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East Coast
Jam
A five day event in October and in April that brings together 50 improvisors
from across the country. Open to all experience levels, the east coast
jam includes facilitated warm-ups, open dancing, an evening of performance,
two dance spaces, shared lodging, luscious vegetarian meals, sauna,
wide vistas, lots of outside spaces to explore, and the people you love
dancing with most! For more information
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Crank it out
Three years in a row, with start-up support from the Northampton Arts
Council,  Johanna
invited 5 artists to join her in the aesthetic boiling pot: the immediate,
ongoing challenge to make and present three new, yet thematically related
works over a period of 1-2 months. "We're interested in the idea
of wrestling with our muses, digging for the juicy stuff, in what happens
when we stay with something past the usual levels of satisfaction as
we explore and refine our respective forms." Among the artists
who participated over three years were Jeff Bliss, Lani Nahele, Lisa
Schmidt, Jennifer Polins, Beth Fairservis, Maggie L.J. Shollenberger,
Chris O'Connor, and Saliq Francis Savage.
Solos West: Improvisations by Men / Improvisations by Women
Inspired by a similar project in Boston, Johanna organized a
performance series and gathered together all of her favorite local
improvisers to perform improvisational solos----one evening of men's
solos and one of women's solos. The performances took place at
Wildlife Sanctuary in Florence and included spoken word, music and
dance. Stay tuned for upcoming Solos West performances.
Fertile Ground: Explorations in Music and Dance
After a night of juicy improvising to live music, Johanna was
inspired to organize a participatory performance series that highlighted
local improvisers working with live music. Each evening began with an
informal performance with a dancer and live musician. The performance
was followed by a live music jam during which the audience was invited
to dance. Working with the relationship between dance and music, musicians
and dancers were brought together to explore questions of listening,
leading and playing with unexpected ways to support one another. Among
the musicians were Stephen Katz, Doug MacKenzie, Jeremiah
McLane , Maggie Shollenberger, Hal Walker and John
Hughes. Dancers included Mark Zemelman, Shakti Smith, Fernanda Gaines,
Lisa Schmidt/Lani Nahele, Heather Egan and Johanna. Stay tuned to upcoming
Fertile Ground series.
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