creativity award nominations

An announcement from Leah Shlachter at the Cultural Council:

Know Someone Active in the Arts? Nominate Them for the Creative Legacy or Creative Pulse Awards!

Established in 1994, the Award for Creativity has historically been presented by the Cultural Council of Jackson Hole to recognize individuals who are enhancing the creativity of Jackson, whether a professional, a volunteer, an artist, or a patron of the arts.  The Award for Creativity is a heartfelt award given to those that exhibit dedication and extraordinary contributions to our artistic and cultural community.

New this year! Two awards will be given out this fall at the Award for Creativity Celebration: the Creative Legacy Award and the Creative Pulse Award. The Creative Legacy Award will be given to an individual who has shown a life-long dedication to the arts in our community, one whose impact has resonated repeatedly through the years. The Creative Pulse Award will be awarded to an inspirational and invigorating trendsetter in the valley, one who is introducing fresh programs and projects.

Past Award for Creativity winners include: Jean C. Adams, John and Georgie Morgan, Marion Buchenroth, Pam and Larry McCool, Candra Day, Anne Merritt, Joffa and Bill Kerr, Evie Lewis, Karen Stewart, Ken Thomasma, Julie Obering, Bruce Hawtin, Dr. Robert Partridge, Susan Thulin, Bill Schwartz, Jane Lavino, Sophie Craighead, Missy Falcey, David Kornblum, Lyndsay McCandless, Babs Case, John Tozzi, Pam and Keith Phillips, and Charlie Craighead.  Last October Tim Sandlin and Travis Walker were recognized for their artistic dedication and were celebrated in Dancers’ Workshop’s Studio 5.

Additionally, the nominating process has changed. In previous years written nominations were requested but, in order to make the process easier, phone interviews will now be conducted with individuals recommending a creative in our community.  Please submit nominations by Friday, June 28 to culturalcounciljh@gmail.com.  Please include your name, phone number, email, and the name of the creative individual you are nominating. The Cultural Council of Jackson Hole Coordinator will then contact you to obtain more information about your nomination.

Questions? Please contact Leah Shlachter at 307.690.0026 or culturalcounciljh@gmail.com

guest post and video by carrie richer

Another member of Contemporary Dance Wyoming, Carrie Richer, shares her thoughts and this video about the upcoming performance of “THE MEAL.” Carrie is also co-director of Hole Dance Films.

This is a short clip from “THE MEAL,” which is being performed onstage at the Center for the Arts this coming weekend. If you haven’t been to one of the UP CLOSE performances yet, check it out. The audience sits on the stage and are sometimes inches away from the performers. I love seeing dance this way, when you hear their steps and their breath and can feel them rush past you in your seat. The audience sits on three sides of the performance space, creating all kinds of different viewing possibilities and angles to choose from. As we’ve been rehearsing, I like to move around and watch different pieces from different angles. If I weren’t performing, I would go see the show a few different times so I could see it from multiple angles.

Babs Case’s style of choreography often incorporates the dancer’s individual movement. She essentially ‘collages’ our individual choreography together. Different audience view points will emphasize different combinations of dancers and highlight various interactions. I like to watch the space in between all of the dancers just as much as concentrating on their choreography.

The company, Contemporary Dance Wyoming, has eight dancers in this show, and each of us has found our own characters, meaning and narrative to our performances. There is one piece in the show where I feel I have a very distinct character and story, and then some places I strive to become part of the pack and push my self awareness beyond my own world, melting into the group as if we are all one organism. At some points, I even feel that I ‘become’ the table. The table is the focus throughout the concert – dancers move in, around, under and over it, it is a thread. This inanimate piece of furniture holds so much power in its shape, structure and symbolic nature that we change with it or maybe it changes with us. I guess it is a chicken and an egg situation.

If I had the self discipline to not look at the gorgeous movement that the dancers are executing, I would try to watch the concert once through and only focus on the table and the space it commands in different instances. Live performance is different every time. This format, especially, offers something new up with each viewing. Some people say the best seat to watch dance is often from backstage – UP CLOSE: THE MEAL lets you get even closer to the action than backstage.