Free Qi Gung Classes with Nana Shineflug

Nana Shineflug is teaching a free Chi Gung class at Hamlin Park fieldhouse (at damen/wellington). The Chicago Moving Company website lists it as ongoing but it might just go for a couple more weeks.

Qi Gong
Fridays 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, free. Ongoing - No class 7/1, 7/22 or 7/29. Led by Nana Shineflug. This ancient practice is an extension of Tai Chi. Here the Chi (energy) is used to help heal the body through the Soaring Crane form.

I have been to a couple classes and recommend it. It is good posture work and could help you move safely, with significance and increase charisma. The class consists of simple moving meditation sequences that help align you with gravity.

Why is a class like this useful to performance artists?

This is obvious to those of you with movement backgrounds perhaps, but the body isn't just a socially constructed, gendered, visual, etc idea. You occupy it. You can hurt it through misuse. You can communicate from it successfully or not. Stabilizing a experiential relationship with the body and the kinds of expressive capacities that are inherent in it gives a wider palate of communicative possibilities, it can help you sustain a professional career by not damaging yourself through misuse, and you can develop the kind of physical presence that encourages an audience to pay attention to your actions.

Questioning the future of PAC & PAC/edge

Here is a email that was sent out to PAC/edge performing artists from Jennifer Karmin of Anti Gravity Surprise. Seems like some of the artists in the city want a voice in the future structure of the event.

Hello everyone, I'm glad that dialogue has started
around the PAC situation. As a freelance writer, I
can say that the Chicago press is very interested in
our story. Staff from the Reader, New City, and Time
Out have been in touch and asking questions. Since
quite a few PAC artists have mentioned that they're
concerned about the repercussions of speaking out
individually, I feel that it's essential that we speak
out as a unified group.

So -- What are our goals? What do we want? A good
place to start is to make the PAC board accountable
and ask for a public apology. Firing the PAC staff
right after the festival took credibility away from
all of our hard work. PAC didn't go bankrupt by
supporting local artists. They lost money by pushing
expensive, big names throughout the years. Supporting
a festival of Chicago-based art is an ongoing
investment in our creative community.

How can we fix this? What is our plan of action? Our
community's needs should be taken into consideration.
We want support for future festivals. Some PAC
artists have talked about organizing a festival with a
more open selection process. Others have suggested
that we need to put an Artist Representative on the
PAC board and advocate this policy to other arts
groups in the city.

A handful of these issues are specific to PAC but most
of them are connected to how artists (particularly
"non-traditional" artists), get treated. There is a
general attitude that Chicago artists should feel
lucky to be included in a city festival and actually
get paid for our work. This creates an environment
where we get collectively taken advantage of and are
considered selfish for complaining.

PAC has set a precedence for how artists in Chicago
can be treated. Not paying us on time devalues our
work and makes it impossible to make a living as a
professional artist. Unfortunately, numerous city and
private groups have also made it a standard policy to
pay their artists late and mistreat them. The reason
that artists have trouble staying in Chicago is that
the city doesn't consistently offer support and
infrastructure through the institutions here.

Of course, I'd love to hear more people's thoughts.
Maybe we could have an informal meeting for those who
want to talk about what to do next?

Onwards,
Jennifer Karmin
Anti Gravity Surprise

thoughts?

e

Call for Car Performances

Performance opportunity...

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Drive By Performance Series
Links Hall and Seep request proposals for site-specific work inside moving vehicles. Artists may be drivers, passengers, or instigators who are outside the car. Links Hall will serve as a taxi stand from which audiences can catch rides to experience each piece, but the real location will be both inside the car and simultaneously anywhere within driving distance. There is a possibility that the car doesn't go anywhere. There is a possibility that the car drives to a specific place, or that it drives around in circles. Maybe the performance gets out of the car at a certain point, or maybe it is an event which is best viewed from the window of a speeding car. What is important is that proposals are centered around the car as a place and an idea.
Proposals should contain a 1-2 page overview, resume, and work sample (DVD, NTSC VHS, photos, slides, relevant notes, etc.) Also, please indicate the following: approximate length of piece (ideally 15 minutes to one hour), any equipment needed, whether you are able to provide your own car, whether the piece is repeatable, dates of availability (for November 2005). Audiences will be charged a small entry fee per ride to cover gas, and to compensate you for your work. While the aim is to explore radical aesthetic possibilities of the car, please keep in mind basic safety and feasibility on a limited budget.
Submissions from outside Chicago: We are open to proposals from anywhere, but unfortunately cannot provide travel expenses. We will secure informal accommodation for your stay in Chicago, and we will assist you in any way we can to secure funding from your own sources. Proposals from within driving distance of Chicago are especially welcome.
Drive By will be held on three Saturday afternoons: November 5/12/19, 2005. Please mail or drop off your proposal to Links Hall (3435 N. Sheffield, 2nd Floor, Chicago IL 60657) by August 8th, 2005. Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope if you require any materials returned. Proposals will be reviewed and artists selected by Deva Eveland on behalf of the curatorial collaboration Seep. Queries may be emailed to seepart@aol.com

June Performance Crit Session

You missed out.

About twenty-five performers met yesterday for a casual show and tell at the now defunct Ante:Room. The group included Mathew Wilson, Deva Eveland, Jeff Harms and several of students from Columbia College.

Highlights from the handful of presentations…

…Deva’s video of a wanna-be Ping-Pong champion…

…watching a lighting bug make a break for it, landing on the chest of his captor and then crawl under her clothes…

…the audience self-motivating to shut down a fan blowing on a tumbleweed…

The group will meet again in a month and I hope more performers will feel welcome to bring some work to present.

The group seems to be forming around the simple idea of providing an audience to each other once a month and the potential for feedback. It is free and probably will become something.

Contact me if you want to find out about the next meeting.

My offering to the event was a short gesture of introduction. I will post a video of it if you want to check it out or get a sense of how the feedback session went.

Also, there is a new space opening in the next couple of months down on Grand that will be open to performances ever other month. More on this when I know more.

And also, Deva is putting out a call for submissions for his car-based performance event. I will post more details on this soon too.

e