Gloucester New Arts Festival (GNAF) 2008
FRESH LOCAL LANDMARKS / (RE)DISCOVERING KNOWN SPACES
DATES: Saturday and Sunday, August 23 + 24, all day
WHERE: Downtown Gloucester, MA
COST: Free, $3 fundraising bracelets encouraged. Workshop cost: $10.
Schedule thus far:
SATURDAY AUGUST 23
OPENING EVENT: 11AM visual happeneing, 12PM performance White-Ellery House, Grant Circle Rotary. Crowd is encouraged to bring a picnic blamket.
BEER TASTING: 6PM, Cape Ann Brewing Company, 27 Commercial St.
MAIN PERFORMANCE: 7PM, assemble at Sargent House Museum, 49 Middle St. Performance will move to other locations, so be prepared to walk!
SUNDAY AUGUST 24
WORKSHOP (COST: $10): 1-3PM, Blackburn Performing Arts, 1 Washington St. Musicians and dancers of all levels welcome. Join the festival artists to explore improvisation techniques.
MAIN PERFORMANCE: 4PM, assemble at Sargent House Museum, 49 Middle St. Performance will move to other locations, so be prepared to walk!
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The Gloucester New Arts Festival, known as GNAF, embarks on its 4th annual summer performance season. This year sees the festival in the hands of the internationally celebrated dancer and choreographer Michael Jahoda (former principal dancer with anoukvandijkdc, Amsterdam and Jennifer Muller, NYC), and Music curator Bruce Ferrara (Music Director of the Beehive, Boston), along with founder Sarah Slifer.
The Directors have gathered an esteemed group of contemporary dancers and jazz musicians to create a series of improvised performance works for historic Gloucester landmarks.
(RE)DISCOVER KNOWN SPACES
Why improvisation? What better way to give a fresh contemporary insight to historic landmarks than through a medium that lives in the moment? The GNAF 2008 artists will respond to the beauty, the decay, the sentiment of history, and the fresh energy of the immediate environment. Found in various pairings of dancers and musicians, the artists will be discovered along a set walking tour that reveals a seamless connection between array of vignettes and historic landmarks in downtown Gloucester.
Leading up to the festival, the performers will be engaged in research that attempts to reach new ground in performance practice and collaboration. These artists are being asked to push beyond the known modalities of their forms and enter into the unexpected.
The results will come to life in the performance events on August 23rd at 7PM, and August 24th at 4PM.
In addition to the main performances, there will be a music and dance workshop that is open to the community, as well as visual delights around the downtown, farmer’s markets, and opening event, and a closing party. All event locations will be announced at a later date at www.newartsfestival.com.
The artists are:
ALISSA CARDONE dance (www.kinodance.org)
KARL CRONAN dance
BRUCE FERRARA music / music curator (www.bruceferarra.com)
MICHAEL JAHODA dance / Artistic Director (www.phillipproject.com)
LARRY KUKERS music
RENATO MALAVASI music
NAT MUGAVERO music
INGRID SCHATZ dance (www.kinodance.org)
MEGAN SCHENK dance
SARAH SLIFER dance / Executive Director
The Gloucester New Arts Festival is in partnership with The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS), The Cape Ann YMCA, and Green Street Studios of Cambridge.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Gloucester Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and by the Massachusetts Cultural Council John and Abigail Adams Grant for Cultural Economic Development.
More information at www.newartsfestival.com