eventbrite page for more information and tickets.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Clarice is accpeting applications for the 33rd Annual Choreographers Showcase


Auditions for the 33rd Annual Choreographers Showcase are open to all dance-makers, aged 18 years and older, who live in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia. Live auditions will be adjudicated by our expert panelists, Leah Cox and Zvi Gotheiner. Six finalists will be selected to receive an honorarium of $800 and present their work in concert on Saturday, February 6, 2016. There is no fee to audition.
Auditions will be held on December 5 & 6.

The deadline to apply is November 30, 2015.

More information and instructions at their website.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Fractured Atlas accepting design submissions for Arts Entrepeneurship Awards trophies

Fractured Atlas has an annual Arts Entrepeneurship Awards.
The awards celebrate artists and arts organizations who exemplify a spirit of entrepreneurship and set an example for the field. Selected Arts Entrepreneurship Award recipients will include artists or organizations who have:
  • innovated new business practices or paradigms; 
  • developed novel solutions to old problems.
Check out the winning design and trophies from last year's awards.

Trophies by Jillian Rose, 2014

The deadline is November 9, 2015.

More information and instructions on submitting.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Artomatic 2015 registration is open

In case you haven't heard yet, registration to participate in Artomatic 2015 is open.

Artomatic 2015 is a six-week long art festival in Prince George’s County, MD, right by the New Carrollton Metro Station that is “by artists, for everyone.” It is absolutely free to the public. This year’s event features more than 700 artists: Visual art, music, performance, film, and more. Workshops, tours, seminars and other events are held throughout the duration of the show. No matter what kind of creative events you like, you will find something for you at Artomatic.

Registration for all three cohorts opened this past Wednesday, September 30. If you've never participated in Artomatic before you should know that it:
is not juried; participation is based on a first-come basis and no one needs to see your art in advance. It’s open to all artists 18 and older.
In addition to opportunities for artists there are chances to participate as volunteers or hosts.

Here is more information to participate in Artomatic 2015.

Flashpoint Gallery accepting exhibition proposals

Flashpoint gallery is currently accepting exhibition proposals for their 2016-17 season.

Flashpoint Gallery showcases bold, new work and cultivates emerging and mid-career artists working in a variety of media including site-specific installations, performance pieces, new media and other experimental forms. As a nonprofit gallery free from the constraints of commercial expectations, Flashpoint encourages artists and curators to take creative risks.
The deadline for phase 1 of the application process is 5pm on Saturday, October 31.

More information and application instructions.

Visit and bookmark the Opportunities page to keep up with other chances for artists to audition, exhibit, receive support for their work, and more.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Profile: Kyle Rasmussen

Last week, Dupont Circle was on fire! Well, at least it was on the north side of it.

This was thanks to a troupe of fire performers led and organized by Kyle Rasmussen:

Photo Credit: Joey Oliver
Kyle and company were presented as part of this year's Art All Night: Nuite Blanche DC. And, a disclaimer: I connected her to the opportunity during my time at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which has produced the event since 2014.

Kyle is a circus arts and flow arts performer in the District.  And she uses both fire and LED props in her flow artistry. For the Art All Night performance, she used fan (depicted in the photo above) and hoop fire props.

Check out this clip I caught of the troupe from Art All Night.


Kyle and the rest of the participants in the video are members of the local DC Burner community, that is individuals who go to Burning Man and related events in this region and all over the country, even internationally.

It is a community dedicated to cultivating creative and inclusive experiences, often times in non-tradtional and non-established settings and spaces. Which made them a perfect fit for Art All Night, a city supported initiative in five neighborhoods, as of 2015, to get residents and visitors to see, and do, and play with art all over.

Kyle is among a local circle of flow artists dedicated to and skilled at their craft. She's been part of a group that has even represented the District at Burning Man, as one of a number of conclaves who auditioned and were selected to perform the night the Man burns. If you have about 20 minutes, you can see Kyle here in Revoluationary Motion's performance from 2014 at Burning Man.

Keep up with Kyle at her Facebook page, Kyle Intergalactic Virvelvind, as she and other flow artists keep it moving in the District.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Profile: Shawn Westfall

In 2013, Shawn Westfall should've received diamonds and daffodils from the DC improv community. This is to say 2013 marked his tenth anniversary, not just being in the community, but existing as an essential member of it.
Back in 2003, comedic actor Shawn Westfall started an improvisation comedy school at the DC Improv on Connecticut Avenue along with club manager Allyson Jaffe. What began with a mere 14 students has now graduated nearly 1,800 people. And this past week, Westfall and Jaffe celebrated their 10th anniversary of helping D.C. bring the funny. (WAMU, Phil Harrell, May 17, 2013)

In addition to his work at the DC Improv, Shawn has taking improv off of the stage into corporate and organizational events, through his work with Commedia Partners. He's also taken to the stage outside of improv, by way of storytelling. You can see a true tale he told, as part of a special Story District (formerly known as SpeakeasyDC) Valentine's Day show from 2014 right below:


And now, his latest adventure in the DC Arts scene relatively recently started, with the founding of The Unified Scene Theater.

No, that is not Shawn :-)
The "brainchild" of him and Kathy Baird Westfall, The Unified Scene Theater is:
an improvisational and sketch comedy theater located in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC, as well as multi-use performance, rehearsal, event, and meeting space.
Shawn Westfall, a man you can and should get to know better through his work in DC (if you don't know him already), is best summed up using his own words, courtesy of his Twitter profile:
I make a living teaching people, organizations, and Fortune 500 companies how to make crap up. I have no idea how this happened.
So connect with him on Twitter at @shawnwestfall, like The Unified Scene Theater on Facebook (especially if you didn't go to their website yet, linked above earlier), and if you've ever wondered whether you need help making crap up in DC, the answer is yes and now you know who you're going to call.