Our annual Choreographers’ Evening (CE) at the Walker is always a celebratory affair, but this year we’re especially excited to be planning a special edition to celebrate the fortieth year of this favorite Walker program. Inspired by CE’s long, rich history, curators Aparna Ramaswamy and Patrick Scully are presenting an evening of dance that reflects past curators and choreographers and their contributions to this annual smorgasbord of local dance.
A note from the curators:
Calling all Dance Makers Old, Young and In Between!
The Choreographers’ Evening in November of this year, 2012, will celebrate its 40 years in our community.
We, Aparna Ramaswamy and Patrick Scully will co-curate the evening.
We plan to present a show that will allow us to revisit points of those forty years in a number of creative ways. Just to get the juices flowing, here are a few things we thought might be possible (these are in no way intended to be prescriptive—rather, just to spark your creativity!)
Perhaps there will be 2 works from each of 5 time frames:
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
Today
What does it mean to be related to one of those time frames?
- Maybe a choreographer from a ’70s CE sets a previous work on a new cast?
- Maybe a young choreographer incorporates past CE video of an earlier work into a piece with new material?
- Maybe a piece has a source of inspiration from the ’80s – a local teacher, some music, an issue, who knows?
Our criteria for selection, in order of importance are:
1. Work representing our theme of 40 years of Choreographers’ Evening at the Walker Art Center
2. Excellence of work (We agree that this has a lot to do with our subjective perspectives of “Does this work speak to me, grab me, move me?”)
3. Representation of as much of the community of dance makers as possible – Breadth of the work selected to perform
We hope you get the idea, if you have any questions, feel free to email us at:
ramaswamy617@gmail.com and/or patrick@PatrickScully.org
Audition Details:
WHEN:
Thursday, August 2 from 6-10pm
Friday, August 3 from 2-6pm
Saturday, August 4 from noon – 4pm
WHERE: The Walker’s McGuire Theater, 1750 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis
WHO: You must email patrick@PatrickScully.org to reserve an audition time; auditions are accepted by appointment only.
WHAT: All forms of dance welcome. Our theme of 40 years of Choreographers’ Evening at the Walker Art Center is encouraged.
- You will receive a call or email confirming your time slot
- Auditions are in 10 minute intervals
- Pieces are usually 3-6 minutes in length and may not exceed 7 minutes
- DVD submissions are accepted, although live performance is preferred
For more information and to schedule an audition, please email patrick@PatrickScully.org or call the Walker at 612.375.7550 to leave a message.
–Aparna & Patrick
BROWSE—AND HELP BUILD—OUR ONLINE CHOREOGRAPHER’S EVENING ARCHIVE
Since this year’s CE curators are looking for works that represent choreography from the 1970s to the present, we have compiled a list of past curators and choreographers to help inspire those auditioning: http://choreographersevening.tumblr.com.
Our list is complete, but some program notes are missing. We invite members of the dance community to share any information you may have and help us expand the online archive! Do you have programs, photos, memories, anecdotes, or other material?
If so, you can upload it to the Tumblr archives site—or we can arrange to have it scanned and uploaded for you: email Anat Shinar at anat.shinar@walkerart.org for details.
Videos of Choreographers’ Evening from 2000 – 2011 are also available for viewing and research in the Walker’s archives department. Contact archivist Jill Vuchetich at jill.vuchetich@walkerart.org for an appointment during research hours, Wednesday-Friday 1-4 pm.
