SFDI ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Joe Goode
SFDI ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: JOE GOODE “To make something, to build something, is not just exerting the force of your skill and intelligence upon the world. It is also a process of looking inward, of gaining new perspective, of inhabiting your life in a more deliberate way. This can be powerful and transformative.” – Joe Goode JOE GOODE makes dances to survive. In his own words, creating dances has been...
Gearshift
Tonya Lockyer (Velocity’s Artistic Executive Director, Co-Chair Capitol Hill Arts District) talks about how to build and preserve the arts on Capitol Hill. Her presentation was part of Gearshift, Capitol Hill Housing’s annual community forum, held on May 26th, 2016.
Alice Gosti: Bodies of Water
Alice Gosti’s Bodies of Water was a 5-hour spectacle and community gathering on the Seattle Waterfront co-produced by Velocity and Friends of Waterfront Seattle. Read Gosti’s poetic statement about the source of her ambitious work about Seattle’s relationship to its waters and immigration. Read the full program here . Bodies of Water Program PDF Relevant Links: When Coming Home is an Art You Haven’t Mastered Yet – Imana Farahiya Gunawan Bodies...
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...
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...
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...
Seattle Dances the Dream
Collaboration. Inclusiveness. Harmony. These are some of the messages of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. To commemorate the speech’s 50th anniversary and help the next generation understand its continued importance, filmmaker Richard Karz has produced The Dream@50 events, including Dance the Dream performances, in more than 30 cities worldwide over the past 14 months....
Advocacy / Context: Velocity / Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI) / Speakeasies / VELOCI.tv
Beyond the Ephemerality of Dance
Velocity Dance Center is working to make the 2015 Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation the world’s first carbon-neutral dance festival. The incredible lightning talk given by Kidd Pivot dancer and SFDI 2014 faculty member Eric Beauchesne inspired this goal. Read the transcript of the speech below. The SFDI Lighting Talks are part of an annual conversation series curated by Tonya Lockyer. We bend our knees, we...
Dinosaurs and Sea Hawks
Inspired by Ezra Dickinson’s “Mother for you I made this” which was supported and produced by Velocity’s Made In Seattle program 2013. Director: Linas Phillips Principal Cast: Linas Phillips, Ezra Dickinson, Melinda Frazier Premiere Status: World Premiere Country: USA Year: 2014
What Velocity Wants To See in an Arts District
This Fall Velocity hosted a Community Forum on sustainability. Participants shared ideas about how to sustain our creative communities economically, socially, and environmentally. I thought the conversation would come down to artists lamenting their lack of financial resources. But to my surprise they identified the biggest challenge to their sustainability, as how their work as artists, was not valued by society—and how they internalize that lack of...
About Being a Queer Artist
I dance because language has failed me. There are no words for how I feel. There are no words that can describe this experience. As social creatures, we want nothing more than to be seen for who we are, and have our identities validated. Everything I read about the trans experience, whether written by a trans or cis person, feels problematic. Words are caught in referential structures....