| Deeply Rooted On NBC 5 | |
On Wednesday, December 7, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater is appearing on “The Talk” on NBC 5 at 7PM CST with Artistic Director Kevin Iega Jeff. |
| Deeply Rooted on WTTW 11 | |
On Thursday, December 8, Jeff and company will also be on “Chicago Tonight” on WTTW at 7PM CST. |
Iega Jeff and Carmel Louis smile with "Perspective" Host Monique Caradine (center). Click to enlarge.
WPWR Channel 50: “Perspective”
Sunday, November 27 at Noon
Artistic Director Kevin Iega Jeff and company dancer Carmel Louis appear on “Perspective” with Monique Caradine on WPWR Channel 50 on Sunday, November 27 at noon. Don’t miss Jeff and Louis as they discuss the upcoming “Chicago Women of Song” performance at the Harris Theater on December 9, 2011 at 8 p.m.
ABC7 News at 11AM: On-Air Performance
Wednesday, November 30
On Wednesday, November 30, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater is also appearing on ABC 7 at 11 a.m. If you want to catch a sneak preview of the “Chicago Women of Song” performance, then don’t miss the company’s dance segment. If you won’t be home, please remember to set your DVR. You’re in for a treat!
Dance Review
Monday, November 07, 2011
By Jane Vranish, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For nearly 40 years the Pittsburgh Dance Council strived to show diversity in dance and, toward that goal, presented an array of black companies among its global offerings. Now the August Wilson Center, a newbie on the Pittsburgh presenting front, is taking over that dance niche and flexed some artistic muscle during its first Black Dance Festival this past weekend.
Eduardo Patino - Ailey II performs "Revelations." at the August Wilson Center.
At PDC, we saw Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, acknowledged as the most popular company in the world; Rennie Harris Puremovement, a harbinger of hip-hop in concert dance; and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, which had its own brand of energetic Ailey-esque movement.
But when you saw those companies — with Ailey represented here by Ailey II, in the hothouse atmosphere of the festival along with Chicago’s Deeply Rooted and the fresh-faced August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, their works rubbing virtually shoulder to shoulder — it took the concept of diversity to a whole new level.
The event, with two complete programs and four performances, was a real success for the burgeoning center — the vibe electric, houses almost filled, audiences happy.
In this format, the festival worked on a lot of levels, although there was just a sampling of each company’s true power. So the sum was greater than the individual parts. But that sum included a remarkable historic range, nattily curated among just these five groups.
Certainly Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations,” with its uplifting display of faith and hope, may be the most beloved “serious” modern dance masterwork to have ever been created (and over 50 years old). A training ground for its parent company, Ailey II came close to equaling the power of the many casts Pittsburgh has seen over the years. Surely a good number of these dancers will eventually filter into the main group.
DCDC demonstrated its forthright intensity in “The Story Unfolds,” where a quartet of women played on high emotions layered over a strong technique. Then it turned to a duet “Unresolved,” which played with the ebb and flow of two lovers in a difficult relationship.
Deeply Rooted used a dramatic underpinning to drive its works, which also included a sweeping duet to Nina Simone, “Wild is the Wind.” But it set itself apart with the more introspective “Ferrotype Excerpt: Tieftraeh,” which captured moments in images of early 20th century “plain folk.”
It’s hard to believe that Puremovement will be celebrating 20 years soon and is now regarded as the American ambassador of hip-hop.
Former Post-Gazette dance critic Jane Vranish can be reached at jvranish1@comcast.net.
Turns out not every artist is starving. But it’s official: dancers are not only barefoot, they’re poor and female. At least on average, compared to other artists.
Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, appearing Dec. 9 at the Harris. Click the picture to buy your tickets!
The National Endowment for the Arts just released a report, Artists and Arts Workers in the United States, that tracks the demographics of 11 arts types (including actors and musicians as well as dancers), comparing them to one another as well as the rest of the U.S. workforce. Derived from data collected between 2005 and 2010, the NEA’s survey follows up on a 2008 report covering the years from 2000 to 2005.
Since 2002, labor force growth among artists has lagged behind that of the general workforce.
But the money for artists in general doesn’t look half bad, perhaps because the 2011 report includes designers (40 percent of the arts workforce) and architects (10 percent). Artists’ annual median wage/salary is $43,230, compared to $39,280 for the U.S. labor force overall.
It’s $27,392, however, for the average dancer, choreographer, and/or dance teacher. The only artists who make less are photographers, at $26,875, and “other entertainers”-magicians, showgirls-at $25,363.
Dancers form the smallest of the 11 groups (1.3 percent of the arts workforce) but are at the top of the list in several categories.
Dancers include the largest percentage of racial and ethnic minority members-by far-at 41 percent. The next group after them is “other entertainers” at 27.7 percent. The national labor force’s percentage of minorities is 31.7 percent.
Dancers also show the smallest numbers for having a bachelor’s degree (26 percent) and are the youngest group, with a median age of 25. Because dancers have such a short shelf life, many don’t go to college, at least at normal college age, and are relatively uneducated by the time they get out of the biz at 30, or whenever it is that their bodies wear out.
And dancers are overwhelmingly female: 78 percent are women. The only other arts groups in which women are the majority of the workforce are writers, 56 percent female, and designers, 54 percent.
There are no figures on the rates of pregnancy among working dancers. But I’m guessing that percentage, at least, is small.
