Tuesday Tunes: Dance Teachers and Their Tunes

Tuesday Tunes
Good morning, Framers! I hope you’re having a wonderful Tuesday. I certainly am after having the opportunity to interview Jane Weiner,  for this edition of Tuesday Tunes. 
 

Tuesday Tunes: Jane Weiner

Jane Weiner Tuesday TunesR: How do you imagine the future of the dance world?

JOne where we get rid of audience and everyone gets to be a part.  No more proscenium, more communication and interaction.  Maybe we no longer even know who is the “dancer” and who is the “audience.”

R: I know that you had the opportunity to give a TED talk several years ago. What was the most rewarding part of that experience?

JNot sure if I would call it rewarding…more awareness that there is a lot of work to be done to create an Army of Artists that infiltrate all levels of society with their art education.

R: What life lessons has being a dancer and choreographer taught you?

J: That life is short, precious, beautiful, sad, inspiring, frustrating, and beyond my wildest dreams.

R: What music would I find on your playlist when you’re teaching a class?

J: Peter Jones, Norah Jones, Beth Orton, Albert mathias, R.E.M., War, Parliment, Beastie Boys, Zuco 103, Stevie Wonder,  C & C Music Factory, Tracy Chapman, DJ John Kelley, Led Zeppelin, Sia

 

 


photos by Simon Gentry

Jane weiner dance shot

Jane Weiner graduated from Bowling Green University with a degree in deaf/elementary education and a minor in dance. She had the unbelievable opportunity to work with the Doug Elkins Dance Company for a decade of fine dancing, touring and experiences before her move to Houston, TX in 1996. She presently is the director of Hope Stone, Inc., and Artistic Director of Hope Stone Dance Company and the Pink Ribbons Project. Jane founded Hope Stone with a dream of unlocking the innate creativity of children and adults and improving their quality of life through the performing arts. Jane also founded and directs Hope Stone Kids, an arts outreach program for children 2-18 years old in Houston, that uses master teachers in dance, theater, music, photography, spoken word and yoga to empower and educate youth. Hope Stone Kids was created to help meet the artistic and emotional needs of underserved and at-risk students. “I see the void and want to help fill it,” Jane says. Jane also founded the Pink Ribbons Project in 1995 and was the executive director from 1997-2002

Jane has set her work on the Alley Theater, Houston Ballet II, Stages Repertory Theater, the Houston Children’s Museum, as well as many high schools and universities and has collaborated with the Houston Symphony, the CAMH, and the Asia Society. She was a finalist for the Cal Arts/Albert Award for Dance in 2001, awarded the CACHH general fellowship grant for 2002, the Houston PBS Speaking Women’s Health Conference Honoree 2004, the Surgical Society of Oncology’s James Ewing Layman Award, the Jung Center Award for 2005, DiverseWork’s Artist of the Year 2011, and was a speaker at the 2012 TEDx Houston and 2013 TEDx TAMU.

At present Jane continues to run Hope Stone, Inc. creating a vision of Art for All, work on projects with her company as well as schools and companies nationally. She continues her work on creating, enriching, evolving and teaching her teacher’s template to make Hope Stone Kids a national arts education project. She is married the wonderful Eric Mallory, has one dog, Oliver Jones and three cat children, Houston, Riley and Spot-ika.

*Interview by Frame Dance social media intern, Rachel Kaminski

Tuesday Tunes: Dance Teachers and Their Tunes

Tuesday Tunes
Happy Tuesday, Framers! For today’s Tuesday Tunes, we are joined by our very own Lydia Hance! 
 

Tuesday Tunes: Lydia Hance

R: How do you envision the future of dance?

Lydia Blog

L:  I envision the future of dance as being a larger part of everyday life—people “getting it” more.  I see people looking at me with understanding instead of confusion when I tell them I am a dance artist.  I see the definitions between genres of art continuing to blur and morph.  I see dance in every classroom in America, because people will finally understand it’s the perfect synthesis of mind, body, and emotion.  And as artists, we have to remember that we’re on the forefront as innovators.  We have to approach the world as art ambassadors.  It takes time.  We have to be confident, humble, and clear.  The way things are, we have to make our work, find out how to fund our work and defend our work.  It’s hard, it’s exhausting, but it’s the way it is right now.  We have to be consistent art warriors to get the future. (photo by Ashley Horn)

R: What has been the biggest dance challenge to overcome, in teaching or performing?

L: My biggest challenge has been my fear of making mistakes.  I take the privilege of teaching seriously and that fear was quite paralyzing when I started teaching.  But the more I observed great teachers, and the more I Facebook-20140707-044948learned from teachers who were playful and humble, the more confident I became that it is totally legit (and preferable) to know that you don’t know everything and the classroom is a place for teachers to learn as well.

R: What inspired you to form Frame Dance Productions?

L: Frame Dance Productions was formed out of my desire to connect dance with technology and create collaborative works.  I wanted to see culturally relevant, exciting dance that continued to innovate and shed the confines of what everyone expected of a dance company. I wanted to create a context that could evolve and adapt but could remain clear and organized.  The moment you stop DDH_5585changing is the moment you go backwards.  Just because it’s supposed to work, doesn’t mean it will—and we can create art that changes society from within, it shouldn’t exist outside of the system we’re in.

R: What music do you prefer to use when teaching a class?

L: When I teach I try to make sure there’s a variety of music— from Bach to Bob Dylan, and new American music to traditional Chinese music.  I try to make sure not all of my music is in 3’s or 4’s, but that students (and children, especially) learn to hear music in 7’s and 9’s.  It is about variety.  Children love Rusted Root’s “Send me on my Way” and REM’s “Shiny Happy People.”  Then I’ll play some yogic chanting and then some chamber choral ensemble’s work.  I’ll use music that spans from new electronic music to Corelli.  The music you choose impacts your students immensely.  Their ears are young, they haven’t heard all that much.  And, unfortunately, it may be a lot of kiddie music (gag.)  I used to look forward to ballet class because of how I felt when I danced to a certain piece of music.  I was better friends with the pianist than my classmates.  Don’t be lazy with your music.  Be curious.  (Photo by David DeHoyos)

*Interview by Frame Dance’s social media intern, Rachel Kaminiski.


imgresLydia Hance is the Artistic and Executive Director of Frame Dance Productions (framedance.org), founded in 2010.  In the past four years, her work has been performed at the Contemporary Art Museum, Miller Outdoor Theater, Jones Plaza, the Pennzoil Place building, the Photobooth on Montrose, the Port Boliver ferry, Big Range Dance Festival, clawfoot bathtubs, art galleries, and on screens in film festivals all over Houston, Virginia, and Berlin. Before that, her works were performed in San Francisco, Time Square and Malaysia.

In 2012, Hance was named Dance/USA Emerging Leader through acceptance into the Dance/USA Institute of Leadership Training.  She has been named a top 100 Creative by the Houston Press and Arts + Culture Magazine dubbed her Houston’s “queen of curious locations.”

From 2012-14 she was the Education Director of Hope Stone, Inc., and she is a curator of Third Coast Film Festival.  She graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University with degrees in Dance Performance and English Literature.  She trained at the Taylor School, Graham School, Tisch School of the Arts, Limon Institute and SMU.