VG/DE Teaching Artist Spotlight on Lawson Pinder

Working as a Teaching Artist, and Dancer with VG/DE has helped me tremendously in growing as an Artist. In helping me keep with my motto, “in learning you will teach, in teaching you will learn”.

Imparting all the knowledge that I’ve acquired through my experience as a Performing Artist and a Teaching Artist, is one of the great joys I get out of doing what I love. Which is bringing an experience to children, and adults alike that may not have had the opportunity to explore. 

The Home residency, this year has been pretty eventful! The kids were excited, some of them remembered me from last year! A few of the students, were very eager to share some of their dance experiences with me. Seeing their little eyes, light up when I came on stage was so heart-warming, we had a journey together, moving from being in the classroom with them to being on stage in front of them.

This year I also worked with High Schoolers at Scholars Academy in Far Rockaway. My experience with teaching high school is usually almost like pulling teeth, we all know how high school students are... “cause we’re cool”  But This high school - they are ready and so eager to learn and dance they’re so involved it sometimes seems unreal. The energy that I receive for these students just heightens my passion as a Teaching Artist.

I want to say in the past 14 years I have created a mission and refined it, which is to be the voice of encouragement and guidance, for the youth.

I like to sometimes see myself as a “initiator of passion”. Majority of the humans that cross my path love my stories of where I’ve been, or what I’ve been through to get to where I am today. It just really inspires them to not be afraid of taking a risk, take a chance they really never know what will happen.

There are so many examples, but just happened recently at one of the schools I’m doing a residency at.

Story time:-

There’s this little girl no more than 11/12 I want to say she wasn’t even in my dance class but just hanging out, and I noticed she was playing around.

​A lot of interesting voices just flowed from her. After “kikiing” with her for a bit I suggested she should look into becoming a voice over actor, of course she has no clue what I was talking about. Fast forward a few weeks, maybe a month of getting to know her and answering her questions about voiceover and acting, she came to me just last week and said her mom is looking to enroll her in a voice over acting class to try it out.

So, yeah that one example, of what I get out of what I do and why I love being a Teaching Artist. I’m just grateful that VG/DE took that chance on me to continue my mission, and to enhance VG/DE community outreach program.

Lawson

HOME - Neighborhood School Series - Celebrate the beauty of diversity

HOME takes young audiences on a journey around the world to explore the concept of home. Through a combination of colorful costumes, lively music, and participation, children are transported to different countries and cultures, gaining a deeper understanding of what home means to people from diverse backgrounds and giving them time to reflect on what home means to them.

The show features dances from Sweden, India, Burkina Faso West Africa, and the USA, showcasing the rich traditions and unique movements of each culture. From the energetic rhythms of Colombia to the graceful movements of India, the children were captivated by the variety of styles and expressions on display and delighted to try the movements on their own bodies.

One of the highlights of the performance is the opportunity for audience participation, allowing children to join in the fun and learn some basic dance steps themselves. This interactive element not only keeps kids engaged but also encourages them to appreciate the art form of dance and its ability to bring people together.

HOME is not just a dance performance – it is a celebration of diversity, unity, and the universal desire for belonging. By exposing children to different cultures and perspectives, the show promotes empathy, understanding, and a sense of global citizenship.

As part of our neighborhood school series, HOME is offered free of charge to schools in the community, making it accessible to all students regardless of their background or financial circumstances. Dance Entropy is committed to providing high-quality arts experiences for young audiences, and HOME is a shining example of our dedication to promoting cultural exchange and artistic expression.

 Let's celebrate the beauty of diversity and the power of dance to connect us all, no matter where we call home.

Take Root Spotlight: Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective

“Your support and commitment to showcasing diverse talents make a significant impact on the arts community. The experience has been invaluable, and we are grateful for the exposure and connections it has brought our way.”

— Jeeno Joseph

Take Root is a monthly curated series that supports dance makers by providing an opportunity to present a paired evening of work. The impact Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective made on audiences last week was profound.

Today we are shining a spotlight on Jeeno and his experience at Take Root.

Jeeno Joseph Nadanam Collective’s work explores Bharatanatyam. An Indian classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. “As a first generation Malayali - American born to parents who emigrated from Kerala to New York, I’ve often felt a lack of representation for the Malayalam language within the Bharatanatyam repertoire. Through this work I hope to explore the beauty of Malayalam musical compositions, poetry, culture and rhythms through the traditional Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.”

“It was an honor to be a part of such a beautiful event, and I am truly appreciative of the platform you provided for our performance.”

— Jeeno Joseph

Photos by David Rauch

Come to Take Root and support our March artists Grant Jacoby & Dancers and Althea Dance Company.

Purchase tickets here

Stepping into Rikers Island, and Out

Mask drawings from Skimming the Surface participants

Stepping into Rikers Island, and Out

By Valerie Green

On my many journeys throughout NYC offering my signature workshop Skimming the Surface since 2013 I have worked in halfway houses, homeless shelters, substance abuse centers, work release programs, Queens Public Library, NYC Correctional facilities among many others. Each opportunity is its own adventure that can be beautiful, challenging, and/or profound. My latest visit to Rikers Island on January 24th, came after a several year hiatus, due to the pandemic. I was pleased to receive an email from Rose M. Singer's House Programs Manager asking for my return to share this valuable workshop with the inmates of this all-female house. After many visits to Rikers I think I finally got down almost all the rules of getting in and getting out of Rikers as vendor, how does no one teach you this? The first time back in 2017 was an intense and intimidating free fall learning curve. I was relieved all went smoothly, as I was received and guided through many detectors, gates, and check points to the prison’s gymnasium. I was greeted by 10 inmates who thought they were going to make a dance performance! They soon learned they were really going to be entering a journey into themselves to move and process emotions. While there was most certainly the strong defenses and ego masks to attempt to penetrate of this diverse group, the impact was real. We explored our bodies in movement, breath, our boundaries, letting go, seeing and being seen, while finding our voices. We explored what the inmates wanted to moving forward to, identified our resources to feel better, AND the limitations and gifts of our mask. This unique and very different experience for the innates was a journey they didn't quite expect, but were welcomed to receive by class end. The most meaningful exercise for all was finding "what to move forward to" when you are stuck inside a prison. Through our time together there were tears, small and large, flowing releasing, and shedding, and the eventual moments of showing a glimpse of the real self. This deep exploration all among an unusual flow of correctional facility staff as spectators, as I led the inmates to explore their very personal fears and sorrows. As we sat in our final circle sharing, what was most real was some amount of connection that finally landed, and the gratitude the inmates had for my presence and generosity in offering this experience inside the infamous wall of Rikers. For a couple of innates I was their first visitor. They all felt better and more relaxed, had a flicker of hope to look for inside themselves, and new tools to work with for the hard moments, that undoubtedly will continue to come.

As I drove off, and felt my own body and breath, I took stock of the successful experience, and once again felt honored to do this healing work. I am inspired by the power of movement, the capacity of the human mind and spirit, and the opportunity to keep connecting to myself.

“It really helped, today I was in my feelings”

“It feels good to think about my struggles and how I can work to achieve past them”

This program is supported by The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

“RITE” and Reflection

The healing ceremony and meditative ritual, “RITE,” made an impact on audience members gathered at the Queens Public Library, Hunters Point on Monday December 11th. 

 This physical dance work, performed by 6 men, invites the audience to not only witness the performers on a journey through their internal struggles but also to participate in their own ritual of letting go. The vulnerability of the performers was palatable creating a visceral experience for the audience and drawing them deeply into the piece. Viewing the work, along with participating in this ritual, had a profound effect on audience members in attendance.  

 At the talkback, led directly after the performance, by Artistic Director, Valerie Green, our lively conversation allowed audience members and performers alike to reflect on their experience. The dancers shared their thoughts on the opportunity to perform in a company of men in a piece in which they are asked to be unguarded, to let down what is expected of them as men in society. This rare circumstance was noted by the audience as well ‘It’s not often we see men without their mask’. One audience member was moved when invited to participate in the work. ‘All our lives we hold on to pain and hurt. What if we could consciously let it go?’.  

 Hear about RITE, the work and process from each dancer in a sneak-peak below! 

Aidan Feldman: “This piece is physically demanding, and it's an interesting challenge to try and pace myself as we go through it. At the climax of the piece, we are meant to reach a point of peak exhaustion and collapse - the trick is not collapsing too early, while also not being too precious in conserving energy and holding back.   That balance within the piece is a regular reminder of a larger theme of the work, which is struggle with the self. 

Johnny Matthews III:  “I have found this work to be a physical and mental representation of pushing through difficulty to find shared humanity and unity between us performers. As a performer, Rite asks me to dissolve my facades and go through a journey of discovery into my essential, animal self. Riding the waves of this work as we show it to new audiences allows me to discover more depth within the choreography.”    

 Tsubasa Nishioka: “In the process of creating this piece, I learned that immersion in the piece and the dancer become one, it's a feeling I always feel when working with this company. By thinking more deeply, you can improve your understanding of the work and make your expressions more concrete.  I felt how interesting it was that when the dancers unified their sense of purpose, their respective paths of life intersected through the work and they were moving in the same direction.” 

 Lawson Pinder: “I related to one moment in RITE "the take downs", more than anything else.  And I know life really "do be throwing curve balls" but it's up to us what we do with those detours, either stay down or get back up. “ 

Richard Scandola: “Working on Rite had been challenging for me on multiple levels, physically, mentally and emotionally. It is a 45-minute-long work that doesn’t really stop, and you need to be in it so deeply at all times, in connection with the movement and the intentions while being interconnected with your own story.  I am getting into it so deeply that it is triggering part of me that needs healing. So strongly that I would start crying on stage or backstage after ending it, releasing the scars of the traumas. I believe that dance, like any other art form, has the power to heal. To heal the one performing it and the one watching it” 

 Ethan Schweitzer-Gaslin: “RITE is truly a journey. It is both physically demanding to dance and has the power to elicit emotional reactions from those dancing it and those watching it. But at the end, we are left with a unique sense of peace in our own bodies and a unique sense of understanding of the experiences of those who danced with us.” 

 “RITE” will continue to make an impact on audiences across New York this year. Please join us in this ritual of Letting Go at The Center @ West Park, on Feb. 29-March 2! Save the Date! 

December Take Root presents Marie Lloyd Paspe and Almasphere, this season's Late Stage Mertz Gilmore Grantee!

“The story is older than my body, my mother’s, my grandmother’s. For years we have been passing it on so that it may live, shift, and circulate. So that it may become larger than its proper measure, always larger than its own in-significance.” - Trinh T. Minh-ha

'bumalik,' the Tagalog word for 'return,’ is a performance installation series of dynamic bamboo that centers the profound power of imagined memories as the gateway to returning home. The co-creators share that the work, revolving around the sculpture ‘sirkulo,' "... re-imagines the relationship between the brown Asian body and environment as sites of trauma, reorientation, then liberating transmutation. Our transformation of ‘sirkulo’ explores the disorientation and reorientation of the peripheral Filipina, shaped by geographical migrant stories of our mothers and our psychological migrations out of and into ourselves."

Marie Lloyd Paspe is a Filipina-American dance/vocal performer, choreographer, director, writer and educator. She is interested in collaborative Filipinx-American diasporic identity work within spaces of memory, fascia and time, igniting 'kapwa' (Tagalog for “shared one-ness”). Her work to re-root the small, brown body through movement/vocal forms juxtaposes patrionormative white-dominated spaces. She is Bessie-awarded for choreographic contributions to Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, 2024 Target Margin Theatre Institute Fellow, 2023 Gallim Moving Artist Resident, and 2022 Jadin Wong Fellow. Recent features include film in Taikang Space (Beijing), MASS MoCA, TOPAZ Arts, and press in The New York Times and Fjord Review.

The performance will utilize designs created alongside Almasphere. Almasphere creates atmospheres through large-scale sculpture and installation, inviting individuals to commune with inner worlds, ritualize with community, and embark with the cosmos. Sabrina Herbosa Reyes, Filipina-American architect, sculptor and movement artist, draws from Filipinx cosmology and memory to conjure extensions of environments into and out of bodies. Antonio Giovanni Rivera, the son of a Puerto Rican, ignites architectural experiences as modes of universal language. Their cross-cultural collaboration encourages the exploration of building spaces that evoke intuition and curiosity. Their work was shown in Mexico City, Brooklyn and Queens.

Paspe, Reyes and Rivera come together to build highly imaginative environments that transform and ignite each discipline into transcendence and potentiality. Sculpture and architecture imprint on the skin of those moving and making sound, cyclically impacting the skin of their diasporic landscapes.

Click here to watch a trailer of bumalik!

Performances take place December 8th and 9th at 8:00pm. Advance sale tickets are $20 online purchased here. Tickets purchased at door will be $25 cash or card."

Retreating to Nature: A Movement Healing Workshop in Rowe, MA, Nov. 10-12

I’m so happy for the opportunity to present Skimming the Surface: Movement Healing Workshop at the Rowe Center this November 10-12.

Leaving home for a retreat of any kind can often seem like a significant use of time and money, but if the resources and time are available, being able to escape can magnify the benefits of a workshop. Time away from the stress of home, immersed in a different lifestyle, is already deeply beneficial to anyone feeling the need for change – whether it’s from overstimulation or boredom. A change of pace is additionally vital for anyone living in the city, where the harsh environment can harden us and put us out of touch with our emotions.

The workshop uses both physical and emotional exercises to release repressed feelings of stress. We’ll use multiple tools to embody healing and grow both as individuals and as a group. And what better environment to facilitate healing than three days away from the stress of daily life at the beautiful Rowe Center, the natural beauty in this environment is uniquely positioned for emotional growth. Located at the foothills of the Berkshire mountains, surrounded by strong trees and streams galore, one can't help but feel more grounded than ever, which is the perfect fit for our workshop.

This offering is super affordable and spots are still available for a limited time! 

Learn More and register today for this rare opportunity to connect with yourself and our natural environment: https://rowecenter.org/skimming-the-surface-movement-healing-workshops-with-valerie-green/

Lome, TOGO - A piece of you lives inside me

For this month's blog I would like to share on my recent teaching visit to Lome, Togo, a small country in Western Africa.

Here I collaborated with the organization Sol'Afrik, directed by Kossivi Sénagbé Afiadegnigban  and their training program, Woedupe, a program initiated to cultivate and offer diverse trainings for Togolese dancers. In a two-week intensive process, I was able to offer my signature modern/contemporary technique class called "Dance your Frame", the "Tools for Choreography" and "Performance in Action".

In the technique class the dancers reported the class to be a very new experience then the other offerings and training they have received locally or from visiting guests in Lome, or in Western Africa. The technical warm up was found to be thorough and specific in attention to all body parts, and the main point of reflection for the dancers was the new use of "center" for them.  My technique class comes out of the training of the Erick Hawkins technique whereby all initiating movement is rooted in use of the pelvic and primarily the center. Somehow this was a revelation for the dancers, while they without a doubt have a strong use of their center in African and African Contemporary Dance this was a new experience they found deeply helpful in organizing their movement and finding integration throughout the body.

The Tools for Choreography class offered a daily new experimentation in movement creation the first week of the program, offering detailed processes to get out of their heads and habits.  We explored creative ways to share weight and create lifts within a group, how we can use words or pictures to inspire a movement, and detailed use of time, dynamics, space, sensation, emotion and much more. The dancers appreciated most how the studies started out so simple but after an intricate and cumulative process that kept evolving the movement, the dancers landed in a completely new place and one that resulted in a very fresh movement creation, out of their habits. For many their favorite class was graphing time and dynamics, which they found to expand the potential and clarity of movement interpretation, the use of stream of consciousness, and finding connection to emotions and movement creation. 

The lab class focus is to integrate all the technique class explorations and phrases, the dancers’ choreographic studies, and a whole lot of other ideas thrown in my me into a culminating performance.  The intention in pulling all of the movement together is also so the dancers can reach towards the movements mastery, and experience a different choreographic process and work on performance skills. This class always creates more connection, team work, and excitement as we lead to final day/performance. The dances theme always emerges organically in these trainings, and is reveled over time and becomes quite clear. In this case the title emerged to be "Epurer" in French or "The Clearing" in English.  A dance that presented it's self as a process, about struggle, a path, a contradiction, a challenge, a revitalization, a society, a community, helping, rescuing, collaborating, resisting, accepting, and feelings!  All combined to clear, to begin again, to land in a place that would be somewhere else, and something different and something new. 

We were grateful to have separate visits from the American and French Embassy's in Togo watching final rehearsals leading up to the performance on Sept. 2 at Brin du Chocolate where all events took place. My experience in working with the dancers who had varying ages and experiences and language capacities was a challenge but one that I am used to, and do my best to rise each individual up to progress their skills, self-confidence and empower them as dancers and as humans! The dancers’ experiences of all these ideas was so new, but what touched me the most was their intense hunger to learn, to understand the movement. While we worked very hard and intensely in this period our sessions were all filled with laughter, play, and connection. At our celebratory post show dinner, they recounted their appreciation of my teaching, approach and patience. I am grateful for this experience, for their warmth and openness and allowing and accepting me to challenge them.

Outside of the dance studio trainings while in Lome, I was able to experience an African dance class for myself, watching a local dance company rehearse, with a little jumping in to dance with them as well! Visits to the bustling market, beach, cafes, restaurants, live music, and daily adventures of food, rides on the moto, and more!  It was an exciting, exhausting, challenging, and beautiful experience that I will hold in my heart forever. I could not be more aware of how lucky I am to travel the world and share in these unique cultural learning experiences, these two-week processes are always so rich, deep, and profound. The hardest part is departing each country knowing we will likely never meet again, while I am now used to this hardship, what makes it easier is the perspective of knowing a piece of me and lives in side them and a piece of them lives inside me. And that the legacy of these trainings will ripple into their world and hopefully impact others.

Exploring coastal ecosystems & the shifting nature of rivers and water lines through dance

Photos by Argenis Apolinario

Valerie Green/Dance Entropy had the pleasure of being invited to create a new site specific dance work at Socrates Sculpture Park this summer.

“Clepsydra” a dynamic site-specific investigation into movement, water, time, and sculpture was inspired by and activated Mary Mattingly's "Ebb of a Spring Tide," the featured 2023 Socrates Sculpture Park installation exploring our relationship to coastal ecosystems and the shifting nature of rivers and water lines.

The collection of sculptures includes Water Clock, a 65-foot living sculpture fabricated on-site to mirror the cityscape across the East River, and a Flock House, a dynamic structure acting as a growing, making, and eventual living space to fit the evolving needs of the project.

According to Mattingly, “Water Clock is a tribute to the power of water, time, and the life force of this riparian edge. It vocalizes tidal shift with a composition for the twice-daily rise and fall of the oceans, brought on by the lunar cycle and unfurled by this climate crisis.”

Choreographer Valerie Green relied heavily on Mattingly’s written musings and conceptual drawings to generate movement vocabulary for “Clepsydra.” The piece is shaped by the physical environment of the installation, and the dancers rehearsed outdoors, braving heat waves and sprinkler systems to bring “Clepsydra” to life. Ronnie Burrage, acclaimed jazz composer and musician, accompanied the piece with his complex rhythmic and vocal stylings in collaboration with the Jazz Foundation of America.

The dance traveling to multiple locations within the park was presented at LOTIC TIME on August 5 to enthusiastic audiences and was a great success. 

““It was a thrill to watch Valerie Green/Dance Entropy develop Clepsydra in the Park, for the Park. The work was surprising and alive with the immediacy of the dancers’ daily interaction with Mary Mattingly’s Ebb of a Spring Tide and our local community. For those of us working at Socrates Sculpture Park, this collaboration highlighted the potential of this place to be a site of creative exchange and radical imagination, an incredible contribution to the artist legacy at Socrates!””

— -Katie Dixon, Interim Executive Director

A Vulnerable Journey from Form to Clarity

“You are the one in the way of yourself. Can you get out of your own way?”

Choreographer Valerie Green has a new work to debut this season: “RITE” is a healing ceremony, a meditative ritual, and an exorcism of the ego.

This 36-minute dance work performed by six men is a physical invocation of our internal struggle with self-image and societal pressure, and the vulnerable journey from Form to Clarity. Inspired by shamanic journeying and altered states of consciousness, “RITE” invites us to contemplate our individual struggles and release our attachments to Body and Thought.

In June, groups from Ravenswood and Rego Park Senior Centers came to Green Space for a private showing of “RITE” and a talkback with Green and dancers. These community members participated in Dance Entropy’s residencies, and relished the opportunity to visit our artistic home!

Our conversations ranged from dynamic discussions on the themes of brotherhood, masculinity, and community care within the piece, to learning about the dancers themselves-- this fascinating, multicultural cast is predominantly comprised of immigrants to the United States.

We hope “RITE” will make an impact on whoever witnesses it, carving a path through human pain, to show what’s waiting for us when we release that which weighs us down.

Never Too Old to Dance

Ravenswood Final Performance

This past March through June we were delighted to bring incredible community programming, of our annual SU-CASA sponsored dance residencies at three local older adult community centers in Queens. Supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, these three residencies encouraged older adults to get regular dance exercise and connect with their neighbors in our “Get Up and Dance Classes.” Our residencies took place at Rego Park Older Adult Center, Elmcor Older Adult Center, and Ravenswood Old Adult Center. Teaching artists Evelyn Hastings and Jiali Wang, as well as Director Valerie Green, visited each location twice a week to teach dance styles to community members, incorporating jazz, contemporary dance, Zumba, traditional Chinese dance, and more with the use of music, rhythmic instruments, fans, and other props. When asked about consistently taking dance classes, one participant said that, “the class is wonderful, Miss Jiali is professional and very patient. I am happy to attend her class.” Participants were able to see their growth from the beginning of the residency, and were empowered with a sense of accomplishment and pride in themselves and their work.

As an exciting finale to the residency, the participants also learned choreography and performed for their community this past week, in conjunction with a visit from Dance Entropy’s company dancers, who performed HOME for the community members. Some of the participants had taken classes with Dance Entropy teaching artists before, but for some it was their first time performing on a stage. The excitement of the performers and the audience was clear at each venue Dance Entropy visited. One performer described the process by saying, “It was such an adventure, I’ve never done something like this before.” One of the aids added that “the ladies here love it!” By the end of the performance everyone was up and dancing together, even those who had been shy at the beginning of the day.

 Director Valerie Green has been running this program for years, and says “Each season I am delighted by working with so many diverse and wise souls willing to try something new, have fun, play, laugh, and explore. I leave each class feeling fulfilled in sharing this precious time together, and it warms my heart to make my students laugh and smile too!” Dance Entropy is proud to have facilitated these performances and thanks the organizations, administrators, teaching artists, aids, and councilmembers who continue to make this programming possible.

VG/DE's Six Episode Podcast Series Explores the Scope of the Company

Valerie Green/Dance Entropy kicked off 2023 with a 6-part podcast series hosted by Podcast Business Networks’ Steve Harper. The series took listeners through the entire history of Dance Entropy and described the plethora of programming Dance Entropy offers the Queens and greater New York communities.

The first episode gave listeners a general outline of the wide-ranging programming VG/DE offers. Steve began by asking Valerie about her favorite works, her technique class “Dance Your Frame,” and movement healing. Valerie discussed her upbringing and relationship to dance, how she found dance in college at University of Wisconsin Madison, and her journey moving to New York. When discussing her studies with Erik Hawkins, she noted how she always had the urge to create her own work. After 28 years in the field, Green’s advice to young dancers is to “just keep at it and not care what anybody else says.”

The following episodes through the next two months included discussions about Green’s journey of creating Skimming the Surface and Adult Support Group, including her four-year training in Core Energetics, and how both have helped hundreds of people from all backgrounds. The point that kept resonating between Steve and Valerie was that movement heals, and that anyone can learn from being present in their body. The fourth episode spoke about home and identity, and how those definitions informed her newest full length work, HOME, in collaboration with Maria Naidu (Sweden), Ashley Lobo (India), Souleymane Badolo (Burkina Faso), Sandra Paola López Ramírez (Colombia), and Bassam Abou Diab (Lebanon).

The final episode took Steve through a small experiential, led by Valerie, in order to illustrate how grounding and choice can inform a person, and to share more about how her embodied movement programming, which include Skimming the Surface, Adult Support Group, and 1 on 1 sessions, use the body, mind, and spirit to unlock trapped emotions.

The series was a great way to reflect on the expansive history of Valerie Green’s work over the last 25 years, and how courageous it is to lead a company through thick and thin for two and a half decades. In reflecting on the experience, Green remarked “I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on Dance Entropy’s history and how the organization and my work keep expanding and evolving in new directions organically through the years.”

The podcasts are available to listen to until January of 2024, and offer deep insight into the inner workings of Dance Entropy.

Executive Director Valerie Green selected for Queens Borough President Donovan Richards General Assembly!

Valerie Green/Dance Entropy is thrilled to announced that Artistic Director Valerie Green has been invited to serve on the 2023 Session of the Queens Borough President Donovan Richards General Assembly!

Dance Entropy and Green Space are heavily invested in the cultural wellbeing of the Queens community, and Valerie is honored to be representing her community and work closely with the Queens Borough President's office.

ABOUT THE QUEENS GENERAL ASSEMBLY:

Borough President Donovan Richards Jr.’s Queens General Assembly (QGA) is an intercultural dialogue project promoting greater respect and appreciation of diversity at the borough level. Appointed Delegates, Alumni, and Advisors engage in dialogue to find commonalities and also to address challenging topics. They participate in community action projects with the aim of breaking down silos between groups. By networking with each other, they develop working relationships, build lasting friendships, and stand in solidarity against bias, discrimination, and hate crimes. The Queens GA is the only initiative of its kind operating out of a Borough President’s office. Its mission is a priority for the most diverse county in the United States.

Borough President Richards launched the 2023 session of the QGA with an installation ceremony on Zoom. He welcomed 24 new Delegates and 15 new Alumni, and he welcomed back longtime Alumni and Advisors. This year has special significance for the QGA, since the initiative is marking its 20th anniversary.          

Founded in 1998, Valerie Green/Dance Entropy believes in humanizing movement, both in Ms. Green’s critically acclaimed choreographic work and the company’s mission to plant creative seeds in communities across the world. Intersecting mortal and transcendent, sensual and sophisticated, visceral and self-aware, VG/DE invites the artist, the audience—the human—into a compelling, physical experience. Based out of its home studio, Green Space in Queens, NY, VG/DE combines performance and specialized outreach programs to inspire communities in cultural institutions throughout the world. VG/DE strives to break down systemic race, gender and other identity barriers to fulfill our ultimate goal of collectiveness and inclusivity through dance. As a professional nonprofit dance company, the communities we engage with have included at risk youth, adolescents, trauma survivors, differently-abled persons, older adults, and aspiring/professional dancers.

The VG/DE Mission is to create a platform for multicultural understanding through dance, nurture connections between dance creation and education, build community among dance artists, foster physicality, creativity and empowerment in underserved communities.

In order to provide VG/DE a permanent company home and root her outreach programs in the community, Green founded a studio in Long Island City in 2005. Green Space is an unparalleled dance hub in Queens, providing performance opportunities for choreographers, classes for beginners and professionals and space rental for doers of all backgrounds. At Green Space, artists and community members alike hone their craft and experiment in a warm, welcoming environment that’s wholly devoted to dance.

"Thank you for being a light in this community." -Deputy Borough President Ebony Young

Jiali Wang, VG/DE Teaching Artist, Teaches New York City Students

It has been exciting teaching students in these residencies! The students are curious, and working in different types of space, such as classrooms, cafeterias, gyms, and stages, has challenged us to think outside the box. We always adapt to our surroundings and let our environment inform our movement!

I started teaching creative movement to students by introducing them to ways to create postures and movement relationships, starting small and building to full phrases. This informed their way of creating elements for a dance, developing their skills as classes progressed. My class requires students to be creators, explorers, leaders, choreographers, and teachers. They teach me rather than just learning from me! My goal is always to have fun dancing with them, which I have been sharing since I first met them.

Cultural dancers like Chinese dance, Mongolian dance, and K-pop dance are important for school kids’ multicultural dance experiences and their cultural development. While some students sometimes feel uncomfortable at first and don’t know how to engage with the new information, I work to keep the energy high and engaging. I also use my study of social emotional learning development for school adolescents to try to connect with more reserved students.

For example, for the Chinese dance unit I worked on simple language learning, showing very simple Chinese characters at the beginning of class and how they related to dance materials, including the word “dance” in Chinese, basic directions in Chinese, and introducing myself in Chinese. In this way I aimed to build cultural understanding and connection. Learning language is a good way to make them mimic unknown things, helping them get comfortable and start having fun.

For class, I often separate kids into at least three different groups based on three different notions I draw on the while board. These shapes include lines, squares, and circles so students can use their imagination to make movement based on the patterns. When working in groups, students often watch and share feedback, telling me what the next phrase can look like. They get to be the judge as well as the creator, which is good for them to stay involved while watching other dancers work and present. It has been rewarding working with these students and I am proud of their development over the last few months!

Jiali Wang is one of the amazing performers that is on our roster of Teaching Artists!

We D.I.G. it!

This past January, Green Space is proud to have completed our first cohort of the Digging In Group (D.I.G.), a program of Fertile Ground! The show was nearly sold out and full of enthusiastic audience members supporting six choreographers. Unlike other Fertile Ground performances, this show was special, as every choreographer had spent the last four months building their pieces in the cohort.

The program began in September, where the dancers met each other and the moderators who would be helping them through their creative processes. For 8 sessions, the artists came together presented the progress on their pieces, getting feedback and pointing out areas where they felt stuck.

“It was wonderful to have a group of people that I was seeing regularly that were invested to a similar process and goal,” (Harper Foote). Dancers had the opportunity to not only talk with peers but meet mentors from the Green Space Advisory Board, who afforded the dancers a fresh eye at their work, as well as years of hard earned insight. Advisory Board members include Chris Ferris, Aviva Geismar, Nicole McClam, Jonathan Matthews, and Executive Director Valerie Green. Harper continues, “hearing advice and wisdom from the moderators was… supportive and expansive.”

Time and space, two hot commodities in New York City, were at the front of this program. Choreographing works can be isolating and frustrating, making choreographers feel stuck in their own head and unable to get momentum to break through their creative blocks. The structure of D.I.G. allowed the dancers to really “dig” into their creative processes and hold themselves and each other accountable.

“I always was so grateful to hear the feedback from my peers and the facilitator as it shaped my process and provided much needed shifts in perspective,” (Campbell Ives). Sometimes, the best idea comes out of a change in approach, and Green Space was a space where artists could try something to get out of a rut, supported by their peers, without worrying about failing. It often had wonderful breakthroughs. “It made me feel that there was no ‘wrong’ answer or scenario. Everyone was supportive and gave great critical feedback,” (Mason Lee).

Backstage of the show, one could see the community built by the dancers. They were chatting and helping each other with costumes, making friends with the other dancers in the casts and expanding their networks. “Being new to the city, the D.I.G. cohort made me feel more grounded in my connections within the dance space,” says Emma Dulski. Emerging choreographers have lost valuable networking opportunities as a result of isolation and a total standstill in performances due to the pandemic, and Digging In Group helps to mend that gap.

A shift in perspective is what performing art is all about, and talking to others who have different backgrounds, both in life and in movement style, can facilitate discoveries never before imagined. “The creative process has many peaks and valleys… it was great to be able to journey collectively with other movers navigating through the same process,” says Will Green. Na An adds, “D.I.G. members played the ‘outside eyes’ and provided different perspectives. The feedback helped me shape and detail my process and choice-making. I felt very involved, although we have different backgrounds.”

So who is this program for? This program is for anyone looking to get out of a creative rut, have a shift in perspective, or find a new network of creators. It’s “for anyone wanting to experiment and grow in their creative practice/voice, and open the door of possibility for themselves as a choreographer,” (Harper Foote). We are proud of the DIG artists and all they accomplished, and we cannot wait to see our next artists in the cohort thrive in their performance in June! If you are interested in joining our next cohort, visit greenspacestudio.org and register there!

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New Adult Support Group Session

A new session for the Adult Support Group has been announced!

It will run from 7pm -9pm every other Tuesday from February 21st to June 27th 202.

Early bird rates last until January 31st for new participants!

Here is what group participants have been saying so far!

"This group has been tremendously opening for my heart and my eyes.  Getting to heal and grow myself, in tandem with my classmates has been one of the most human experiences I've had.  I'm grateful for the time I've got to spend in this group reconnecting with myself, and those around me.  This group has encouraged a healing that I hope all can have the opportunity to witness and pursue.”

"Being part of this group has changed my outlook on life and I really look forward to returning. Tonight I felt the strength of the group and now I understand the importance of being present and willing to participate in a healing a fellow member of the community. Each and every one of you helped me feel whole again”

"This experience has been absolutely profound. I was able to embody my emotions far more vividly than any other healing modality I have experienced. Val has skills and instincts that are humbling. She always challenges you to go deeper and explore more in a safe inviting container. I hope more people can benefit from her highly skilled facilitation.” 

"Valerie’s Artist Support Group opened up doors of my Self that I didn’t know I had even closed off. I felt safe and supported exploring the depths of my fears, past and the future I want to shape. I’m really looking forward to continue this work of learning and growing within the container she has formed."

"Artist Support Group has created a space for me to somatically engage with the world around me in an extremely therapeutic way. Valerie Green’s facilitation has helped me physically embody my emotions and process my trauma in a safe and healthy way." 

"Valerie creates a space where you feel safe and can trust her guidance!”

"I highly recommend Valerie's Core Energetics support group. After feeling isolated during Covid, I needed a more somatic approach to wellness and this in-person class definitely provided that. From the start, Valerie was really attuned to all of us, paying attention to body language and using thoughtful questions to get at the emotion's underneath everything, all with kindness and care. In my time in the class, I worked through some lingering regrets and continued my mission to transform them into hope and action, as well as letting go of some anger and shame. But the best part of the class was the group itself. Valerie created a safe and supportive space where we treated each other with mutual respect and care. It was wonderful to witness people show their authentic selves and start to heal. And it was also lovely how we were all there to cheer each other on.”

"This group has been tremendously opening for my heart and my eyes.  Getting to heal and grow myself, in tandem with my classmates has been one of the most human experiences I've had.  I'm grateful for the time I've got to spend in this group reconnecting with myself, and those around me.  This group has encouraged a healing that I hope all can have the opportunity to witness and pursue.”

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Poem by Rush Johnson

That blood thirsty pressure

Shrieking, wailing

Receiving without condition

To be held

After the drought

Tender flesh

Salted temples

Homegrown despite the lack

Protected navel

Tug of war

Ropeburns cut as I

Curse your development

In the moment

Time frozen

Breath

And other held objects

Selma Trevino Takes Root!

Hello, my name is Selma Trevino.

I would like to open this blog post by thanking Valerie Green for the support and opportunity to present my work at the Take Root program at the Green Space on January 20 and 21st.

Since I was accepted in the program I have been rehearsing at her studio - Green Space - in Long Island City. Besides the wonderful view and big glass windows, the space is sparkling clean and quiet, perfect for exploration and creation. Schedule is respected by other users as well as by the management. Prices are super affordable.

My project consists of 3 choreographies: “Washerwoman” by Etienne Decroux and performed by me; Spring 2020 and Lavadeira Interlude created and performed by me.

The project started from studies of the washerwomen archetype in Brazilian culture, Decroux’s choreography, and the connection of his movements and my Brazilian heritage.

The project was also awarded the Incubator Grant by LEIMAY and after its first showing last fall at the Dixon Place in Manhattan it took its second phase: re-visit my own work.

Spring 2020 is a revival and re-creation of a work from 20 years ago, when I was still studying the Corporeal Mime Technique of Decroux. When the Pandemic became our reality I was invited to show a work online through the Dixon Place program DPTV, which would show feelings of the lockdown which we were facing. I started re-working that choreography, I presented and now I am showing it in person. The big glass windows of the Green Space fitted perfectly to the concept of the choreography and brought even more an aspect of nostalgia and ‘saudades’ of a time that it was.

Lavadeira Interlude, translating “Washerwoman Interlude,” is a transitional choreography between the Washerwoman and Spring 2020 that breaks the solitude that was shown in the first choreography to get in the hard women’s work of the second one.

Etienne Decroux (1898-1991) is considered the Father of the Modern Mime. His technique, Corporeal Mime, was what structured lots of works of contemporary artists, like Marcel Marceau, and also started to bring movement to the actor’s body fertilizing the soil for Physical Theater and research in the field of Theater and Dance. Decroux lived in New York from 1957 to 1962 when went back to live in Paris. The Performing Arts Library by Lincoln Center has lots of files about his work and his work in New York. Even with the word “Mime” in his work title, his work is not pantomime, it brings physical expression before the words, sometimes by the use of stylized gestures and sometimes as abstract movements. I started studying Corporeal Mime while in College, in Brazil, in 1991. I followed my passion going to specialize in the technique in Paris and California, (1996 to 2001) with one of his students, Thomas Leabhart. In 2003 I started my own company, Corporeal Arts Incorporated, with my life partner William Trevino and today I am here telling my story in words and movement.

I hope to share part of this story with you on January 20th and 21st, 2023 at the Green Space!

Indian Dance Fusion Comes to Green Space

This is Sonali Skandan, Artistic director of Jiva Dance.

We are an NYC-based Indian Classical dance company that works to create new voices and expressions using the classical arts of India. We are so excited to be presenting our new works commissioned for Take Root this November in the beautiful Green Space studio. We are of course thrilled to be supported by a Mertz Gilmore Late Stage Grant facilitated by Green Space.

The works that we will be presenting have had quite a journey - the two works we will be presenting depart from classical presentations of Indian Classical dance, and incorporate elements of modern dance, martial arts and theatre.

The first piece, Elements is a piece very close to my heart. Ever since my childhood, I have found solace and peace in nature. Sometimes I would retreat to the woods to sit on a rock and just listen, sometimes to seek out a new adventure that awaits me. All these years, I took nature for granted, thinking that it will always be there for me, a place to give comfort and peace. My recent trip to Zimbabwe showed me a different story - nature is suffering. As human society “progresses” a heavy price is paid, destroying the harmony with nature that has existed for ages. The scales that were once balanced have shifted, there is destruction, fear and chaos, and the world is at a tipping point. In this piece, I use these metaphors and tie it in with the concept of the Pancha Maha Bhoota - or the five primordial elements as manifested by the Hindu figure, Shiva. The five elements are air, water, earth, fire, space. The piece actually found its first voice through the last winter/spring at the Green Space where I spent countless hours developing the initial vision.

The second new piece, Durga, has been developed with my mentor Maya Kulkarni. It was her vision to depict the iconic female goddess Durga, in a very dramatic and different way. The piece juxtaposes the sowmya or calm nature of the goddess with the fierce of bhairav one. We have used Kalaripayattu (martial art from the southern state of Kerala) to enact the epic battle between the buffalo demon Mahisasura and Durga.The musical score has been commissioned to some stellar NYC based musicians who have scored a masterpiece.

It has been a very rewarding process working with my collaborating artists from choreographer Maya Kulkarni whose vision expands the boundaries of Indian Classical dance, and dancers Anugraha Sridhar (whose voice is featured in the Elements soundtrack) and Swati Prasad who have added their expertise and personal visions into the works. I appreciate how open they were to experiment and try new things and their sheer dedication to the process. We are so happy to be developing and showcasing the work in such a beautiful and inspiring space such as Green Space and look forward to our shows.

- Sonali Skandan

www.jivaperformingarts.org

Many Firsts by Chris Bisram

Hi everyone my name is Christopher Bisram,

I started using Green Space during the winter, as the home base for myself and other dancers, who were a part of the first performance I directed! It was amazing to have found a space so close to my apartment that was affordable. I rented Green Space pretty much every Saturday for about 5 or 6 months. The space allowed for me to work with three of my close friends to create an experimental modern flow dance, to demonstrate a relationship between my mothers strength and the waters.

After using Green Space, Valerie Green mentioned Fertile Ground, and I was more than excited to join. It was an noncurated showcase, where performers present a work in progress, and hear feedback from the audience and Valerie. It was the first time that I danced in a professional setting. It was amazing being in the dressing room and talking with other dancers, and hearing the pre-show speech from Valerie. The feedback after the performance was extremely useful because I have performed the piece a few times, but wanted to make it into one block of a show I hope to call Embrace the body.

In this performance I am still making, I hope to cultivate a piece that discusses the body in all shapes and forms. After Fertile Ground I asked Valerie about the work study that she has, and was super excited when she emailed me a couple weeks after that night saying that the position was available. Since then I have been working with Valerie, and learning about various administration tasks and studio/office maintenance.

During the summer, I took part in the summer intensive, where I learned so much. We had various teachers and styles taught to us, which were then integrated during our performance workshop, where we created choreography for our final performance. We had technique classes, a how to create choreography workshop, where we learned various exercises that could be used to generate choreography, that I still use, and a performance workshop. It was my first intensive and I couldn't have been happier to have been a part of it.

Overall my experience at Green Space and Valerie Green/Dance Entropy has been nothing but wonderful, and I am so happy that it has been many firsts for me.

Christopher Bisram, Interdisciplinary Artist

VG/DE Artists on HOME

About HOME

HOME is an international cross-collaborative dance project with choreographers from six countries: Maria Naidu (Sweden), Ashley Lobo (India), Souleymane Badolo (Burkina Faso), Sandra Paola López Ramírez (Colombia), Bassam Abou Diab (Lebanon), and Dance Entropy’s Artistic Director Valerie Green (US). These esteemed choreographers were commissioned by Green to create a work for her company examining the meaning of home from their unique perspectives, drawing upon the significance of this concept in their home countries. Directed by Green, the dynamic full-evening work, which weaves together the different dances, explores identity, culture, environment, ritual, history, and community.

About Valerie

Valerie Green’s Home is a reflection of the company dancers’ ideas of what home means to them, paired with research of what Americans across the country feel about home. The movements are juxtaposed with Balkan music, home for Green given her Serbian roots/identity.

On The United States

About Ashley

Ashley Lobo’s idea of home is the dichotomy of confusion and clarity that is India. Everything is chaotic but within that there seems to be a naturally evolving order, the natural progression from confusion to clarity.

On India

About Paola

Paola Lopez Ramirez’s Home is simple and complicated. Home. Hogar, land, territorio, ancestry. Home is all that is mundane and the most inexplicable magic. Home is that which bred you, all you love and all you hate. Magnificent complexity.

On Colombia

About Souleymane

Souleymane Badolo says of home, “I am like a snail, I carry my house with me wherever I am, wherever I go. I still have my culture, tradition, and my language that I speak, and also my land and my ancestors living in me. My house is my movement, my dance.”

On Burkina Faso

About Maria

For Maria Naidu, Home is energy. Energy is movement. Movement is dance. Dance is home. She quotes Verlyn Klinkenborg as saying, “The most basic meaning of home is a place that can’t be seen with a stranger’s eye for more than a moment. Home is home, and everything else is not. It is so familiar that you don’t even notice it. It’s everywhere else that takes noticing. Home is more than just a place. It’s also an idea, a way of organizing space in our minds.”

On Sweden

About Bassam

Bassam Abou Diab’s home is linked to accepting religious, ethnic and cultural differences to generate a feeling of safety and belonging. Home is acceptance, safety, security, and privacy. “It is the space in which I feel I can be free, natural and present; the place in which I entrust my secrets and my details. It is the place that gives me the feeling of being an integral part of the place that I feel comfortable despite my racial, gender and social differences.”

On Lebanon

The Dancers on Home