Erinn here, writing to you from the Big Easy, the great city of New Orleans! I am here for a week attending the New Orleans Dance Festival, a gathering of dance in it’s 15th year (www.nodancefestival.org). Festival organizer Beverly Trask (Tulane professor, check out her bio here) began the festival as a celebration of jazz dance, and over time, it has shifted into focusing on the vernacular forms that are at jazz’s roots. Here, I have been dancing 6-7.5 hours a day, learning Congolese, Brazilian, Brazilian Contemporary, Haitian and Afro-Cuban dance. In fact, the Afro-Cuban dance instruction has come from La Mora, who is the artistic director of Oyu Oro, the Afro-Cuban company that just visited as a part of the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival at the Ordway!
I am done a lot of work and a little bit of play here. Here is some video evidence;
WORK: Haitian class with Michele Martin of San Francisco
PLAY: The Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf Bar
More to come later!!! Yours in danced rhythm,
Erinn
