Parable Down Under

Good-day Mates!

Did you know that in Australia they call bungee cords "Octopus Straps"?!

We need your support! DanceTactics Performance Group has been graced with the opportunity to venture to The Cummins Theater in Merredin, Australia in January 2014! This will be the development phase of a choreographic residency. While there, we will present work from our repertory, begin the building of a new dance theater work, as well as engage and participate with the community. We need to raise $17,000 starting Independence Day thru Labor Day!

The working title for the piece we're creating in Australia is "Parable". It will be a physical dance/theater work involving 5 dancers, a production/lighting/set designer, a media designer, a sound designer, a costume designer and possibly an Aussie visual artist. We are thinking the work will be based on a selection of poems by C. F. Ramuz: the Swiss novelist and poet who wrote the libretto for Stravinsky's Histoire Du Saldat, 'The Soldier's Tale'. We plan to use a combination of original composed music and/or music from the album Contredanses by the band Ensemble Artefact.

A "parable" is a short tale that illustrates universal truth, one of the simplest of narratives. It sketches a setting, describes an action, and shows the results. Though the meaning of a parable is often not explicitly stated, the meaning is not usually intended to be hidden or secret. On the contrary, the meaning is meant to be quite straightforward and obvious.
We foresee the dancers being harnessed and strapped to bungee cords via the set, the theater space itself and to each other. This will setup a relationship of tension between the dancers and the environment. It will give texture to the poems that will be seen and heard. The use of poems by C. F. Ramuz will allow for a joint venture of abstraction and narrative to co-exist in the same space. It will also allow for the viewer to ride the journey with their individual perceptions of the work.

With the collaboration of the dancers, lighting/set designer, sound designer, media designer, costume designer and visual artist, the idea is to create a work that offers transparency, openness and an abstract argument, using a concrete narrative which is more easily grasped. This January trip would be the initial visit to begin creating the work. We hope to return 2-3 more times, ideally having the premiere in the Cummins Theatre.

While in Australia we are also hoping to get the community involved in our process! We'd enjoy setting up a Summer Workshop. In Australia, January IS summertime! The majority of individuals will have a summer break so it is perfect timing to create and host a program. The dancers and artistic director will rotate teaching a morning class and an afternoon lab. The morning class will be of a variety of techniques. As a company we're capable of teaching multiple workshops that include: Yoga, Thai Massage, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Contemporary Modern Dance technique and more. A composition lab will be taught in the afternoon with, ideally, a showing at the end of our time down under. This opportunity will give motivated students and community members a chance to study dance and movement in an inspiring theater and get them connected to professional dancers and community partnerships based in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

We are desperate for help with the basic need of turning this dream into a reality: Flight Costs! We would love to bring all 5 dancers in the company and the Artistic Director for the company, Keith Thompson. We are also hoping to bring a production/lighting designer who is knowledgeable and adapt at coordinating developmental strategies while in the theater space. Our goal on GoFundMe would cover ALL flight costs. We need your help raising money this summer in order to participate in Australia's summer! We have until Labor Day to raise this money for the labor of love we've been working hard on.

Please help us! We're inspired artists hoping to continuously dance, collaborate, and engage with the communities we're in. Every dollar counts! Any donation helps us to reach our goal. The classes in the rewards levels offer experiential and personal interactions with the company. We hope to meet you through these classes! If you cannot donate please help us out by sharing with your friends, family and colleagues or post a link on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter! Thank you for your time, we greatly appreciate it. Have a great day mate!


Reward Levels Class Descriptions:

Yoga with George Hirsch (company member):
George first happened upon yoga in 2006 and from the first deep inhalation, he was hooked. He received his 200 hr yoga alliance certification from Pure Yoga. His training, led by two teachers and friends, Kay Kay Clivio and Yogi Charu, inspired him in ways that he wishes to inspire others. George uses many principles from extensive trainings in Klein/Mahler Technique, Modern Dance, and Improvisation Dance and infuses them into his Yoga Class. His class is both alignment and breath oriented with an emphasis on the connection between mind and body through these two principles. Most importantly, George provides a safe environment for his students; one where they can work hard, relax, have fun and appreciate their own bodies.Currently, George teaches uptown at David Barton Gym, midtown at The American Indian Community House, and downtown at Yoga Vida.

Inversions for Dancers or Inversions Great and Small with Sara Roer (company member):
I love working with people that are "afraid" of turning upside down, since it's a place I've loved and practiced since I was a child. I've recently re-awakened my trained gymnast self in doing some Acrobatics coaching and wanted to bring my now more mellow and mature approach to other folks too. I like to teach safety falls, and easy ways to come back to the ground if your attempted inversion goes awry. I also like to teach balancing upside down from the same principles as balancing right-side up - aligning the skeleton, using appropriate muscular stabilizers, etc. I approach inversions from an efficient and anatomical perspective, viewing them as suspensions rather than holds and shooting for a release technique approach over a yoga approach. We'll warm up with a combination of rolling on the floor to ease into mobility and tapping into muscular strength to generate heat and confidence. Then we'll start playing with all kinds of inverted balance points!

Bike Maintenance Class with Aidan Feldman (company member):
Aidan has been a bicycle enthusiast since he was a kid, started doing his own repairs once he accumulated more bikes than he could haul to the shop. This class will cover fixing a flat tire, adjusting shifters and brakes, and basic maintenance.

Cuban Timba Class (Cuban Salsa) with Emily Berry (company member): You will learn the basic rhythm and steps for Cuban Timba as well as a few arm passes. You will learn enough to be able to explore and have fun on the dance floor! I first learned how to dance Son and Timba in Cuba in 2002 in Havana and again in Santiago in 2003. I continued studying with Jim Lepore and more intensely with Oscar Rousseaux.


"NYC adventure weekend" planned by Sara Roer (company member):
I've lived here for 8 years and read Time Out New York cover to cover every single week of those 8 years. I will balance tourist activities with real NYC gems and off the beaten track fun! Tickets not included. I would email you a proposed itinerary with links to get your own. I'll take in your dates, times, preferences, and send back a suggested itineraries with links for tickets you can purchase!

Thai massage with Sara Roer (company member):
Nuad Boran, or Thai Yoga Massage is an ancient form of bodywork rooted in Thai medicinal practices. It combines body postures decended from ayurvedic yoga with acupressure and gentle, passive stretching. It is a moving massage in which you don't have to do a thing. Nuad Boran aides greatly in increasing flexibility, joint range of motion, circulation and overall, integrated health. Clients receiving a session should wear lightweight, comfortable clothing and not eat heavily two hours prior to their session. This work is not appropriate for women that are or may be pregnant, or for anyone suffering from Osteoporosis.

Sara is certified in both Thai Massage and Sen Theory (advanced practice) through Two Souls Thai Massage and is a registered member of the Thai Healing Alliance International. She has assisted Al Turner II in classes at Two Souls and the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and is a substitute teacher for a Thai Massage class at Dance New Amsterdam. Sara's background as a professional modern dancer has exposed her to a variety of other somatic practices that have strengthened her ability to facilitate healthier movement in the body and re-balance problem areas.

HTML/CSS class with Aidan Feldman(company member):
Aidan works as a web developer full-time, and teaches coding at NYU. This class will walk you through the basics of creating and launching your own site, whatever it is that you want to share!

Bartenieff Fundamentals with Frederick Curry (board member) is a set of movement principles and exercises developed by Irmgard Bartenieff (1900-1981) and based on the neuromuscular building blocks of efficient movement. Focusing on basic patterns of body connectivity, Bartenieff Fundamentals utilizes simple movement sequences to re-pattern inefficient movement for increased comfort, ease, flow and coordination.

Personal Website Creation by Aidan Feldman (company member)
Do you have a portfolio, family photos, recipes, or a small business you've always wanted to put online? Aidan will build a starter website with tools so you can add content yourself, *or* will walk you through creating it yourself one-on-one.

Listed below is more information on the company and links to get connected! Please like our Facebook page! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr!

http://www.dancetactics.org/ (under construction)
http://www.cumminstheatre.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/DanceTactics-Performance-Group-by-Keith-A-Thompson/113924448739964?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/dancetactics
Instagram: DanceTactics

Upcoming Performances:

October 10th, 7PM 2013 DancenowNYC at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC) Tickets for The DANCENOW Joe's Pub Festival can be purchased in advance at the box office of the Public Theater and at joepub.com. Ticket prices are $15 Advance Sale (no sur charges at the box office) and $20 at the door.
October 11-13^th 2013 Dance Gallery Festival at the Ailey CitiGroup Theater (405 W 55^th Street, NYC) October 11 at 7:30PM and October 13 at 2PM or 3PM
March 28, 2014 Friday from noon to 1PM, FREE! 92nd St Y 1395 Lexington Ave NY,NY (Carnegie Hill neighborhood on Upper East Side)

Keith A. Thompson created DanceTactics Performance Group in February of 2006 as a way to realize his particular artistic vision. The company consists of 5 members: Emily Berry, Aidan Feldman, George Hirsch, Sara Roer, and Jin Ju Song-Begin. The company had its first season at New York's Dance Theater Workshop in the Summer of 2006. Our next performances include: The 2013 Dance Gallery Festival at the Ailey Citigroup Theater (NYC) and DancenowNYC at Joe's Pub Festival in October.

Company Member's Biographies

Keith A. Thompson (Artistic Director)
danced internationally for the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1992-2001, served as Trisha's Rehearsal Assistant from 1998-2001, currently performs and rehearsal directs for Liz Lerman; teaches in Contemporary Technique, choreography and partnering globally including master company teacher for Sasha Waltz & Dancers (Berlin), TsEKh Summer Dance School Moscow Russia, the International Dance Festival (Kyoto, Sapporo, Tokyo Japan), Tanzwerkstatt Europa Festival (Munich), the Korea Dance Festival (Seoul, Korea); Keith has been faculty at American Dance Festival, served on artistic panels of DTW's Fresh Tracks and adjudicator for American College Dance Festival Association, has his own company, "˜danceTactics performance group', his choreography has been featured at Harvard University, University of Maryland College Park, Montpellier International Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop Guest Artist Series 2006 (New York); Dance Boom Festival at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, Dixon Place NYC, the 15^th Anniversary DanceNOW New York Festival and the 2011 Annual Aging in America Conference. Keith joined the faculty of Mason Gross in 2011.

Sara Roer(Rehearsal Director, dancer) got an early start dancing in North Carolina as the southern drawling star of a many a home video. She became the youngest member of the Wilmington Independent Choreographers and a competitive gymnast before defecting to the North to earn her B.F.A., suma cum laude, at George Mason University. After a colorful college run that took her to China and back, Sara headed North again for a new home on the busiest island in the world. While becoming a New Yorker, she has had the pleasure of working as the rehearsal director/dancer for danceTactics by Keith Thompson and as a founding dancer with b3w (Emily Berry). She has also worked on projects with Susan Vencl, Heather McArdle, Karen Malpede and many others. She has presented her own work at various venues throughout NYC and NC. Sara is Operations Manager at Brooklyn Arts Exchange and is a certified traditional Thai Yoga Bodywork practitioner offering sessions privately and at Brooklyn Strength.

Aidan Feldman(dancer) works as a software developer at Artsy by day, dancer by night. Aside from danceTactics, Aidan performs with Artichoke Dance Company, Austin Selden/Sarah Konner Dance Collaboration and Chavasse Dance & Performance. In his other life, he gives tech talks, writes and organizes meetups about learning to code, and is an Adjunct Instructor at NYU. When not programming or dancing, Aidan can be found flying around NYC on his bicycle.

Jin Ju Song-Begin(dancer)is the artistic director of the newly formed Da-On Dance Company in NYC. She is a choreographer, dancer and dance teacher from Seoul, Korea, whose work has been presented internationally in Korea, Japan and the U.S. Jin Ju holds a Masters Degree in Choreography from Kookmin University and an Undergraduate Degree from Chung Ang University in Seoul, Korea, where she achieved numerous awards and scholarships. Recent performances of her work include several venues in New York City, as well as performances in Seoul. Her work has involved solos, ensemble works and experimental works relying on "found movement" and chance operations. She frequently collaborates with composers and live music performances. Jin Ju moved to the USA in 2010, and she currently dances with Sean Curran Dance Company, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, DanceTactics.


"¨Emily Berry(dancer) is the Artistic Director of B3W, which has performed in the US, England and Mexico. B3W received the Mondo Cane commission form Dixon Place, where they premiered their evening length work, Confined, in September, 2010. Maura Donahue wrote in Culturebot of Confined, "the dancers Sara Roer, Nicole McClam, Yuko Mitsuishi, Milvia Pacheco, "¨and Berry each offered powerful physical portrayals of disconnection and oppression". B3W has also performed at various venues in NYC, including DNA, Manhattan Arts Center, BAAD, and Dixon Place among others. Emily has performed with danceTactics/Keith Thompson, Boris Willis Moves, Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh & Company, Restless Native, Lesole's Dance Project, and Ashe Moyubba Afro-Cuban Folkloric Dance Ensemble. Emily is a Certified Movement Analyst. She also has a MFA in dance from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Dance Arts from the University of Michigan. She has taught at Oakland University, George Mason University, Coppin State University, Montgomery College, and the Community College of Baltimore County. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Queensborough Community College.

George Hirsch (dancer) graduated from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, receiving an Honors Degree in Dance. He has since had the privilege of dancing for Liz Lerman/Dance Exchange, Artichoke Dance Company, David Capps/Dances, Eva Dean Dance, Daniel Gwirtzman Dance, Regina Nejman and Company, and GoCo, in addition to working with Keith Thompson's/danceTactics.


Michaila Stevens (Social Media Intern) is a rising senior at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was born in Albany, New York and has been dancing on her toes since the age of 4. She is interning with Keith Thompson this summer in hopes to market his company better through social media sites and such. She is a business major and a dance minor at F&M and has been part of F&M's dance company for 5 semesters for far. She deeply enjoyed studying abroad in Florence, Italy in the Fall of 2012. She likes the beach, photography, yoga, food, and dance of course. Check out her Instagram for some personal shots, @heeymickey

Dare Harlow (Developmental Research Intern) is originally from Virginia Beach and graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA this past May. Receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Modern Dance Performance, she moved to the big apple four short weeks ago! Since arriving she has been enjoying working for DanceTactics and Keith through Pentacle(Dance Works, INC). She has had the honor of performing works by Curt Haworth, Christine Cox, Douglas Becker, Jesse Zaritt, Brian Sanders, Tyger B, Roni Koresh, Iris Bouche, Emily Vartanian, and Sara Procopio. She has performed with Tyger B in the Philadelphia A.W.A.R.D. show as well as with General Mischief Theatre in their NYC Spring Season (DANY studios, DNA theater). She will soon begin working on her Pilates certification. She is quite good at eating and if you make her guacamole you will always have a friend. She would also like to add that she is available for hire.