What is Utopia? Next Fest NW15
A single body, comfortable, at home, moving with confident purpose and ease. Belonging. Seen because you want to see me. Heard because you want to hear me. Understood because you already understand. Connected because we have always been connected. My queer trans body articulating our humanity. Patsy Cline starts playing and you are reminded of your lover/ex-lover/childhood/ father/the drag performance you just attended. You slip into your...
Art in Prisons Speakeasy
Velocity presented the Art in Prisons Speakeasy on Sunday September 13. Leigh Sugar guided a discussion about the current incarceration system in Washington and nation-wide with guest speakers Pat Graney, Lillian Hewko, Eli Hastings, Aaron Counts + Daemond Arrindell. The six artists communicated the significance of the American criminal justice system in which prisoners are separated by physical, racial, socio-economic, and geographic boundaries and, therefore, stripped of...
Darrell Jones Lightning Talk // Velocity SFDI 2014
Darrell Jones gave a stirring talk on identity, community, and vogueing at Velocity Dance Center as a part of our 2014 Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI). Watch the footage of his Lightning Talk below, and keep the conversation going. You can find other probing topics and inspired artists under Lighting Talks The SFDI Lighting Talks are part of an annual conversation series developed and curated by...
Libretto: How to become a partisan
The Libretto used in Alice Gosti’s How to become a partisan, which was produced through Velocity’s Made in Seattle program and premiered April 25, 2015. Alvaro Valsenti 93 – by Alice Gosti [ENGL] In the dark matter, sunflowers turn to the sun for a season die and rot in a mash of putrified brown gold is it for me is it for us is it for them...
Historical Information about the Partisan Resistance
The story opens with the image of a character called Diavolo (Devil, a sergeant), sitting on his motorcycle, smoking a cigarette, and waiting for a girl. When Vera appears at a distance, Diavolo notices the attention she gets from a group of soldiers and he is struck by her attractiveness. The narrator’s gaze passes from Diavolo to Vera, who is staring pensively at a big German pistol...
Mark Haim + Jesse Zaritt Post Performance Discussion at Velocity
Mark Haim (SEA) and Jesse Zaritt (NYC) lead a community discussion following the showing of their work-in-progress duet created during a workshop and residency at Velocity Dance Center. Haim and Zaritt offer insights into the work and their creative process, and garner an interesting discussion with the audience about the heritage and influence of their work, and the potential and fragility that lies within living dance. Watch...
RE_POST: The State of the Arts: The Capitol Hill Arts District and Why it Matters
This article was originally published on VanguardSeattle.com on February 16, 2015. Countless articles have been written around the country in the last few years about how communities that were once thriving cultural centers have been drained of the creative and engaged people that made it what it was. Art might still be shown in some of these places, but is no longer made there, as the artists...
Identity Riot Speakeasy: Velocity’s NFNW 2014
In conjunction with Next Fest NW, Velocity presented the Speakeasy Series: Identity Riot, where we examined the New West from the perspectives of feminism, riot grrrls; African-American and Filipino-American dance culture. View the footage of this speakeasy event, and help us continue online the discussion centered around the weaving together personal history and current affairs in our fast-changing city. Curated by Tonya Lockyer and hosted by dance...
Tere O’Connor Community Forum at Velocity
Velocity partnered with On the Boards in a celebration of master American choroeographer Tere O’Connor, hosting performances of his seminal works BLEED, poem, Secret Mary, and Sister. As part of this educational/community partnership, Velocity and OtB hosted Irreconcilability, a series of activities focused on O’Connor’s influential views on dance and contemporary culture. Irreconcilability was curated by Velocity Artistic Director Tonya Lockyer with Tere O’Connor. Irreconcilability culminated in...
El Norte Speakeasy: Velocity’s NFNW 2014
Starting off Velocity’s Next Fest Northwest Festival, Speakeasy Series: El Norte started our conversation about the New West with a look to the Old West and to Mexican-American and Latino-American artists working in our community. Dance artists Nancy Blanco and Fausto Rivera hosted this performance, talk, and community conversation, with a film screening by Rodrigo Valenzuela. View the footage of the speakeasy event, and help us continue...
Who’s The Artist Now?
Tonya Lockyer (Velocity Artistic + Executive Director) originally published this essay in CityArts magazine. Our image of artists has changed radically throughout history. Today they’re often considered “creative entrepreneurs”—a model some people worry heralds the end of the artist entirely. It doesn’t. Bach considered himself an artisan, not an artist but a master craftsman. He was a problem-solver, famously commissioned by a count to compose variations...
Velocity’s TEDxRanier Talk: Mother, for you I made this.
Tonya Lockyer and Ezra Dickinson recently spoke at the TEDxRainer event Known/Unknown, representing Velocity Dance Center. Lockyer introduces and contextualizes Dickinson’s work Mother for you I Made this, honoring the emancipatory and community-building powers of dance. Part performance and part activism, Ezra Dickinson’s Mother for you I made this is aimed at activating a conversation about the failed mental health care system in America through memories of Dickinson’s childhood...