Quote of the Week - de Mille

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess and we may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.” 

~ Agnes de Mille

Leaping! Hello 2014!  Grammys are over - Sundance is over - let's get back to work!

Happy Monday!  Leap Leap Leap!

(I couldn't find where I first saw this image - it was in an article about the photograph, but I re-found it on Sean Rowe's Tumblr - and if you don't know his music, get to know it.)

Quote of the Week - Ailey

"In this business, life is one long fund-raising effort."

- Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre has just opened its latest season in New York, with only its 3rd Artistic Director in an over 50-year history.  I think I was 7 when we went on a class field trip to see the Ailey company.  It was the first time I had been truly transported to another place by art.  In what has become a lifelong relationship with that choreography,  I have seen the company over 30 times,  taken classes with its dancers, and read both Judith Jamison's Dancing Spirit, and Mr. Ailey's, Revelations.   (Along with Martha Graham's Blood Memory, and Agnes De Mille's biography of Martha Graham, these are among the most profound books I have ever read.  I have yet to figure out the connection between these powerful dancer/choreographers and writing, but it is a visceral and vibrant one. )

That gaze alone could make you a better dancer.

As we have just passed World AIDS Day, it seems fitting to feature someone who was taken too soon from this disease.  As it is also officially the giving season, it seems alright with me to point out that artists, despite the instances of uber-wealthy celebrities, are often woefully underfunded.


Think about supporting an artist, a project, or an arts-related business in memory of the legacy of Alvin Ailey.  Maybe I'll even make you a list.