AFROLOGICS NEWSLETTER: hyper extended

ALô beautifuls! Every so often, I find myself cruising along as a character in some bizarre series of coincidences and interrelated data; that is, after all one of my superpowers that I put to use in my biz. This past week's novella: black women, robots, environmentally based code writers/readers. It got me wondering about the future's past already being right in front of our faces. I marveled at the gorgeous Joyce Guy done as a photo sculpture for a dancing robot named Spins and had my brain twisted by Bina48, a Hansen Robotics android head with the consciousness of a a black woman named Bina downloaded into it. I was struck that I was looking at the relics of my culture for 2075. These two women will be/are a record. It got me wondering about other ways recording culture was or was not happening. The big articles this week on Afrologica have addressed timely events in which the past and present, the right to culturally define what matters, have been tampered with or at least controlled by very few. In Washington, DC, the battle rages over the exhibit Hide/Seek, with the Warhol Foundation announcing it will no longer fund The National Portrait Gallery if a certain video is not returned to the show. Here in LA, Italian street artist Blu had his MOCA-commissioned mural white washed the day after he finished it...by MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch. Have we just had our future truncated, re-routed and coded? Is the future looking back on this moment wondering why all art production must pass a cost-benefit analysis and a community review panel made up of clergy? Are robots hiding Black gestures and dance moves in architecture, awaiting a fleshly body to sense the data score and break it down on a dance floor? Ciphers and cybertecture, zealots and censors, WikiLeaks and sex by surprise..I had to watch V--often art makes much more sense than life, y'all--to get an "ovahstanding." The deal? First they came for..." Well peoples, not only do we have to have each other's artistic backs (regardless of genre), we also need to be honest with ourselves about our responsibility to the archive: a bit more self-awareness, a lot less self-censorship. It is time to bring it in a LARGE way, and if that means several small, networked audiences get to see, then rock it! But don't hold tightly onto your work, that's stingy and throw off our collective rhythm. And make sure you got your back up copies if you're trying to roll with an institution. Dance for the common good, not the common denominator. 

Afrolicious. Afrologia. Afrodelic. Afropoesia. Afrologica. How big is your 'fro?
Fractal, improvisational, polemical, but always moving with spirit and in service to lifting us all up!
That's the Logic of the Afro--sign up, read up, be up--you can move mountains, now make it beautiful

BLOWING BACK DA 'FRO this week is that eery silence right before the last minute shopping rush. Seriously. Making the 'fro stand on end is the more than 20 regional versions of the Nutcracker being performed this weekend alone. Egad! Paging Pat Payne & Gregory Barnett! I need an intervention!

TONIGHT

Pieter PASD

420 Avenue 33, Unit 10, Lincoln Heights, CA

Performing Process Continuing…

Wednesday, Dec 15, 8:30pm; Admission is FREE and you are welcome to bring drink,food, or free-boutique items to share.

Victoria Marks and Christine Suarez & Laiyle Weisman invite you out to an open floor of performance and discussion of making choreography for and in community. With all three having made recent works that took them out of the studio and to parks and rec centers, the night should be quite interesting.

DIY GALLERY

1549 West Sunset Boulevard

Saturday, December 18 · 8:00pm - 11:00pm, doors at 6 PM; FREE

TINY CREATURES REUNION SHOW 

"Final Show for The MOVEMENT movement performed by the mecca v.a, Inez Parra, Shabrena Barnard, Adrian Bayless, and Annie Gimps, puzzle pieces arranged, folks contributed...if you swing by that would be terrific we perform at 830 (dancie move step) and 1030 (sing song jig)"

Movement movement performs as part of the opening for BIG DEAL, curated by Miss Janet Kim.  I love watching Mecca dance. If you have not seen her solo work (she can be found often with Collage), go check this out. She teaches a burleasque ballet barre class, too. Yes, you will see the difference! Looking at the line up of artists, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, this is a BLOW OUT COMB!

Cracked Nuts

I love and hate the Nut Cracker. As a good little girl, I swoop and spun out of the theater each year we managed to get to Memphis to go see it for Christmas, by college years I was deep in my Pan African thang and could not be bothered. In Brasil I was hijacked b y Isaura Oliveira and taken to see Quebra Noz! I am still traumatised. This piece remains the quintessential Christmas choreography, so here are some really insane reinterpretations for you to check out if, like me, you have tried, unsuccessfully, to check out of the nut house:

Bob Baker Marionettes

1345 W. First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026; 213-250-9995

Bob Baker Marionettes presents The Nutcracker

Tuesday - Friday, 10:30 AM; Saturday & Sunday 2:PM Nov 17 -  Jan 30, $20, kids under 2 free, likely to sell out…

This man just won't stop, so you should go. Classic hidden LA.

Inner City Arts

720 Kohler Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021

Nutcracker Reloaded

Saturday, December 18, 2:00 PM; $10 http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/137684 

"is an urban retelling of the classic tale. Join the youth of A Place Called Home http://www.apch.org/ and special guest performers as they travel with Naima and the Nutcracker to the Land of Beats where break dancers, krumpers, hip hop dancers, Afro-Brazilian, Asian and Indian dancers entertain.  Great for the whole family." GREAT organization, so please support these kids!

coming up!

THE BROAD STAGE

http://www.thebroadstage.com/bodyelectric

Better go get you some tickets for the tiny but mighty dance series at the Broad!  2011 is looking hot. Diavolo kicks it off Jan 21 for a two night run then String Theory rigs the joint on Feb 18th and KCRW hosts the legendary Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Company on March 18th to close out the series with a night of duets not seen since the 1980s. WARNING: not only are the tickets a tad steep, but the online ticketing interface is terrible. TERRIBLE! Good grief!

ONGOING CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

Last week, I chose to leave this section out, but I kinda missed it. I LOVE the idea of a modern dancer checking out a rumba class or an "audience member" deciding to find out just how difficult dancing really is. Here's the thing: I want to hear about some new classes and studios. Yeah, yeah yeah, the DRC has a listing, but this is AFROLOGICA,  ain't trying to list everybody and anybody. Tell me about a radical class you take. I mostly cover African-descended dance stylings and experimental dance here, because they tend not to get too much publicity anywhere else. I also want to hear about dance hot spots--places where there are a few studios in close proximity and  certain groove is afoot. Here is one:

Venice

Way west, you can find an interesting mix of African-descended dance classes, all at a pretty high level, almost through the week.

• Electric Lodge

• Kimberly Mullen's Afro-Caribe class has live drumming and a solid anchor in Afro-Cuban oricha dances. Saturdays, 10:30 AM; $20
• Dani Lunn throws down a samba funk inspired ballroom dance deconstruction class with a house band and fun fanatics. Wednesdays 7:30; $15
• Vida Vierra mashes the sweat out of you on Sunday with a mix of Afro-Brazilian dances from Bahia. Sundays, 12:30 PM; $15

Vera McClendon Davis Cultural Center

• Thiane Diouf had a very fun sabar bak class, teaching the basics of this intense Senegalese groove; it might come back. Mondays, 3 PM; $10

Studio Moon

• Anna B Scott, according to her students, gives an inspirational Senegalese class, teaching the inside of the dances to live drumming. Mondays 7 PM; $15 (me!)

All of this can be found near the intersection of Electric & California Avenues! Where is your dance hot spot, and what is its vibration?

LOVELY!

I am working to keep myself amused during the holidaze, so hit me up with some of your funniest costume failures. I'll post the more hilarious ones. If you've got video, do send! It's not so much that I need a distraction from all that the world is slinging at us, but that I need a reminder why it is so amazing that we keep doing what we do. Be love y'all!

in love, 

-Anna Bee