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Step Into The 1920s with Into the Woods’ Souvenir

RVA Staff | March 4, 2020

Topics: art, dame florence foster jenkins, dance, events, events in richmond va, events near me this weekend, events richmond va, Fan, fan district, gabrielle maes, into the woods, into the woods productions, plays, plays in richmond va, richmond events, richmond va, RVA, souvenir, stuart ave, the Fan, Theatre, theatre in richmond va, theatre richmond va, things to do in richmond va, things to do richmond va, voice club

In the living room of a Stuart Ave home in Richmond’s Fan District, the world’s worst opera singer comes to life… and this unique comedy play heads into its final weekend. 

Into the Woods Productions invites you to the living room of a Fan District home for its latest theater production, Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir, starring Gabrielle Maes and Levi Meerovich and directed by Chelsea Burke. A ticket to the show promises a night of heartwarming friendship, over-the-top humor, and the ear-splitting voice of the world’s worst opera singer. You might want to bring some ear plugs. 

Gabrielle Maes, founder of Into the Woods, stars as Dame Florence Foster Jenkins from the comfort of home. Maes has transformed the large double living room of her historic Stuart Avenue house into a set for Florence’s private music room, complete with framed portraits of the infamously untalented songstress, marble statuettes, and the obligatory grand piano.

“When you walk in, you really feel that you’re being transported back into a drawing room from the 1920s,” said Maes. The front room can only accommodate an audience of around 40; Levi Meerovich plays Cosme McMoon, Florence’s accompanist, as Maes’s only co-star. It’s sure to be unlike a traditional theater experience. “That’s the feeling,” said Maes. “It’s a truly intimate production.” 

PHOTO: Wolfcrest Photography

This isn’t the first time Maes has opened her home to an audience for the endeavors of her production company. Since Maes founded Into the Woods, she’s produced many theater performances and salon concerts using her own living room floor as a stage. 

Into the Woods also puts on Voice Club in Maes’s Stuart Avenue home, an intimate monthly gathering for showcasing any — and truly any — style of vocalized performance. Voice Club has hosted burlesque, flamenco, poetry, spoken word, drag, and stand-up comedy, among other voice-related talents. “It’s a lot of work, having to frequently move and rearrange the furniture,” said Maes. “But the acoustics in my house are great.” 

Maes founded Into the Woods in an attempt to raise industry standards in Richmond by ensuring that performers and artists are paid for their work. “There’s so many talented people here, and such a vibrant music and theater scene,” said Maes. “But the thing is, musicians and artists don’t really get paid. Which seems unusual to me, because I’ve always lived in places where we do.” 

Maes has lived in a lot of places — she grew up in Montreal, studied vocal performance in Jerusalem, lived in Paris and Milan as the mother of five children, and taught at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. She has lived and performed in a total of nine different countries, and it was in Malaysia that she first played the role of Dame Florence Foster Jenkins. She won the Boh Cameronian Award for best actor in her performance. 

PHOTO: Wolfcrest Photography

She now takes her award-winning Souvenir performance to the Fan District of Richmond, with an obvious affection for the role. Dame Florence was a wealthy New York City socialite and a dedicated patron to the arts, who then rose to infamy with an opera career of her own in the 1920s. “She was an absolutely horrific singer, and an incredibly eccentric person,” said Maes. “She liked to pose for these things they used to call ‘tableaus,’ but she was rather homely — big boobs, overweight, hook nose — but she didn’t care.”

“She was extremely theatrical and entertaining; she’d get dressed up in wigs and weird hats. People would go watch her sing to laugh at her, and she had no idea they were laughing, so it’s kind of tragic in a way,” said Maes. “But they kept paying to see her perform, and they loved her — her singing was ridiculous, but there was also something so genuine about her.”

Into the Woods’ production of Souvenir focuses on the more innocently heartwarming narrative in Florence’s life: the genuine, platonic love that she shared with her pianist, Cosme, a gay Mexican immigrant. As these are the only two roles billed, the singular drawing-room set of the venue inevitably leaves Florence’s public life up to the audience’s imagination. 

Maes asserts that there’s quite a rich story to tell of these two. Cosme accompanied Florence’s vocals for 12 years, from early obscurity to the pinnacle of her career, when she sold out Carnegie Hall. Cosme was not deaf, and therefore well-aware of her glaring lack of talent, and he saw the ridicule that she was so oblivious to. “He tries so desperately to protect her, and they end up becoming very good friends,” said Maes. “It’s a love story, really. It’s very poignant.” 

According to Maes, it’s also hysterically funny, with much of the humor derived from Florence’s obliviousness to Cosme’s exaggeratedly obvious homosexuality. “He hints at it constantly throughout the play,” said Maes, “yet she teases him relentlessly about the young ladies.” 

PHOTO: Wolfcrest Photography

Souvenir runs for its final weekend on Stuart Ave. from Thursday, March 5 through Saturday, March 7, with all showings at 8 pm. Once the faux marble statuettes imitating 1920s Manhattan have been traded back for Maes’s everyday living room decor, Voice Club will resume and Into the Woods will be onto planning its next production. And while it’s hard to say what that will be, Maes clearly has an affinity for opera. She directed for Capitol Opera about a year and a half ago, then produced and starred in a fully staged, full-orchestra Handel opera. But she’s also known for hosting plays underground (literally), with 15th-century tavern song concerts taking place in a cave-like building below Pump House Park… so expect the unexpected from Into the Woods. 

To learn more about Souvenir, find Into the Woods at their website and buy tickets to this weekend’s showings here. 

Top Photo by Wolfcrest Photography

Dancing to Self-Love and Teamwork

Paige Holloman | February 19, 2020

Topics: after school programs, art, ballet, ballet company, ballet programs, dance, dance team, Jordan Glunt, local art, minds in motion, new york city ballet, richmond, Richmond Ballet, Richmond schools, richmond va, RVA, school activities, Stoner Winslett, Theatre, things to do richmond va

Richmond Ballet’s Minds in Motion program gives city school students a different type of extra-curricular activity credit: ballet. 

While thousands of Virginia students walked across stages to collect their diplomas last year, several hundred marked the end of the school year in a different way — with the grand finale of Minds in Motion, a program by the Richmond Ballet that sends dance teachers into the public schools. Virginia requires fourth graders to study math, language arts, science, and history, but about two dozen districts have added another subject to the curriculum. Once a week they gather to study ballet.

Stoner Winslett, the organization’s artistic director, always had a passion to give back to the Richmond community. Minds in Motion was directly inspired by a National Dance Institute program, founded by former New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d’Amboise. 

“The goal was to allow the children of inner city schools to experience what it’s like to be an artist — to seek excellence in an art form,” said d’Amboise. “It’s not to make them dancers, painters or musicians. Using the finest professionals, we introduce them to an activity that demands excellence in themselves. There’s no winner or loser, as in sports. It’s a motivational program for children that works.”

PHOTO: Richmond Ballet, Minds in Motion

Now in its 25th year, Minds In Motion has successfully expanded from two to 27 schools, serving students in Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hopewell, Charlottesville, Chesapeake, and Woodbridge. In addition, the program has an international component working with Israeli and Arab children in the Middle East. Acclaimed by teachers, parents and students, Minds In Motion has grown to become a major focus of Richmond Ballet’s education and outreach mission.

“It allows us to introduce movement when we first enter the classroom,” said Jordan Glunt, acting director of Minds In Motion. “Everyone has to participate.”

Language is instrumental to their approach in supporting learning. The use of language, integrated with the movements students are taught, helps each dancer learn their steps. Working together as a group, emphasizing teamwork rather than competition, also helps make the students comfortable enough to learn well.

“Students will pick up choreography, the connection of steps, easier and faster if we give them words to say,” Glunt explained. “As they progress, they’re building on steps, linking on steps which leads to greater choreography — and they’re dancing before they realize they are truly dancing.” 

Students also gain important life skills: not only the discipline necessary to master the routines, but the permission to be creative and follow their muse in a less rigid fashion.

PHOTO: Richmond Ballet, Minds in Motion

“It does take discipline, and it is hard work, but it also can be very freeing,” Glunt said. “We really support creativity. They get this sense of play, in a way. We can have fun, but there is a structure to it that is getting them to learn and move, and they really start to work together as a class.” 

Even the boys who initially shun ballet, thinking of the dance form as intrinsically feminine, often find it has its merits. 

“Professional football players are taking ballet classes to help with being more agile and quick on their feet, and able to move quickly,” said Glunt. “Virginia students understand that because they’re dancing, they’re working really hard; they break a sweat. And by the end of the Minds in Motion class, they’ll think, ‘Oh!’ Some of my favorite experiences are boys saying, ‘I’m not doing ballet!’ And by the end of the year, they’re the ones in the front row saying, “Yes!”’

Both teachers and students report that ballet has boosted their self-confidence, offering another way to succeed at school away from the rigid segmentation of letter grades. Glunt says it’s an experience that stays with them long after the curtain comes down. Minds In Motion even has an after-school scholarship class, designed for students with an aptitude for dance, called Team Excel.

“Those kids invited to audition get that ‘audition experience,’ and then they find out if they made it into Team Excel or not,” says Glunt. 

Team Excel, now in its second year, takes place on the ground level of Richmond Ballet. About 40 children have the experience of touring and dancing in the actual company. They also get to experience other forms of dance besides ballet, like tap, jazz, musical theatre, and modern dance. They’re viewing classes along with their families, who find joy in watching their children dance.

PHOTO: Richmond Ballet, Minds in Motion

All this practice culminates in their spring performance at the Dominion Energy Theatre, where all the fourth grade classes and schools come together for a professional production. 

“It is truly done by the fourth graders. All of us teaching artists and musicians get to step away and sit in the audience and cry tears of joy in watching the students put on this amazing performance,” says Glunt, who grew teary-eyed with happiness. 

“I’ve run into students I taught 10 years ago in the grocery store, and they’ll say, ‘I remember my finale dance,’” says Glunt. “They’ll dance in the grocery store aisle, the entire finale.” 

To learn more about Minds In Motion and their programs, check out their website here and catch up with them through the Richmond Ballet on social media. 

Winter Salsa at Switch RVA

Ashley Sasscer | February 5, 2020

Topics: dance, Switch, Things to do in Richmond, winter salsa

Switch RVA offers a Retro84 theme every Wednesday for 80s themed cocktails and salsa lessons with Boris!

– Lesson with Boris from 8:30 to 9 pm
– Open floor salsa dancing until close

FREE EVENT!

Phutureprimitive and AN-TEN-NAE at The Broadberry on 12/4

John Reinhold | November 25, 2019

Topics: AN-TEN-NAE, dance, EDM, Firespinning, Hooping, Phutureprimitive, The Broadberry, Things to do in Richmond, things to do in RVA

Broadberry Entertainment Group Presents!

Phutureprimitive and AN-TEN-NAE at The Broadberry

Phutureprimitive and an-ten-nae
at The Broadberry
Wednesday, December 4th
$18 ADV, $22 DOS
Doors: 8pm, Show: 9pm

Phutureprimitive
http://phutureprimitivemusic.com

an-ten-nae
http://an-ten-nae.net

Phutureprimitive and An-ten-nae team up to bring you the Altered Frequency Tour. The two California Bay Area acts will be bringing their unique fusion of west-coast bass music across the US on a comprehensive national tour. Tickets on-sale Friday September 6.

Phutureprimitive is the moniker of Bay Area producer and songwriter Rain. Early childhood photos reveal Rain sitting at the piano plinking keys, grinning from ear to ear… a true sign of things to come. Continuing his early fascination with music, Rain was later drawn to electronic music, inspired by its ability to combine the best of organically played instruments and the synthetic pleasures of sounds more exotic to the human ear. After beginning a DJ career in the 90s, Rain began incorporating the music he was making in his home studio into his DJ sets. That was all it took to trigger a full-blown love affair with electronic music and the process of its creation… and Phutureprimitive was born.

Phutureprimitive’s music is singular and unique in its approach. Lush melodies drift across intricate rhythms, groove heavy beats and warm, fuzzy bass lines. Often exploring a dark and dense palette, his music also manages to convey a sense of tranquility and beauty, engaging the listener into hypnotic movement and often escalating into a full-on kinetic experience. Shimmering with cinematic qualities, his music ultimately speaks to the body, mind and soul.

An-ten-nae

An-ten-nae is an instrumental figure on the west coast, from his role as music director, producing legendary events at the iconic 1015 Folsom in San Francisco, to his signature Acid Crunk compilations which helped define an era and help lay the foundation to what is now the Westcoast Bass scene. One thing is always constant, and that is constant evolution. With numerous successful projects like Dimond Saints, The Invisible People, DnA, An-ten-nae always manages to reinvent himself and push his boundaries. Utilizing his own custom set up, An-ten-nae pushes the envelope with his live remixing abilities and wildly engaging performances.
An-ten-nae has well over 200 releases under his belt and collaborations far and wide including artists like Bassnectar, Beats Antique, Dirtwire, Desert Dwellers. He has charted in the iTunes Top 10, constantly in top charts on Beatport and featured in the Huffington Post, This Song Is Sickand Billboard. With over 60 Million combined streams / Downloads to date, and has played such venues and festivals such as Red Rocks, Electric Forest, Shambhala, Lightning in a Bottle. 2019 promises to be his most prolific one yet with the launch of WHYT RBBT and a constant stream of new music that sees him pushing boundaries into new realms with exciting new collaborations and productions.

Fredericksburg’s Company 360 Wants To Give You All The Feels

Ginny Bixby | April 10, 2019

Topics: art, bailey anne vincent, ballet, company 360, cystic fibrosis, dance, empowerment, inclusive, womens empowerment

Involving dancers of all body types and embracing inclusivity and diversity, Company 360 works to make dance empowering and accessible for all.

Bailey Anne Vincent might make you cry when you see her dance company on stage.

“We do tend to go for as much emotion as possible. We tend to make people cry,” Vincent laughed.

According to their website, Fredericksburg’s Company 360 hopes to push boundaries and bend stereotypes about the world of professional dance. They’ve paid no mind to body types, and opened their doors to dancers of all abilities, limitations or not.

“Dance should not be an age, size or number,” the group says, “and Company 360 hopes to be an inclusive, no-shame environment for those passionate enough.” Their next performance, Bridges, a tribute to Paul Simon, will be performed April 26-27 at the Fredericksburg Academy.

Vincent said the company’s upcoming show will provoke a lot of emotion from the audience, and that the dancers have even cried in rehearsals after connecting to the material.

“This show follows three generations of women all having to make different choices and having to overcome being a woman, basically,” she said. “It’s not just a tribute to [Simon’s] music; it’s characters he’s hidden inside of his lyrics, or the different themes he’s stuck [in a song].”

“This show is very grounded in reality, with folklore and Americana.” In contrast, Vincent said that Company 360’s fall show, a tribute to the Dave Matthews Band, will be “pure fantasy and magic.”

PHOTO: AMT Photography

Vincent aims for her shows to have one cohesive, original plot and storyline across all the pieces, even though there are very different styles being performed throughout each show. She comes up with the story and chooses the soundtrack a year in advance. While ballet is featured heavily in the shows, Company 360 primarily focuses on contemporary pieces, and also performs pointe, tap, and jazz.

“We are not a ballet company,” said Vincent. “It really is a 360 of styles.”

Vincent started out dancing for various dance companies in Washington, D.C., even working as an assistant artistic director for some. For a while, she worked as a choreographer for Fredericksburg’s Christian Youth Theater. But she knew she wanted more.

“The whole time I was kind of quietly creating my whole list of, ‘If I had a company, this is what I would do to eradicate drama, or negative body image, etc’,” she said. Vincent had a vision for a company that was more inclusive, and would have none of the negative aspects of working in the dance world that seem to be all too prevalent.

She said she was especially concerned with how in some dance companies, women were being pitted against each other. She wanted to start a company that was different, that focused on the joy of dance and the way it can be empowering.

After a stem cell transplant, Vincent decided to finally try to bring her plans to fruition. Vincent, who has Cystic Fibrosis and is also deaf, had been on oxygen, and was constantly in and out of the hospital until the transplant. While she still spends a fair amount of time in the hospital, she says the transplant gave her a “resurgence of health.”

“That was what led me to take the leap with Company 360 because it felt like, well it’s now or never,” she said. “What do I have to lose? I’ve almost died like twenty times.”

PHOTO: AMT Photography

Vincent worked with her husband, who is now the executive director of the company, to figure out the logistics of starting this venture.

“I feel like, especially for women, we have more of a ceiling to get through when following our pursuits and passions,” Vincent said. “We often feel like we have to have a checklist of certain things we have to do before we take on something.”

But Vincent challenges that approach.

“My favorite metaphor for business is the bumblebee,” she said. “The bumblebee is aerodynamically too big to be able to fly, but the bumblebee flies, because the bumblebee believes in something and just does it.”

In a similar way, Vincent believes in all of her dancers, even if they violate the archetype of what a dancer is “supposed” to look like. One of her original goals with Company 360 was to empower dancers of all body types to perform, and she does not consider body size or type as a factor in casting.

“[The dancers] are measured by their talent, not by their measurements,” she said. “My goal is making the audience feel something, and I think that has absolutely nothing to do with the skeleton you were born with.”

“You can make someone feel something just as much if you look like Isabella Boylston or Misty Copeland, or if you have boobs,” she said. “It makes literally no difference. And to me that’s what we’re losing in the dance world. People don’t think that dancers of all sizes can move as beautifully, and they can.”

PHOTO: AMT Photography

Vincent said that while she is looking for dancers to have strong technique and training, she considers the dancer’s ability to emote and tell a story paramount when casting.

“You can tell when someone has to dance, when it’s their passion,” she said. “Not when they need to dance or feel that they must dance, but that they’ll do anything to dance.” To Vincent, it’s this quality that’s most important in a dancer. Ability alone is not enough.

“The world is full of good dancers. You watch So You Think You Can Dance and you’re like, ‘They can do eight pirouettes! How do all these people exist in the world?’” Vincent doesn’t see physical achievements like these as the best barometer of dance talent.

You go to dance competitions and everyone’s kicking themselves in the face with their leg. To me, that’s all been done.

“We’ve seen the most flexible people in the world, and we’ve seen the most proficient turners,” said Vincent. “The world is full of talented dancers, but it is not full of talented performers. And that makes an audience feel something.”

Vincent also runs a youth company for older children and a training company for teenagers. Every dancer in the training company is paired up with an adult company dancer, whom they shadow and understudy for the season to give them a taste of a professional dancer’s life. Vincent said she really wants understudying to be a positive experience for her young dancers.

“Growing up, it was always a negative thing to be cast as the understudy. But it’s an honor, it’s exciting, it’s a privilege,” she said.

In addition to her company, Vincent has attracted a large following as a health advocate and writer. She has over eleven thousand followers on her Instagram account, where she documents her life as a dancer with chronic illness. Vincent said that because of her advocacy, people around the world who are chronically ill have connected with the company. She is currently fundraising for two women from Nashville and Texas, whom she has endearingly nicknamed the “Bucket List Babes,” to fly out to see a Company 360 show.

“They were really motivated by seeing all sorts of women represented in the company,” Vincent said.

Vincent would like to be able to continue this practice for other fans of the company, and hopes to work with local organizations to raise funds for it. She also tries to collaborate with a different nonprofit for every show. Her international following has motivated her to livestream some of Company 360’s performances, and she is sensitive to the fact that it can be expensive to be a patron of the arts.

“I want dance to be accessible,” she said.

Vincent has also worked on dance films to bring awareness to certain issues, including collaborating with rapper Everlast on a dance film called “Love With Cystic Fibrosis.” Everlast, whose daughter has Cystic Fibrosis, found Vincent through her online advocacy.

Vincent’s main goal throughout her work is to make her corner of the dance world an inclusive and positive one. She hopes this can spread to the larger dance community, and encourage dancers who have been alienated from pursuing careers in dance and achieving success.

“I’d like to think that if you’re a dancer who comes to see our show, you’re not going to feel hateful about your body when you leave, or discouraged,” she said. “Or think, ‘Why try? I’m going to give up dance,’ because sometimes that happens when I go see dance shows.”  

“Hopefully, as more people come to see Company 360 shows and get lost in the story, they’ll leave and then never again have this stereotype of what they think a beautiful dancer should look like,” Vincent said. “All of our dancers are beautiful, and all bodies are beautiful.”

Company 360 will perform Bridges, their tribute to the work of Paul Simon, at Fredericksburg Academy on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27. In addition to evening performances at 7 PM both days, there will be a 2 PM matinee performance on Saturday. For tickets and additional info, visit Company 360’s website.

Top Photo by AMT Photography

Snap Soup Dance’s “Dance Film Animation” is the Product of a Broken World

Christopher McDaniel | April 8, 2019

Topics: choreography, dance, Dance Film Animation, Dogtown Dance Theatre, inflatable tube man, short films, Snap Soup Dance

In their first showcase, Richmond’s Snap Soup Dance mixed choreography and film to create a moving representation of the post-collegiate struggle.

On Friday and Saturday, March 29 and 30, Snap Soup Dance held “Dance Film Animation,” their first showcase of modern dance, choreography, dance film and animation, at Dogtown Dance Theatre in Manchester.

It is a good time in Richmond for dance. In addition to Snap Soup Dance’s performance, the weekend also saw Starr Foster Dance hold their 17th Annual Mid-Atlantic Choreographer’s Showcase at the Grace Street Theatre. Meanwhile, K Dance held “Shorts 2019!” at Firehouse Theatre, and Richmond Ballet wrapped up its annual Studio Two performances within its own studios. Dance, like many artistic expressions in the city, is thriving as one community in Richmond.

Back at Dogtown Dance Theatre, Snap Soup Dance left the small audience impressed and elated with a tight show. Under the helm of the group’s Artistic Director and Founder, Callie Moore, the show presented several pieces in succession, with a quick 60-minute run time.

Snap Soup Dance’s mascot, the kind of inflatable tube man you’d see at a car lot, gas station, or state fair, appeared on the performance poster, in the first dance film, and as a live debut during intermission. The symbolism of the tube man, rising and falling, stuck with me throughout the duration of the night.

Having previously seen pieces of Moore’s work performed individually, this was my first experience of seeing her work in succession. As a young professional like Moore, I deeply connected with each piece of the night’s show, whether it was her intention or not. As a VCU graduate, I related to the constant reminders and images of life in the River City, as gritty and depressing as it can be, as well as a feeling of control and ownership.

“Dance Film Animation” began with a film titled “Tight Quarters.” In this piece, four dancers unveiled subtle choreography in an extremely small apartment kitchen. The subtlety was the key in depicting the way four roommates could operate in their own devices while coexisting with others who operate under different devices. One dancer would wash the dish, one dancer would put the dish away, one dancer would sweep the floor, while the final dancer ate cereal among them. In the plot I watched unfold, dance was used as an escape from day-to-day tedium.

The second piece of the night, “Smell My Feet,” incorporated Soundcloud hip hop with contemporary dance, and I saw a struggle — one much like the rising and falling of the inflatable tube man.

My favorite dance film of the night, “Where to from here?” showed a dancer performing in the sun, poised in front of the Richmond skyline. The dancer, Kara Robertson of KARAR Dance Company, moved with an expressionless face, and yet again, I was reminded of the struggle and grind young artistic professionals experience.

The performance’s final piece, “A Pathetic,” was a modern dance trio that I believe encapsulated the themes of the night. This finale had each dancer embracing one another in dark lighting. Dance held them together in an overwhelming world, and it left me feeling awed at the way experiences and feeling can be translated for an audience in the most unexpected ways.

Photos via Snap Soup Dance/snapsoupdance.com

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