Matt Rutt
Leaping Lotus, 2010
relief print
6 3/4" x 8 1/4"
She notes as examples Sydney Kaye’s relief print, Pachydermis Epidermis, Matt Rutt’s Leaping Lotus, also a relief print, and Gretta Wallace’s Untitled archival ink jet print. Other mediums the students provided to SMoCA include drawings, charcoals, paints, pen and inks and linoleum block prints, video, photography and sculpture.
and all young@art gallery presentations, are created by children as part of the SMoCA education program, Hales explains. The program has continued for 21 years, although not always at the same location. “Its mission is to showcase, celebrate and inspire the artwork of youth and also promotes strong youth art-education programs around the Valley.”
In conjunction with Dance with Camera and Imagining Dance, other events at the facilities have included a recital by Metro dance students, Feb. 11, who performed two pieces choreographed for a gallery setting: “5x5” and “Combined in Color”; A Dancer’s Perspective, Feb 24, with dancer Clare Keane Banchs reminiscing on performing works of great modern choreographers; a Gallery Talk, Mar 10, with Curator Jenelle Porter discussing Dance With Camera and Tacita Dean’s film, Merce; and, also March 10, the final Valley appearance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which performed Event (2010) with choreography by Cunningham, décor by Robert Rauschenberg and music composed and performed by John King and Takehisa Kosugi. With Cunningham’s death in 2009, the troupe disbands at the end of this year.
On April 14, 7 p.m., at the Stage 2 Theater, SMoCA will screen three films: Beehive (1985), a cult dance classic which The New York Times described as a “giddily delightful short film,” directed by Frank Moore and Jim Self, choreographed by Self, with cinematography by Barry Shils; Peter Glushanok’s Martha Graham: A Dancer’s World (1957), with the 20th-century performer, choreographer and teacher discussing dance and members of her famous troupe displaying a number of techniques in performance; and Natalie Bookchin’s Mass Ornament (2009), which presents hundreds of clips from YouTube of anonymous individuals dancing alone in their rooms, recalling popular films of the 1930s and 40s which presented many people in choreographed movement.
In helping coordinate activities at SMoCA and SCPA, Hales contacted Metro Arts last spring to talk about the concept of Imagining Dance. “I wanted the dance students to work closely with the visual arts students to inspire work relating to dance,” she recalls, noting that she also met with the faculty who would participate.
