dance

#ArtScene13: New Podcast, Festival City and More

Karla Adolphe is featured this week in our new podcast, Storm the Perfict

Karla Adolphe is featured this week in our new podcast, Storm the Perfict

It’s time again for #ArtScene13, a curated collection of resources on art, faith, hope, with a focus on Edmonton’s explosive local creativity. 

  1. The brand new episode of the Storm The Perfict podcast is out today. I don’t know about you, but there is something so encouraging about hearing how other artists struggle with the same things I struggle with. Little things, like trying to please everybody, all of the time. Singer/songwriter Karla Adolphe shares her struggles, and a song, this week on Storm the Perfict. You can subscribe on iTunes here or listen on our website here.
  2. Are you great at design but not sure how to teach those basic skills to those around you? Bring your coworkers up to speed, or lead a design class or workshop with free lesson plans and tools from the Canva Design School!
  3. Here’s a silly question. Have you ever been afraid your art will fail? Or afraid you won’t be able to fund your next project? Joey O’Connor has some words of encouragement in his new video.
  4. Sometimes bringing your project into being is such hard work that you just need to laugh. When you do, it’s hard to beat Bad Lip Reading’s new take on the NFL.
  5. Local artist and good friend of the Bleeding Heart, Jared Robinson, has made the top 10 on Sonic’s album design contest. I know I’m biased, but I think Jared’s design is pretty awesome (it involves a sloth). Vote for your favourite design here by midnight tonight.
  6. "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view." 

    Edward Abbey (via Goodreads Quote of the Day)

  7. Will you be heading to the Winter Shake Up today? Tons of festivities including the city’s first outdoor winter market. Get details one their website at http://www.wintercitiesconference.com/shake-up-festival-and-market/
  8. Who says festival season slows in winter? The Exposure photography festival is coming our in February via the inFocusYEG photography show. The Harcourt House show is curated by Alexis Marie Chute, a long time Bleeding Heart friend and award-winning artist in her own right. More details at infocusyeg.com
  9. Speaking of photography, Death To The Stock Photo sends out some AWESOME free stock photos every month. Premium (paid) members can access past archives and exclusives, but now those members also fund creative projects for others. Pretty great, huh?
  10. Edmonton musicians rejoice! You’ll soon be able to submit your music to Capital City Records, a project of the Edmonton Public Library to make local music available to Edmontonians. Free downloads for members. Free streaming for non-members. All this, and the musicians get paid a flat fee of $100-200 for listing their work. Our library is so, SO awesome. Read all about it from the Edmonton Journal here.
  11. If you are up for some experimental theatre, check out Canoe Festival 2015 at Workshop West in the ArtsBarns - there are still shome shows left.
  12. How about some dance? The FEATS Festival of Dance showcases Albertan artists, and is seeking pieces from profession and youth (aged 13-21) dance and movement artists. Applications can be made on the website by April 30 on the Feats Festival website.
  13. If all this makes you feel a bit tired, why not fall asleep to the sound of Jeff Bridges lulling baritone?

    And a bunch of crazy ambient soundscapes?

    Squarespace (those who host this here website) has teamed up with Jeff Bridges for Sleeping Tapes - a collection of sonic wonder to dream by. "100% of the retail price from each album sold goes directly to No Kid Hungry, excluding shipping and service fees. So you’ll get a good night’s rest knowing that when you download the album, or pick up the LP or cassette, you're helping end childhood hunger in America.”
     
    http://www.dreamingwithjeff.com/

What’d we miss? Don’t forget you can share your events with the hashtag #ArtScene13, or send me an email before next Thursday to make it on the list.




Blog for Bleeding Heart!

You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.

Twerking on God's Great Dancefloor: The Glen Day Seven

This final day of the Glen Workshop, there are so many things I could say. I could document my early morning walk. My rising with the sun to traverse the Atilayah trail, distracted by beauty at every step. My sad realization of workshop time winding away. The beautiful songs our groups wrote and performed. The parting words of wisdom from Over the Rhine

I could recall that final trip to Santa Fe. The run to the souvenir shop. The installation art at Site Santa Fe. The feeling of youthful pride, being denied a beer when I forget my ID. Just-barely-making-it-back after missing the day's last bus.

I could reflect on Richard Rohr's final words, or the impartation of blessing during the anointing service. How each artist pulls meaning from the oil and the hands and the cross. How I wait my turn and watch Barry Moser in my periphery, knowing from his own story how he values this ritual.

I could gush at Over The Rhine's intimate parting performance or brag up my front row seats. I could sit in those final moonlit moments on the walking path back to my room, knowing that I could never say to these new friends all I want to say. Wondering if and when I may see them again.  

I don't want to spend this final Glen Workshop post on any of those happenings. I want to shine a light on the experience that outshines them all. The Saturday night dance party sits atop the rubble of my memory, more than a week later.

To tell you what it is like to dance with middle-aged artists–moving to music I don't let my kids hear–is not nearly enough. I took no pictures. So, I will leave the task to that most expansive of forms. I will end this series with a poem.

Wrestling With my Body

Top 40 guilty pleasures 
are the soundrack of this final 
sunset

Stars pale 
against mirrorball refractions
fire-tongues
upon the heads of holy poets
limb-loose and chainless

We are all learning
there is nothing but the dance

First the toe tap dip
into deep then dive
Wet and salted
We are
fish in the school of joy
Bodies flopping thirsty
scales opalescent in moonlight

One song fades 
to prayers
for another
rhythm
that comes
like a torrent of grace
Boom, boom, bop, boom

We sing past lyrics
Past pasts and futures
Here and now
Alive
to the beat of
brothers
sisters
selves

When poets chant pop
is there a room on earth smiling with more teeth?

I don't have 99 problems
I don't rob banks
I don't like big butts
and God knows
I am no wrecking ball
but there are truths beyond these lies

At these wild edges
I wrestle with my body and
the sight of
my sanctified sister
twerking on God's great dancefloor

Oh! Witness
what we make sacred by our love!


Blog for Bleeding Heart!

You have something to say–why not say it here? Email your blog post idea to dave@bleedingheartart.space and let's chat.