Fort Wayne Dance Collective offers monthly gatherings where participants can take part in a Dances of Universal Peace circle. Normally on the second Saturday of the month, but check website for details. This is a great time for local dancers to meet, share food, stories and experiences while creating a community. Some upcoming dances:
- Saturday, March 10, 2012, 7-10 p.m.
- Saturday, April 21, 2012, 7-10 p.m.
- Saturday, May 12, 2012, 7-10 p.m.
- Saturday, June 9, 2012, 7-10 p.m.
Leilah Be-For pricing and other information please click here.
Regional DUP Events:
Evansville, IN – Last Sunday, 6:00 pm – Contact Erich at www.evansvilledancesofuniversalpeace.org
Goshen, IN – Occasional Events – Contact Mary at www.dancesofuniversalpeacena.org
Ganges/Fennville, MI – Third Sat, 3:00 pm at Lakeshore Interfaith/Mother’s Trust – Contact Catherine or Jane at www.dancesofuniversalpeacena.org or on Facebook
Benzonia, MI – Last Sat at Llama Meadows Farm – Contact Betty Tasnim
· Bloomington/Normal, IL – Occasional Events – Contact Naomi
· Oak Park, IL – First Sat, 1:00 pm at First United Church, 848 Lake St – Contact Donna Schiller
Donaldson, IN – March 23-25 – Midwest DUP Retreat, Celebrating Unity, Building Community at the Lindenwood Retreat Center
Chicago – June 16, 1:00-5:00 pm – Healing Ritual & Dances – More info later
Indianapolis – October 19-21 – Weekend Retreat with Maitreya Jon Stevens – More info from Paula at psaffire@butler.edu
The movement and songs used in Dances of Universal Peace are drawn from over 400 dances including themes of peace, healing of the Earth, individuals, and the global family, and the celebration of life’s great mysteries. Dancers focus on peace and harmony creating a sense of solidarity and community while celebrating the underlying unity of all the spiritual traditions of the earth.
This is a participatory community dance, and no prior training or experience is necessary. Dances consist of simple dance steps and lyrics, and learning continues during the dance. The end goal is not for public performance, but rather for creating community, peace, joy, and spirituality.
Event takes place at FWDC studios, 437 E. Berry St. $7 admission.
No need to register in advance, but for more information, call (260) 424-6574 or email info@fwdc.org
The Fort Wayne Dance Collective (FWDC) is pleased to present Fort Wayne Taiko’s fourth annual Knock on Wood performance on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 7 p.m. The performance will be held at the Allen County Pubic Library’s theatre, located at the main library at 900 Library Plaza in downtown Fort Wayne.
Knock on Wood will feature a playful collage of sound and images performed by a diverse group of local talent. The collection of songs will include traditional and contemporary taiko drumming pieces as well as original compositions featuring chants, body percussion, language and dance.
Pre-sale tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students 12 and under. At the door, adult tickets are $15 and children tickets are $12. Call the Fort Wayne Dance Collective at 424-6574 for tickets or information.
Taiko, which means “big drum,” is a drumming and movement form based on Japanese tradition. Taiko is played on big drums, skinned both ends and placed in vertical, horizontal and diagonal positions. In taiko, the movement is as important as the rhythm–drummers play rhythms with sticks using choreographed arm movements and/or while ”dancing” from drum to drum.
Fort Wayne Taiko, the only performing taiko group in Indiana, has provided Northeast/Central Indiana with taiko performances and instruction since 2000. Fort Wayne Taiko members have studied with Japanese taiko masters in California and have brought guest taiko drummers to Fort Wayne to teach skills and repertory to local drummers. A program of the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, Fort Wayne Taiko honors the tradition of taiko as it equally strives to integrate taiko with other art forms to create experimental performance art. Weekly taiko classes are offered at the Fort Wayne Dance Collective. Children’s classes, outreach programs and performances are available upon request. For more info, go to their website, FWTaiko.org. To see several photos from recent FW Taiko shows, including Knock on Wood 2008, see below.
Fort Wayne Taiko is a program of the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. FWDC receives funding from Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Partial funding for this event provided by the Downtown Improvement District.
The Fort Wayne Dance Collective currently has a position open on its Touring Company’s production of Dancing Through the Pages booked at Indiana elementary schools throughout the school year. Auditions will be held Saturday, September 25 at 1:30 pm at the FWDC Studios, 437 E. Berry St.
Dancers should be prepared to learn repertoire and bring a calendar, resume, and references.
The right candidate will be a vibrant dancer who has great vocal skills and loves to interact with children. A flexible schedule is needed, as most performances are during the day. Dancers are paid for performances.
For more information, contact Liz Monnier at (260) 424-6574 or liz [at] fwdc [dot] org
Fort Wayne is lucky enough to have an organization dedicated to supporting artists and arts organizations in town — that is, of course, Arts United. We are one of ten member groups, which means that we get funding, administrative support, and of course, our wonderful studio space. One of the small ways we can give back is to participate in their annual arts fest downtown, called “Taste of the Arts“. It’s happening this Saturday, August 28, from noon to 7 pm.
Our very own Fort Wayne Taiko drummers will perform. FWDC choreographer and teacher Becca Wegner created a dance performed by the talented Gloria Minnich and Tasha Sperry. Several other performances are happening including our friends at the Three Rivers Jenbé Ensemble, Fort Wayne Youtheatre, and many more. It’s a great opportunity to eat good food, experience good art, and hang out in our vibrant downtown arts corridor.
Check out the arts schedule at the Taste of the Arts website, and join us at 1:00 for Taiko and dancing!
The Fort Wayne Dance Collective would like to invite you to our Fiscal Year-end Annual Meeting, a celebration of our many activities from July 2009 to June 2010. From a Dances of Universal Peace weekend, to Eaten Alive: 7 Deadly Sins with a full 42 weeks of classes thrown in, we have been busy. Thanks to an Inspire grant from the Foellinger Foundation, we’ve tried lots of new things, and they’ve been hits! Dances of Universal Peace is steadily growing in popularity, and we have several choreographers who will be taking part in Dark Dance, Deadly Tongue, this year’s Halloween concert.
Please join us at the FWDC studios on Monday, June 21 at 6:00 PM for a simple celebration of these achievements, and a taste of the year to come. We’ll have light refreshments, and board members on hand to meet and socialize with. It won’t be more than an hour.
Although you’re welcome to just show up, we’d appreciate it if you’d send us an email and let us know to expect you.
Thank you — we hope to see to see you soon!
In addition to being a good arts partner in Fort Wayne, FWDC is a nonprofit organization and tries to be a good partner to the nonprofit sector, arts organizations and social service orgs alike. To that end, I am a member of NeXtGen Fort Wayne, a discussion and networking group for young professionals in the nonprofit sector. It’s a lot of fun, and I get to hang out with really cool people, like Andrew Hoffman from NeighborLink, Jennifer Renner from CANI, and Lettie Haver from the Nonprofit Resource Center, among others.
I know that a lot of people we serve at FWDC are nonprofit professionals, or just parties interested in nonprofit service. I figured although this doesn’t specifically relate to dance, the FWDC blog might be a good opportunity to share this with you.
I’m excited about the discussion NeXtGen Digest is having this month —We’re meeting with Monica Freeman, the Vision Coordinator for the Northeast Indiana Fund, a foundation supporting the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership and its mission. She will be talking to us about the massive project they are undertaking — creating a community vision plan for Fort Wayne and the region. As a nonprofit professional, I feel that I need to be part of this, as my organization has a responsibility to serve those in the community. As a young person, in my late-20s, I feel a responsibility personally because I will likely one day inherit this community, and want to be part of shaping it.
Check out the NeXtGen blog for more information about the event, and email me if you want to be part of the discussion. I hope you can make it!
We had such a great community response this past weekend to TAIKOPROJECT. Lots of photos are coming (I still have to sort through them all!), but I wanted to share a few testimonials.
From Liz Monnier, our Artistic Director:
Wow, what a weekend! It’s amazing the energy that our guest performers bring. My favorite moment was watching Maz perform their final number at the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wanted to internalize the sensation of what he was doing…so intense, his whole body flowing with the rhythms and the look on his face, totally immersed in the moment. I also think it’ s funny how many people I’ve seen air drumming!
From Mary Marino-Strong, a FWDC volunteer and patron:
Saturday’s TAIKOPROJECT performance was unforgettable! It was so fabulous. I had no idea that a few people playing some drums would be as great – nor did I understand that the drummers bodies are as much a part of the music as the drums themselves. It’s a joy to watch a performer who has reached a level of real mastery in his art, and their leader seems to have done that big time! I also enjoyed seeing them at the Cherry Blossom Festival. So enthused were we that we participated with FW Taiko at the Festival as well. Its leader, Allison Ballard, did a great job of creating a format that allowed even musically-impaired audience members like moi to play along. Great fun!
From Rob Mican, a taiko drummer from Chicago who came to see the performance:
My family & I drove down from Chicago specifically for this TAIKOPROJECT performance. I’ve had my eye on TAIKOPROJECT for the last year or two, hoping they would eventually come to the Chicago area. This is the first chance I’ve had to see them live. “Awesome” does not come close to describing how awesome they were. My son & I have been playing taiko for five or six years now, and TAIKOPROJECT’s energy and passion for taiko are amazingly infectious. They love what they do, they have loads of fun on stage, and it shows. The way TAIKOPROJECT puts a modern spin on a traditional musical art is downright enlightening — I’ve never seen any other taiko group do what they do with their impeccable musical skills. Our new taiko semester has just started, and my son & I can’t wait to start pounding on the drums again.
From Allison Ballard, FWDC teacher and Director of Fort Wayne Taiko:
TAIKOPROJECT’s performance(s) this weekend was yet another life-changing event sponsored by FWDC! Thank you, thank you, thank you! This community is so fortunate to be blessed by FWDC’s progressive programs. A common quote in the taiko community is that taiko is not meant to awe, but to inspire….I am inspired and humbled and excited to grow as a taiko drummer. Towards that aim, FW Taiko has two drummers attending the Memorial Day Weekend Intensive with San Jose Taiko in San Jose, California and I will be attending the Portland Taiko’s week-long intensive this August in Portland, Oregon. As always, we look forward to bringing new skills back to the FW Community. I must say that playing at the Cherry Blossom Festival with Taiko Project in the audience was one of the more challenging and humbling things I have done in a while….good grief. But I am so grateful to have the chance to grow as a taiko drummer right here in Fort Wayne. FW Taiko welcomes people interested in exploring the art form to join taiko classes held at FWDC every Friday, 3:30 to 5:30. Come check it out! And remember taiko is a drumming and movement form–the movement is as important as the rhythm being played. Come prepared for a full body aerobic workout! And a load of exhilarating fun!
We also got a lot of media attention for the residency as well. Some links to see our press coverage:
- Dumming Japanese tradition by Steve Penhollow at the Journal Gazette
- Dance, drumming mix in ancient art form from the News-Sentinel
- A video at the News-Sentinel’s website at the Cherry Blossom Festival
- Drumming Up a Storm by Michael Summers in the Fort Wayne Reader
