Performing the Changing City
Organized by Abigail Levine and Paloma McGregor
With panelists luciana achugar, Randy Martin, Jenny Romaine, and Niegel Smith

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, March 19, 2013.

"...careening astronauts and bank clerks glancing at the clock before lunch; actresses cowling at light-ringed mirrors and freight elevator operators grinding a thumbful of grease on a steel handle: student riots; that dark women in bodegas shook their heads last week because in six months prices have risen outlandishly; how coffee tastes after you've held it in your mouth, cold, a whole minute." --Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren

Hurricanes, transit strikes, planned and unplanned explosions, occupations... Bike lanes, bus lanes, protest pens, command centers... Pedestrian zones, redevelopment zones, disaster zones... How is the landscape of our city changing and what are the possibilities for creative response? Looking at the shifting social, economic, and literal topography of our city through the frame of transformative events and policy decisions, we ask the question: what is the role of artists, activists, and all citizens in conceiving, creating, and defending (a notion of) public space? And conversely, what is the role of public space as a partner in creative expression and action? luciana achugar, Randy Martin, Jenny Romaine, and Niegel Smith reflect on our shifting urban landscape and offer opportunities to imagine how we might enact our city in the future.

Dramaturgy as Practice/Dramaturgy in Practice
Conceived by Amanda Loulaki and Susan Mar Landau

Center for Performance Research, May 5, 2013.

A roundtable discussion with Thomas F. DeFrantz, Susan Mar Landau, André Lepecki and Katherine Profeta. The dramaturg as an active participant in the conceiving and making of movement based works is a relatively new and evolving phenomenon, as well as one that can be both mysterious and suspect. Conceived as a two-part event, Dramaturgy as Practice/Dramaturgy in Practice will explore both the ontology and the workings of dance dramaturgy today. Precluded by a short history of the topic, the first event will bring together a diverse group of working dramaturges to discuss their experiences and the possible implications of their role in the choreographic process. The second event, to take place in the fall, will open the conversation to include choreographers in an in depth discussion on the practice of dramaturgy.

"Overlapping Circles"

A conversation with Nancy Stark Smith, K.J. Holmes, Jennifer Monson and Jen Rosenblit

Gibney Dance Center, Mar 11, 2013.

Improvisation as a practice, and particularly the rich history of CI, has spread throughout the world in various permutations and with multiple offshoots, evolutions, hybrids, specializations, etc. With improvisation in some form or another as a now ubiquitous presence in much of contemporary dance, how are people grappling with the various practices of improvisation in the context of contemporary performance? How do we situate our dancing in the larger world? Is it performance? Practice? Who is it for and how does it serve and/or inspire us and others? What tools and materials are we using — and toward what ends?

"Let Me In Let Me In Or I'll Blow This House Down"

Moderated by Juliette Mapp and Jen Rosenblit

Laurie Berg and Liliana Dirks-Goodman (AUNTS), Rebecca Brooks, Barbara Bryan, Matthew Lyons (The Kitchen), and Ben Pryor (American Realness).

December 3, 2012, Jimmy’s no. 43.

Curators on Process and the Matter of Inclusion. To feel a part of something. Communal, to have community. To be asked, invited in, to ask to be invited in. Access, entry. While the role of curator and the process of curation holds as much artistry as the making of dance and performance, we hone in on an equally important need for a touch of transparency surrounding the presentation of dance and the body. What issues and concerns arise inside of a shifting community where representation is crucial for belonging and sustainable support? What are we doing to reach out to more artists? Where are those artists? Who are those artists? What are the complexities that arise while supporting the sustainability of an artist? What responsibility do we have to an idea of cultivating and supporting "newness?” Where is the body inside all of this? How do we digest being on the inside or outside of something spiritually, aesthetically, emotionally and academically?