Island Moving Co.'s 'Open for Dancing' Festival Continues Through Weekend

Newport’s presents Open for Dancing 2011, September 21-25, 2011. The company’s biennial festival of Newport’s historic landscapes through site-specific dance is back for the fifth time, featuring three choreographers working in diverse landscapes. This celebration brings together musicians, choreographers, professional dancers, and dancers from the community to create dances for prominent Newport landscapes. Participant spaces are still open.  The Festival also includes five days of presentations, classes and events open to the public.

Open for Dancing events, including master classes, daily Qi Gong at Purgatory Chasm, daily lunch with the artists, rehearsals at the sites, and a panel discussion about site-specific work, are all open to the public. Complete schedules are available at www.islandmovingco.org. 

During the first three days of the Festival, the morning’s events begin with a free Qi Gong class at 8am each day at Purgatory Chasm, followed by a yoga class taught by Liz Lindh at Ballard Park ($10).  The three Festival choreographers, Marta Renzi, Zach Morris and Christine Sandorfi, will each teach a master class at 10am at the Island Moving Co. studio at 3 Charles Street.  The cost for the master class is $15.  Master classes are geared for the non-professional mover and open to all.   Lunch with each of the choreographers follows their master class, at their site.  (Lunch is not provided).  Friday evening at 7pm the public is invited to a free artists panel discussion at the Island Moving Co. studios, moderated by Bob Rizzo. 

On the Festival weekend, September 24^th and 25^th, Qi Gong at Purgatory Chasm at 8am continues and there will be a free yoga class in Queen Anne Square at 9am Saturday and Sunday, taught by Maureen Harrison.  Patrons are asked to make a donation for the class.  At noon each day, Philadelphia dance troupe Green Chair takes off from the Square for movement improvisations throughout downtown Newport.  At 2pm on Sunday afternoon, Villari’s Martial Arts presents a demonstration in Queen Anne Square.

Thanks to sponsorship of Open for Dancing by the National Endowment for the Arts, the performances at the three sites, between 2 & 5 on September 24^th & 25^th  are free.  Other sponsors of Open for Dancing include the Beveridge Foundation, the Prism Foundation, Susan Ruf and Michael Walsh and TJ Brown Landscaping.  For complete and updated schedules and more information about the festival call 401 847-4470 or visit www.islandmovingco.org.  Click on the Open for Dancing 2011 tab at the bottom of the page.

Open for Dancing 2011 includes O4D 2.0, an initiative to engage far flung audiences in the creative energy of the Festival.  Participants will be asked to blog and tweet, using hashtag #O4D11.  Video filmed during the three hectic days of creating the works will be posted, as well as interviews with the artists and participants.  The Festival is being filmed for a feature length production by Newport’s Rocco Michaluk of Video & Vision.  Production costs will be underwritten through a Kickstarter campaign now underway at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rifilm/a-sense-of-place-open-for-dancing-2011-documentary?ref=live.