This past month I was interviewed by Eva Yaa Asantewaa for the Oral History Project at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. I was invited by Susan L. Kraft, Oral History Project Coordinator, who I remembered from years past when BAX was on Douglass St. She and assistant archivist Cassie Mey (who is performing with AIR Jillian Pena this month at BAX) were incredibly helpful and provided us with everything we needed to be comfortable and make a recording. It was an amazing experience to travel with Eva for four hours, over two recording sessions in my personal and professional journey in the “context of significant changes in our society, city neighborhoods and arts communities.” (from Eva’s blog) I found myself reflecting on so many people, places, events and on the founding, sustaining and future of BAX.

I am grateful for this opportunity and thrilled that the critically important contributions of our artists and arts leaders will be remembered and be accessible to future artists, scholars and the public.

For more information about using the archives of the NYPL’s Jerome Robbins Dance
Division, click here.

Click HERE to read Eva Yaa Asantewaa’s blog post about this.

This is the awards season. Starting in early April and ending in mid May we will award at least ten space grants and residencies to dance and theater artists for our 2012/13 season. This process is a long one and involves many people. First the artists and their projects and intentions. Then the reviews, the panels and finally the awards. Watch for announcements in early June.

It is also time for our  BAX Arts and Artists in Progress Awards. The 2012 awardees are choreographer, performer and visual Jon Kinzel; master teacher, choreographer and performer Pat Hall; and the Director of Programming at The Club at La MaMa and Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival (who is also an artist) Nicky Paraiso. On May 5, 2012 they will be honored and in turn they have chosen Mark Robison (Co-Founder Character Gererators); Pamela Patrick (teaching artist); and Todd Richmond and Paz Tanjuaquio (Co-Founders of Topaz Arts) to “pass it on to”. We’ll be celebrating at the BAX BUILDING with George Emilio Sanchez as host and performances by Dan Fishback, Mariangela Lopez (Salon) and Helen Styring Tocci & Calia Marshall.

In many ways these awards share much in common with the values we hold and put to work at BAX. Individuals and institutions who make up an artistic community that supports the development of work and of artists over time. The quality of the work we do here at BAX, they way we work with artist, students and connect to one another gives us important information on what we look for in others and what we see in this year’s awardees! COME JOIN US.

To say there’s a lot going on would be a tremendous understatement! I have been thinking about family and loyalty. As some of you know Penelope McCourty has rejoined our staff as Co-Director of Education along with Maya Visco. Our original Education Director Andrew Jannetti now directs our out of school programs including School Breaks and Summer. Having all three on staff at the same time is quite remarkable. They are so different, and bring a wealth of talent, experience and commitment to BAX but what they all share in common is that they have found a “good fit” here as a base of exploration, development and leadership.

“Good fit” brings me to the task currently at hand – reviewing the Parent/Choreographer Space Grant applications. We got a huge response to this new opportunity from new parents, ones with two or more children, artists we are familiar with and those new to us as well. It struck a chord about this unique period of time when children are very young, every moment is a juggling act, and priorities get re-arranged. I will be participating with Chase Granoff at a lobby talk at New York Live Arts next month, talking about two artist families and their unique challenges as well.

Come see shows by student and professional artists at BAX in March, April and May. Check out our website, I would love to see you here.

My thoughts for this month go in so many directions. I sat in on our AcroBAX workshop and I am stunned by how far they’ve come and how skilled they are. Kudos to these students and their teacher Helen Tocci. Faculty member Jules Skloot took me back to when I taught the Boy’s Movement class when she came into my office thrilled with the boys who are registered this trimester. Her delight with their concentration, enthusiasm and willingness made my day! I am also in the midst of our annual Artist in Residence Festival. New work, on its way, in our theater. I feel lucky to be a part of it. This time of year is a clash. Half way through the year’s residency with all the plans for next year pushing us ahead. Speaking of which, our newest artist opportunity, the PARENT/CHOREOGRAPHER SPACE GRANT, has gotten a huge response from all over the country… clearly an idea that matched a pressing AND GROWING NEED!

Hope I see you soon!

This is BAX’s 21^st season. There’s always a start, and it’s always new and somewhat surprising. This year was no exception. Our space grantees, Xan Burley/Alex Springer, Lee Sunday Evans and Katy Pyle presented (to sold out shows) developing works the first weekend of December. These artists and our 2011/12 resident artists represent most of our season. They are developing dance and theater works using BAX as their artistic home.

The way artists participate is interesting to me. Last season, Dean Moss curated the performers from his Nameless Forest. This season, Nameless Forest performer Kacie Chang will be teaching INVESTIGATING PERFORMANCE. Dean says about Kacie: “Sometimes there’s a someone who comes into your process who works as a catalyst. Kacie Chang is that for me and my work. She understands my intentions and manifests them in a way that pushes the work forward. For more than 15 years we have worked together to develop the performance tools that form the basis of my recent collaborations. Having helped create them, she knows them inside out. Someone said, ‘Kacie’s your doppelganger on stage.’ I think, frankly, she’s much better than that.”

One relationship begets another. AIR Dan Fishback is curating the students who will apply for Needing It: Performance in the Queer Community Tradition. Former AIRs Victoria Libertore and Faye Driscoll are curating. These are the kinds of relationships that foster a community of artists and audiences. So, “What’s THEIR BAX? ” It’s a home, it’s a venue, it’s a place of investigation and of support. I’m glad we live here together.

I really like OPEN STUDIO. This is the third November that the BAX Artists-in-Residence (AIR) open their studio doors to each other, to our staff, to the public to see what’s going on right now with the works they’re creating. Then we talk and ask questions. In one Open Studio we also ate donuts. What I like best is having few expectations and feeling sponge like as I watch and listen.

This week I got to see brand new dance that Jillian Pena made. I got to hear Matthew Olmos talk about the characters in his new play and Morgan Gould ask us questions about how she’s shaping it as a director. Levi Gonzalez unveiled his experimenting with dancer and director with the stunning Natalie Green. Catharine Dill along with Sharla Meese drew us into a mystery of personal psychology and mystery. Mariangela Lopez and luciana achugar both introduced new work that surprised and intrigued. Audience responses were generous, insightful, questioning and at moments provoking.

This is one of three showings in the AIR year and it is a critical stage of development. What it reveals often influences the development of new work. Do you think this is important?
I’d love to hear from you.

BAX has worked in partnership with Brooklyn public schools to provide dance & theater residencies since our founding in 1991. As a former teaching/artist, arts provider and a parent of two – I have been part of an important conversation about the profound lack of equity & access in the arts that exists school to school. I have worked hard as an individual and representing BAX to promote a fair allocation of resources.

In today’s climate these resources are even scarcer and the inequity even more obvious. Parent groups from some public schools are able to raise large amounts of money that not only support the BAX programs, but science labs, trips, supplies – The larger issue here is what WE ARE spending our money on as a society and what WE ARE NOT. Who’s making money and who is doing without? One of the slogans at recent demonstrations at Wall Street is “we are the 99%”. Even the schools that are able to raise money are part of that 99%. It should not be necessary for parents to raise money for what should be basic. Our children should expect to have dance, theater, art, music and high standards of academic learning, physical education, and enough supplies that parents are not asked to provide toilet paper from home!

This approach to school funding, in which the barest functioning of the school is the parents’ responsibility rather than a right bestowed on all children by the public, is dangerous and will only get more so. BAX’s dance & theater residencies receive state, city, foundation and corporate support – but the schools who have the ability to raise money in large sums have deeper, longer, more developed programs. In one school the entire program was cut due to lack of funds (reinstated this year, at least in part). In lower income schools a successful fundraiser brings in $1,000 as opposed to tens of thousands of dollars raised by PTA’s with wealthier families.

But this fight is not between schools or between families. It is not about which school has enough printer paper or a working copy machine. It is about all families advocating in the loudest and clearest ways to make sure that all children receive the kind of education that we want for them. Class size, academics, arts, physical education, good food, after school – these are not entitlements. These policies will not be changed by listening to legislators rail about teacher accountability and asking us trust the free market to fix these unfair policies. Perhaps these smaller and larger dialogues will move us to a larger and more profound demand for EQUALITY AND FAIRNESS. We are committed to do our part.

We often talk about BAX as a home. This summer I sat down with intern Nasrene Haj and that’s the word she kept using for what she has at BAX and what she has sought and compared her experiences to since she graduated in 2007. So what is this home and why is it important?

An artistic home can mean a center whose aesthetic values are shared by the people who make new dances or plays or the audiences who come to see them. In a series of snapshots, I want to describe to you a home based on a different kind of value. It is a home for small and large successes but also wrong directions, mistakes, starting over. Home to try something new or do it in a different way.

SNAPSHOTS

Board of Directors meeting September 2011, AIR Dan Fishback performs a short excerpt from his new play THIRTYNOTHING. A parent of a BAX sudent, who calls BAX home, gets a glimpse of the home that has supported and nurtured this new work.

Third floor accidental meeting between a space grant artist, a graduate, and a BAX parent who is also a choreographer. What are you working on? Excitement about the new floor in studio C. “It’s my favorite studio” shared by three different family members.

My walk home down Sixth Avenue last week. I stop to say hello to a BAX student who is a member of BAXco. How was the start of school I ask – “fine… but I can’t wait until MY COMPANY (BAXco) starts rehearsals again. I feel so ready.” HOME.

My meeting with two lesbian lawyers to plan BAX’s free workshop in October to discuss the impact of New York’s SAME SEX MARRIAGE legislation. After an hour of discussion about framing the conversation to include the impact to both couples who have been deeply committed for many decades without the legislation, younger couples and a wide range of economic, political and practical implications, we just arrive at the point of our conversation — we are talking about LOVE.

All of these snapshots and many more are part of a home called BAX.