02/26/2024
Back in the early days, payment for play was in the form of free classes, food, cards, and bushels of gratitude. We were blessed in our community, by writers, who would write about the 99% type of artist, the boutique experimental under-the-radar underground creatures, and a record would be made. Gratitude to all of the writers. By Felecia Tomasko, quoted below.
"SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre Takes to the Streets
by Felicia M. Tomasko
misaleap.jpgAs Misa Kelly sits beneath an arch of
powder-blue morning glories in her backyard, sipping coffee and
talking about her vision as an artist, she seems to embody creative
expression. She tells me the secret to watching a meteor shower
(it’s making sure that you’re comfortable), and it feels like she
is transmitting some esoteric knowledge. Her MFA is from Cal Arts,
where she participated in an interdisciplinary program combining
dance, film, and visual art, so it makes sense that, although she
is the artistic director of SonneBlauma Danscz, a community-based
dance group, her work also includes visual art, theater, and
filmmaking.
Dance remains Kelly’s core form of self-expression. While we are
talking, she leaps from her chair to dance out an answer.
Resembling a forest sprite, she undulates, waves her arms, dips,
and folds, at the same time talking steadily about the role of the
artist in uncertain times, about her anger at the current
administration, and about process and performance.
“I have a hunger for experimentation,” she declares, sitting
down again. She believes that the true artist is a catalyst for
social change, what she describes as a carrier of conscious
evolution, community building, and rebelling against the status
quo. As a result, Kelly wants to democratize her art. And this is
what she has done for the group’s upcoming performances.
One Day Dances, which will take place at various Santa Barbara
locations on August 26, is Kelly’s effort to strip off the
proverbial frame that surrounds most art. Kelly’s One Day Dances
take artistic expression out of what she refers to as the “churches
of art” — museums and theaters — and brings it to street corners,
bus stops, and parks. SonneBlauma Danscz is not the first dance
group in Santa Barbara to take it to the streets; Kelly
acknowledges “Dance About Town” — Dianne Vapnek’s Summerdance
brainchild — as one of her inspirations. Kelly’s vision of how this
will work involves lots of audience participation.
One Day Dances will begin with breakfast and continue with
warm-ups, vocal exercises, rhythm games, and conversation. Next the troupe will venture to a thrift store to outfit themselves with
costumes for their adventure before heading out. Beginning from an
improvisation, Kelly will lead the group to create the choreography
that they will later perform. To complete the process, the cast
will feast together in a potluck celebration.
Kelly muses on the process when she asks, “What would that
texture be like: to take the dance knowledge birthed in the
sanctuary of the studio out onto the concrete and be as vulnerable
as one is in the studio out in the open in the creative process?”
It’s a question that can only be answered by the experience, one
that Kelly is opening up not only to her professional company
members, but also to anyone who dares to dance with them."
Candid photographs of a fun adventure unframing art. I seem to remember ending up in Sojourner Kincaid Rolleʻs poetry workshop. I really felt drawn to this s...
