2.12.10

Right up my alley...

Recently I've joined the delectable process of Sarah A.O. Rosner and the A.O. Movement Collective as we research and move around some things I happen to love thinking about: bodies in interaction, the different language we use to describe similar actions (one example, pornography versus intimacy), and the effects of specific spaces on the bodies in question (i.e. a bed versus a studio).

I'm attaching a link to the latest newsletter, in hopes that you will not only enjoy seeing my name in fancy blue letters, but also reading about the work and the Collective itself!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Happy-Thanksgiving---New-Work-.html?soid=1101693655818&aid=Yp1DuN5v9ik

7.11.10

Also...


Please check out The Invisible Dog. My new favorite Brooklyn venue for all kinds of odd things. www.theinvisibledog.org

My photo gets around...




Finally, after many long years of wishing and hoping to be in the promotional photo of some - really, ANY - dance performance, I finally did it. And it's a good one! On a rooftop! I'm not in the re-staging of the piece this time around, but maybe next time! Follow the below link...

5.10.10

Premiere of HOLE IN THE SKY theater group!

I'm playing a dancing robot this month in the premiere/fundraiser performance by the theater group I have haphazardly become a part of (thanks New York, for making my Joe's Pub and Columbia/Barnard realms unite in Carly Hoogendyk!). Come support me and the future of wacky theater, and drink some beer while you're at it! Dancing-robot-Tara is a sight not to be missed.

HOLE IN THE SKY
presents

An Original Post-Apocalyptic Adaptation
of Chekov's Classic Play

PLANET OF THE SEAGULL

One Night Fundraiser Performance
Saturday, October 16 7PM
$15

THE ROOF
567 Flushing Ave.
Between Nostrand and Marcy
Brooklyn
JMG to Flushing Ave.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=158664304163518&index=1

23.9.10

Premiere of "Slight Rupture"!

Landed a slot in Dance New Amsterdam's WIP showcase (Works-In-Progress) on OCTOBER 23rd @ 4:30p.m.! It will be my first time showing my own work in NYC outside of college, as well as the premiere of my solo, "Slight Rupture." All good things! Come see!

31.8.10

Upcoming Show!

Finally my piece, Slight Rupture, that I've been diligently (and often not so diligently) working on since last fall, has booked itself a show date! It's a non-curated series, but a series nonetheless, with space and lights and chairs for people to come sit in and watch, even! I hope you will...

Fertile Ground series
Green Space Studio
February 13th, 2011
Queens, NYC

Save the date, and see you there!

25.8.10

The Real New Year

In my mind, New Year's Eve always seemed to revolve around metallic sparkles, fancy clothes, champagne toasts and sentimental reminisces based on an artificial sense of measured time that some monks back in the day decided would be the best way to sort-of-kind-of keep us all organized.
But, when my Buddhist practice with the Soka Gakkai International began to get serious a few years ago, my relationship to the new year changed: we SGIers like to cheer and whoop for just about any occasion we can, especially when it has to do with "starting from this moment on" and refreshing our lives for the next phase (or year, as we call it). Any yearly landmark in SGI history, Nichiren Buddhist history, or the campaigns we set up every five minutes (study campaign month, men's division month, women's division month, youth festival, contribution campaign, etc), is cause to celebrate, strengthen some element of our practice, and generally refresh our individual and collective understanding of what that element means in our lives and in our movement.
Once I had come to appreciate and embody that spirit of things, I realized that my real "New Year's Eve" is the day when my life reaches another phase each year, independent of our society's historical time countdown. My birthday is the day when I celebrate and appreciate this lifetime of mine - the most precious thing we are ever endowed with - and pay homage to my parents (my personal history), my past year of life, and my future.
I may party like it's year 23 when the time is right, but the day itself is my day to simultaneously take a deep breath, give myself some TLC, accomplish something pleasant I've been subconsciously denying myself (like taking a dance class or visiting a museum) and resolutely push myself to set the rhythm for the next 365 days of my vibrant, treasure-filled life...even when the treasure doesn't always seem so obvious! And of course, a little face time with friends and family never hurt a birthday girl!
But most importantly, this is my life we're talking about! And I choose to use my date of birth each year (based on an invented calendar though it may be) to marvel at the old (and how far I've come!), relish the present, and resolve to create the most fabulous future as I ring in the new.
And so I say, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thank you for sharing it with me!

9.8.10

FREE, wholesome Pilates

Please come and support my burgeoning Pilates teaching skills while getting your body connected, strengthened, and aligned!

WHERE:
Brooklyn LAUNCHPAD
(721 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, near the 2, 3, 4, 5 Franklin Ave. stop or the Park Pl. Shuttle stop)

WHEN:
EVERY SUNDAY starting this weekend (8/15)
2-3pm

WHAT:
TOTALLY FREE Pilates Mat Class (donations heartily welcomed)

See you there!

2.8.10

"Slight Rupture"


Some questions that I am tackling in my solo piece (finally) that has a title (finally) thanks to the Schomburg Library uptown. If you haven't visited their Photographs and Prints archive, please do. But come prepared with a random time period or theme you'd like to research (all with the basic premise of "black people," of course), and they will hook you up...

Like the iconic photograph of Gordon, the escaped Mississippi slave who displays his raised whipping scars, his back to the camera, face partially obscured by shadow, the visual image gives us the power to point to our bodies and force the viewer to bear witness. But do we become anonymous by making ourselves into visual symbols of a lived experience? Do we come to harbor in our bodies the stereotypes, assumptions, and interpretations that visual images carry with them? What narratives are lost when only one moment in time is recorded in a photograph? What do we neglect to see and witness when only one part of a body, or a history, is pointed out? In an 1859 slave auction advertisement, a 25 year old woman is described as being “slightly ruptured,” coded language for a body burnt out by repeated childbirth. Do echoes of these “slight ruptures” still remain embedded in our bodies generations later?

29.7.10

As I get my mission together for grants, applications, and life in general...

Artist Statement:
Tara Aisha Willis aims to create landscapes in her work,
with the belief that when everything contained wihin the
small world of a dance is coherent, the path is cleared for
the viewer to be guided further into the dark of what cannot
be expressed through our usual, daily means. Focusing
on process and research, both physical and traditional,
as a means for discovering the elements of each small
world, Tara hopes to strike a balance between careful,
deliberate selection of each detail, and the confluence of
parts of incongruous or indeterminate significance to create
a coherent whole. The rules and content of each world as
they are discovered through the research process are not
arbitrary, but may not become clear until the work is viewed
in completion. Product matters, as long as it is based in a
thorough and focused process. Connection with an audience
matters, since ultimately neither artist nor community can
grow when the artist is stingy. Texture and color matter, as
does the physical space of performance.

21.7.10

Teaching FREE Pilates Mat Classes!

Just a heads up...

I will be teaching TOTALLY FREE, 1 hour Pilates mat classes on Sundays at BROOKLYN LAUNCHPAD starting in August and beyond!

1st Class: Sunday, August 1st 10am-11am

No class August 8th

And then consistently every Sunday starting August 15th 2pm-3pm!

Come gain core strength, stability and alignment in a relaxed, caring atmosphere. Mats provided, or bring your own. Donations joyfully accepted!

721 Franklin Avenue (btw Park Place and Sterling Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
31/2 blocks from the 2, 3, 4, and 5 train Franklin Ave stop, or 1 block from the Shuttle train Park Place stop.

http://www.brooklynlaunchpad.com
info@brooklynlaunchpad.com

14.6.10

Letter to The Latin School of Chicago Board of Directors, Head of School, Interim Head of School, and Director of Upper School

As a young alumna of the Latin School of Chicago, Class of 2005, I was recently appalled to hear word that my alma mater plans to eliminate the dance program from the Upper School curriculum. I would like to first explain how Latin has impacted my life, and what it meant to have that program available to me as a student. Secondly, I would like to point out the importance of upholding Latin’s values with the inclusion of dance as an art form, and how its elimination will effect more than just the school’s budget. Lastly, I propose the seed of an alternative idea, as a means of revising the role that dance currently plays in education.

Let me begin at the true beginning. I chose to attend Latin over the best public schools in the city for a few reasons combined:

  • An innovative English curriculum, with an intensive focus on writing skills
  • A community with small class sizes, personalized attention, and flexible courses of study
  • A rigorous arts program, complete with each of the arts, which could be accessed alongside and within the daily coursework
  • A strong base in Classical and traditional Western avenues of study, but with an eye to the changing academic landscape and the future of academic study to include a wider range of viewpoints and approaches to analytical thought

As a dancer, I could easily have attended an arts high school where I might have gained a conservatory level dance education. I also might have chosen a high ranking public school where I would have paid nothing for a first rate schooling. But I wanted a complete program where I could continue a wide range of study: learning college-level writing skills, gaining a broad understanding of all subjects, and continuing my study of dance, theater and chorus all in the same environment of uncompromising excellence and personalized support. I simply would not have attended the Latin School of Chicago if it had not had all of these elements.

From my four years at Latin, I am proud to have learned strong communication skills, commitment and dedication to my goals, the ability to lead a group and take action, to carefully evaluate, study, and analyze down to the smallest detail, and to support my opinions with strong evidence. Every single one of these skills I gained by being in the Latin School Dance Company, and from the rare opportunity to combine that experience with the rest of what Latin has to offer in the classroom. While I was there, Latin was unique. It was one of the foremost schools in the city because it upheld rigorous standards of education in all areas.

As a young African-American teenager from a small school on the South Side of Chicago, I recall with equal intensity the difficulty of my English and dance studies in my first year at Latin: my sorely lacking writing and analytical skills on Humanities tests, and my inability to internalize movement efficiently, negotiate spatial relations, or remain open to various dance performance styles I had never seen before. But by graduation, dance and English had become my two clear courses of study. Thanks to that unique chance to pursue them side by side, I took four English courses my senior year, and completed my fourth year in the Dance Company. I applied to only one college, knowing that because of my experience at Latin, I wanted a school where I could continue intensive study of both within a broader curriculum.

Thanks to Latin, I was able to receive my B.A. from Barnard College with a double major in Dance and English, and a concentration in Creative Writing. Thanks to Latin, I completed an independent, interdisciplinary research project through a four-year grant I was awarded my freshman year at Barnard, as well as two thesis papers and two creative thesis projects. Thanks to Latin, I graduated Summa Cum Laude, earned membership with the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and gained special honors for my work in the Dance major. Those honors where not for being “good” at dance. I could have gone to a conservatory high school and a conservatory college for that. They were for the combination of my choreographic, performance, and academic efforts in the dance field. In essence, because I excel as a “smart dancer.” My 35 page dance research thesis paper, a much more rigorous project than my English thesis, and my current fellowship with one of the premiere dance theater’s in the country both attest to that. Thanks to Latin, academic research and study is a great passion of mine, and I plan to apply to graduate schools this winter. I hope to eventually earn an M.A. in Literature and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies.

Latin’s mission statement stipulates that it aims to give its students “a rigorous and innovative educational program in a community that embraces diversity of people, cultures and ideas.” I want to thank the board, staff, and administration of Latin for having done exactly that for me. The Latin School claims to achieve this powerful mission by “encouraging excellence in all academic and personal pursuits,” and “creating an educational environment in which the pursuit of academic excellence and intellectual growth is complemented by a concern for the moral, physical, psychological and aesthetic development of each student.” Sadly, by eliminating the dance program, Latin will no longer fully live up to its own mission, nor will it remain one of the foremost academic schools with a rigorous arts program. Without dance, Latin will no longer have a complete arts division, much less a stellar one.

This is not to say that Latin is alone in eliminating its arts faculty one by one, beginning with dance. It is no coincidence that I attended the only Ivy League dance major that exists in this country. Apart from the heartbreaking tendency to terminate arts programs before any other budget cut in schools across the country, dance is often widely ignored as an academic field even at the university level, despite the fact that American universities are where dance innovation has been rooted since the 1930’s.

Arts education has always struggled in this country, especially dance. Blame it on a societal fear of the body and tendency to disconnect the body in motion from academic study; blame it on the difficulty of delineating creative values in legislative language; blame it on an “American dream” mentality, claiming that work not producing monetary value is not valid. Regardless, this kind of disrespect for dance in education is a trend throughout this country. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 13,053,787 students enrolled in public high schools in 1999-2000. But only 14% of public schools offered dance education that year. A sad fact for the majority of this country’s students that can only have gotten worse with recent financial shifts. It is thus, as it always has been, the duty of privately funded schools to pioneer the way toward what school should be, even if that cannot yet exist for millions of public schools. Historically, private institutions include those educational elements that other schools cannot. If none of our students have access to dance, already so underfunded and undervalued, who will be the next generation of adults who do value it, who do fund it? Who will put those crucial analytical and inquisitive skills they learned in school to the test by choosing to attend a dance performance or support a struggling company?

If The Latin School of Chicago chooses to cut dance, making the arts the first to suffer from budget limitations, it chooses to join the rest of those schools across the country in limiting the range and rigorousness of its available programs. The mission of fostering “excellence,” “growth” and “development” in all areas will simply no longer be applicable to Latin as it follows this shameful national trend. Let alone “innovative.” How can a school claim to be innovative if it is doing exactly the same thing as every other school, especially those schools which it seeks to rise above in its standards of education? If this decision is implemented, perhaps a reevaluation of the school’s mission statement will be in order, to give a more accurate description of Latin to the next generations of families and young people who will have access to only some of the arts, a less diverse pool of classmates, no exposure to dance as an art form through their educational institution, and thus no interest in supporting it in the future.

As this long-standing program comes up for debate, I return again and again to the purpose and mission of the Latin School of Chicago. This seems a crucial moment of reevaluation for the school. Rather than further limitation on the arts, Latin might take this opportunity to create a shift in its own thinking – and eventually the thinking of educators and administrators across the country – as regards the field of dance. Rather than eliminating a program that currently serves only a small population of students, why not follow the true spirit of Latin’s mission statement and utilize this moment of reevaluation to find ways of using dance – and all performing arts – as an even more vital and innovative means for teaching critical thinking, writing, and response? If Latin wishes to maintain its current mission statement and academic integrity, I would propose a truly “innovative” approach. Why not include a broad performing arts awareness and analysis class in the curriculum, which would expose students to each of the arts, their history up to current times, theory, practice and criticism? This would not only give students appreciation for these forms, but also offer yet another angle from which students can hone their analytical and critical skills, learn persistence in problem-solving, and develop an aesthetic perspective through their own creativity. A private secondary school such as Latin has the unique opportunity and responsibility to give high school students a broad range of studies as tools to use after graduation, as they continue on in only one or two chosen avenues during college. Dance can only add to that range, not detract. By eliminating it from the curriculum, the range of tools offered is deeply diminished. As arts education trends suggest, who better than a school like Latin to be a model for innovative secondary education into the next generations? Is it not the responsibility of Latin’s administration to defend its programs, even amidst financial troubles? I hope that you and your colleagues can truly look at this issue not from the eyes of a society that undervalues dance education, or out of pure financial equations, but from the perspective of a true pioneer, leader, and advocate for education, and determine whether cutting a unique and valuable program is truly the solution.

Thank you again to Latin’s faculty, staff, and board for the four wonderful years of education and support, as I developed the mind and awareness I now cherish. I truly hope this letter is able to bring another perspective to the table as you debate this issue with other alumni, parents and students. Thank you, as well, for your time and attention.

Sincerely,


Tara Aisha Willis

The Latin School of Chicago ‘05

Barnard College, Columbia University ‘09

10.6.10

DTWland

I'm midway through my Van Lier internship at Dance Theater Workshop where I've been working on individual donor and membership development three days out of my week. I'm also excited and happy to be starting a wholly new relationship with DTW this summer...House Managing their Guest Artist Series, and presumably on into the new season. Yay!

This comes at a great time for me...Recently, my high school back home in Chicago decided to cut it's dance program, and I've become deeply empassioned about arts funding and administration becoming a part of my future...Especially in terms of advocating for arts and dance education. I always knew I wanted to return to school at some point, but never had any interest in teaching college. I wasn't entirely sure how getting an M.A. or Ph.D. in dance or performance studies would fulfill more than a personal desire to do academic writing and research, or how it might fit into some elusive "big picture" of my life. Now, however, I find myself wanting to use the academic writing realm to contribute to what I see as being a necessary shift in even the most supposedly informed perspectives of dance and movement study. If even the most scholarly of our society don't see it's place in the academic milieu, then how can we expect legislators or educators of the K-12 grades to see any place for it in their curricula? I think change needs to happen on both fronts. I would like to become a person who demonstrates that the practical (performance/choreographic) elements of dance go hand in hand with the academic and research-oriented aspects, while also doing my part to support arts education funding from an administrative avenue.

My letter to the Latin School of Chicago is pending posting.

10.2.10

New Projects and Performances...

Watch out for Carly Hoogendyk's work-in-progress, psychedelic, conceptual, musical, totally drugged out play, "Dr. Apple's Last Lecture," coming soon to a performance space near you: we recently had our first semi-staged reading at New Dramatists, and will be continuing to work/workshop this strange theatre/substance experience until another performance opportunity arises. I will be playing one of the three Greek chorusy, Beatle's-esque, diva-stars, The Fruits. Be prepared for Tara to not only dance, but to also sing and act...Who knew?

Watch out for Sydnie Mosley's dance piece, "Pulled/Together," in the newsteps series at Chen Dance Center, coming the first week in May!!! Congratulations Sydnie, and all of us!

Update: My solo performance-piece-in-progress, tentatively titled "parceled bodies," which I am working on thanks to my DTW Van Lier artistic residency at BRAZIL studio in Bushwick, will be having a showing at some point in March! That is, it will if I have anything to say about it...actually, I'm making myself get to a point with it where I am ready to show, so it will have a showing, dang-it, it will!!!