YOGA at LAA

Lyme Art Association will be offering The Art of Yoga, an all-level gentle yoga class with a total relaxation focus. This six-week introductory series will introduce an eclectic blend of yoga flows and healing modalities that cultivate the "Ahhh Effect."  ALL are welcome, from anyage, stage or ability.  Relax your body while surrounded by the beautiful art on the gallery walls.  Laura Jean Kokoska, a registered nurse and certified Kundalini yoga instructor assures that these classes can be handled by all,  "This class will be fun, restorative, interactive, lighthearted, and not super-serious," Kokoska says and notes, "People are welcome to be intrasspective and contemplative.  This new offering at LAA will be held on Thursday evenings from 6:30 - 8pm starting on the first day of spring, March 20th, and running through April 24th.  The fee for the six-week course is $108.  For more information and to pre-register, please contact DNA yogi, Laura Jean at (860) 908-0960 or by email at dnayogi@gmail.com.

Happy Bards-Day!

April 23 will mark the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare.  Worldwide celebrations will be taking place to recognize the world's greatest playwright and poet.  Did you know that Shakespeare coined phrases that we use daily - phrases like a laughing stock, dead as a doornail, fair play, neither here nor there, in stitches and many more?  A prolific writer, the Bard authored 37 full plays, 3 poems and 154 sonnets full of characters,  themes, and plots still  relevant today.  If Stratford-on-Avon is not in your immediate travel plans there will be many opportunities locally to help celebrate this giant of literature.  The Blackstone Library in Branford has several special offerings in April that are open to the public, both as audience and as participants.  On Saturday, April 12 from 2 - 4pm, Shakesperience Productions, Inc. will bring a special theatrical presentation of The Tragedy of Macbeth.  The presentation is free but seating is limited. Reservations are a must.  Then beginning at 12:00 Noon on Friday, April 25 the first annual 24-hour marathon read of select works from Shakespeare kicks off.  It will continue through Noon on Saturday, April 26.  During the day (weather permitting) this is a picnic-friendly event featuring volunteers who will read plays and sonnets outside on the grounds of the Blackstone Library.  Bring your blankets, lawn chairs and picnic baskets and enjoy the open air renditions of some Shakespeare favorites.  Evening readings will take place in the library.  Readers are still needed.  Readers are asked to sign up in 15-minute increments.  Sign ups can be individually or as a group.  Costumes and props are not necessary but are welcome. Hint: Don't worry about pronunciation.  Just come and have fun!  Help bring Shakespeare's words into the voices, bodies and imaginations of our Shoreline community in this first annual round-the-clock reading marathon.  Click here to sign up. 

Illustration by Jonathan Aruny

Broadway Bound Theater Experience

 

 

Ages 8 to 15; $325 per two-week session
Monday – Friday, 9 am to 3 pm

This two-week program is for boys and girls ages 8-15 and gives your child the opportunity to experience every aspect of staging a musical with onstage and backstage roles for everyone – singing, dancing, acting, creating sets, and assembling costumes – all in just 10 days! These shows are abridged, fully-licensed presentations and over the past 13 years, CMS productions have included “Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Jr.,” “Cats,” “Seussical, Jr.,” and “Annie, Jr.” among others.
Students must be 8 years old by the first day of the program to be eligible for enrollment. Payment is due at the time of registration, which may be done online, by phone (860-767-0026), or in person (90 Main Street, Centerbrook).

Daily sessions run from 9 am to 3 pm. Participants will receive by mail a packet including all necessary forms and describing the lead role audition and role-assignment process, what to bring, etc.  Students must commit to and attend the full 2 weeks of the program. A $25 penalty for cancellations received prior to June 21st will be assessed. There will be NO REFUNDS OR CREDITS for cancellations received after June 21st. A limited number of scholarships are available, please download and complete the Summer 2014 Scholarship Application.

Broadway Bound East with Shari Wilcox: PETER PAN JR. July 7 – 18, 2014    Evening performance on 7/18 and matinee performance on 7/19: $325 per student Chester Meeting House, 4 Liberty Street, Chester, CT

Wendy Darling loves to tell stories to her brothers, Michael and John. But when her father announces she must move out of the nursery, Peter Pan comes to visit the children and whisks them away to Never Land. Their adventure introduces them to the Lost Boys, Mermaids, Indians and even the infamous pirate, Captain Hook!
Based on the Disney film and J.M. Barrie’s enchanting play, Disney’s Peter Pan JR. is a modern version of the timeless tale about a boy who wouldn’t grow up with no flying required! The score includes new arrangements of classic Disney songs, such as “Following the Leader,” “You Can Fly,” “The Second Star to the Right” and “Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me.” Listen to these magical songs here!

Broadway Bound West with Joni Gage: XANADU JR! - July 21 – Aug. 1, 2014    Performance on 8/1
$325 per student; Westbrook High School, 156 McVeagh Road, Westbrook, CT

It’s time to believe in magic with XANADU JR!
It’s 1980 and the magical and beautiful Greek muse, Kira (portrayed in the movie version by Olivia Newton John), descends from the heavens of Mt. Olympus to Venice Beach, California on a quest to inspire a struggling artist, Sonny, as he strives to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time – the first roller disco! But, when Kira falls into forbidden love with the mortal Sonny, her jealous sisters take advantage of the situation and chaos abounds.
This hilarious, musical adventure about following your dreams, rolls along with a hit score. With songs including, “Magic”, “All Over The World”, “Suddenly”, “I’m Alive”, “Evil Woman” and “Xanadu”, to name a few, this JR. title still has all the fun and excitement of the original production. Check out these sensational songs here!

It’s hilarity on wheels for children, adults and anyone who has ever wanted to feel inspired.  You’ll want to keep the music in your head, and XANADU JR! in your heart, forever.

Welcome Back Alumni!

Angle of Light by Terry Dagradi

Veggies by Ellen Hoverkamp

Shoreline Arts Alliance is excited to announce a new event held in conjunction with the 33rd annual IMAGES Photography competition and exhibition.  Some of our alumni photographers of the IMAGES program have donated photographs for a special auction evening preceding the opening of the IMAGES 2014 exhibition.  On Friday night, April 4 beginning at 6pm the public is invited to a sneak preview of the IMAGES 2014 exhibition and to participate in a silent and live auction of art from former award winning IMAGES photographers.  Join us at the Mill Gallery of the Guilford Art Center, 411 Church Street, Guilford.  This event is a wonderful opportunity for adding to your art collection or perhaps to start a fine art collection.  Many of the photographers who have generously donated their work to Shoreline Arts Alliance for this event have or have had work hung in prestigious galleries around the country including the White House.
Work will be presented by Eric Hummel, auctioneer for this special event.  Photographs include color, black & white, Polaroid, scanned images while embracing a wide variety of subject matter.  Photographers that have offered their work for auction, to date, include: Melanie Barocas Mayer, Christopher Beauchamp, Marion Belanger, Joseph Ciffarelli, Terry Dagradi, Joan Fitzsimmons, Robert Giannotti, Ellen Hoverkamp, Keith Johnson, Aaron Kotowski, Sean Kernan, Jack McConnell, Jan Murdock, Jerry Reed, Joanne Schmaltz, and Harold Shapiro. 

Many of the artists will be in attendance and guests will have an opportunity to meet them and learn about their work as photographers while you sip, snack and share in the photographic excellence of Connecticut artists.  The event is free and open to the public.

Find Your Voice

“When your soul is singing in joy then you know you are doing it right.” Abira Mukherjee

This spring there are many opportunities for you to work on your vocal skills, expand your repertoire, and work with professionals.

Wesleyan University Center for the Arts will be offering Living in Song residency with Dr. Nitanju Bolade Casel, Dr. M. Louise Rovinson and Dr. Shirley Mary Childress.  Each of the three workshops will have a specific focus and attendance at all sessions is strongly recommended.

The Vocal Movement Experience
: Dr. Nitanju Bolade Casel is a composer, dancer, cultural organizer, teacher, author, producer, arranger, and singer in the nationally acclaimed a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. "The Vocal Movement Experience" will focus on breath as the foundation for creating a unique vocal experience. Breathing is a common denominator inclusive of all humankind, regardlessliving of race, culture, age, gender, physical ability, or social status. Beginning with a basic physical warm-up and vocalizing exercises, participants will establish a repertoire of movement that will serve as the catalyst to create the sound. Each movement has at its core a breathing technique upon which a chorus of sound will be built.
The Rhythm Ring
: Dr. M. Louise Robinson is an actress, musician, composer, producer, arranger, author, teacher, and singer in the nationally acclaimed a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. "The Rhythm Ring" is for all who enjoy singing. The workshop will create a musical conversation in the oral tradition of call and response. Through poetry, spoken word, storytelling, rhythm, and harmony, participants will come together and sing songs of change, challenge, celebration, peace, protest, and triumph. All that is required is the desire to explore and play.


Songs in the Way of Hand: 
Dr. Shirley Mary Childress is a skilled professional sign language interpreter and teacher who has interpreted for such stellar writers as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, and is the sign language interpreter for the nationally acclaimed a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Songs in the Way of Hand invites people--deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing--to cultivate the art of signing songs in American Sign Language. Using demonstration, lecture and active group participation, the workshop will consider how music and singing is integral to the culture and lives of many people. Participants will develop techniques to help render visually the emotional, lyrical, and rhythmic nature of singing--culminating in an enhanced stage presence, and a conveyance of the total message of a song.
Each of these three simultaneous workshops are three days per week for three weeks. Attendance at all nine workshop sessions is preferred. Registration required, limited availability. Please call or visit the Wesleyan University Box Office at 860-685-3355. For more details, please e-mail boxoffice@wesleyan.edu.


Greater New Haven Community Chorus also has an exciting list of workshops happening this spring and into the early summer. All workshops in this series will require pre-registration in order to provide comfortable accomodations and have the necessary materials available on the evening of the workshop.  Participants who prefer not to register online with credit card information may send an email to info@gnhcc.org. Please include your name and the workshop(s) you wish to attend.  We will accept cash or a check made out to GNHCC for the member/non-member fee on the evening of the workshop at the check-in table.

Workshop I: Ritmica:  A Unique Approach to Rhythm is scheduled for April 2 at Hamden Middle School.

A great rhythm training opportunity for singers!
•    Develop a deeper concept of rhythm as a musical and choral element
•    Overcome arithmetical challenges and counting to something that is more melodic and intuitive
•    Explore the application of various types of rhythmic exercises
•    Increase your ability to concentrate while improving inner discipline
•    Improve your flexibility to feel rhythm and to internalize it in a deeper way

Chelsea Tinsler, workshop leader, has a wide variety of musical interests, having studied classical percussion, contemporary and chamber music, drum-set, steel drums, Brazilian percussion, jazz vibraphone, Middle Eastern frame drumming, and West African percussion. Chelsea freelances throughout the Connecticut area, including performances with the New Britain Symphony, Nutmeg Symphony, Valley Swing Shift Big Band, musical theater pit orchestras, and steel drum bands. She has also had the opportunity to play at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. In January 2013, Chelsea participated in a three-week residency in Ghana, Africa studying gyill, Kpanlogo, Kete, and Ewe drumming. She is the percussion manager for the Hartt Community Division’s Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble and Connecticut Youth Symphony, and previously served as the percussion ensemble director at the Renbrook School in West Hartford, Connecticut. Chelsea is currently completing her B.M. in percussion performance and music education at The Hartt School, University of Hartford as a student of Benjamin Toth. For information and additional workshops click here.

Shoreline Soul

Shoreline Soul is back after a one-year hiatus while Music Director, Angela Clemmons, was on tour with The Rascals.

“Shoreline Soul” is a community choral gospel workshop directed by professional jingle and background singer, Angela Clemmons, of Madison, CT. The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, Angela grew up singing and teaching gospel and wanted to share this uplifting, fun, spirited music on the Shoreline. Participants of all levels register for the five-week workshop, rehearsing on Monday nights for 2 hours. The five 2-hour workshop sessions will culminate in a hand-clapping, foot-stomping concert, where the participants perform the traditional and contemporary gospel songs they’ve learned at a free concert open to the public. Normally, there are two workshops per year, in the Spring and Fall at the First Congregational Church in Madison.

“Our weekly sessions are upbeat, fun and very user-friendly,” Angela says. “No one needs to know how to read music. All songs are taught by ear and everyone is given a practice CD. Because it’s all about the music and not a church service, we get singers from all faiths and even the faith-less. It works well. It’s amazing how much the choir learns and how confident they become in five short weeks, particularly when many have never sung gospel before.”

The spring workshops are on Monday evenings from 6:45 – 8:45pm at the First Congregational Church on the Green in Madison.  Dates are April 21, 28, May 5, 12, 19.  The concert will take place on Sunday, June 1.

If you’re interested in participating in a future Shoreline Soul gospel workshop, you may contact Angela at shorelinesoul@comcast.net or 203-245-6944.