DanceForms Software Now Available Free

Submitted by DNB Staff, December 9, 2014

[Rhonda Ryman e-mailed the following to LabanTalk on December 5, 2014]

"Please announce to your membership, students and colleagues that DanceForms choreography software plus Ballet Moves animations are now available for free download:

www.charactermotion.com/df-download.html

The iPad version of a DanceForms player is currently available at no cost from the iTunes Store. Credo plans to have an iPad version with editing features available in the near future.

If you have any questions about the software or available ballet animations, feel free to contact me directly.

Rhonda Ryman
rhondaryman@gmail.com"

Jean Kirsten: For Laban

Submitted by DNB Staff - December 4, 2014

The artist Jean Kirsten's fothcoming exhibit at Ohio State University will be of special interest to the Laban Community:

"Jean Kirsten: For Laban," Urban Arts Space, (January 13, 2015 to February 6, 2015).

https://uas.osu.edu/exhibitions/laban

"Inspired by Laban’s theories of dynamics of movement and the Laban Movement Analysis by dancer and Laban specialist Sabine Fichter, Kirsten began examining and sketching for his own work. The dancestudies series works shown at Urban Arts Space are from his time in London when he attended Fichter’s lectures in Laban Movement Analysis at Metropolitan University. There he took over 400 photographs of the dancers and used the photos as sketches for his screen prints. Kirsten’s paper series incorporate Labanotation space signs. At first glance these works look like abstract paintings, but familiarity with Labanotation reveals information about spatial orientation in the works."

African Musical Retentions In The Diaspora

Submitted by Doris Green - December 4, 2014

As you may know my musical training began in elementary school. During that time there was little to no representation of Black music heard routinely on the radio. But on the weekend Friday to Sunday, a local radio station played Caribbean music. In this manner I was able to learn the songs and rhythms of Calypsonians such as the Mighty Sparrow and to hear Steel Pan music.

When I was conducting research in Africa I came across a xylophone of the Chopi people that used graduated tin cans as resonators instead of gourds. The Bass xylophone player used four or five 55 gallon oil vats with different strips of wood to achieve the bass tones. These xylophones were the instruments used in the mines of South Africa by the musicians to entertain themselves. The musical phrasing is similar to the music played by the steel band men in Trinidad.

I wrote the booklet Steel Bands of New York in which I interviewed various steel band personalities. The articles are being reprinted by Panonthenet:

http://www.panonthenet.com/upclose/steelbands-of-newyork/rudy-king.htm 

Enjoy!!

Doris