Contrapose Dance Performance at SSU

A new twist on classic ballet

The performance began; five dancers sat on the edge of two benches placed in the center of the floor, waiting. As the music started, they moved gracefully, dancing on and around the benches. The Director of the Contrapose Dance Company, Courtney Peix, later told the audience that the dance represented the idea of staying in one’s comfort zone, with the bench symbolizing the dancers’ home.

Five other pieces were performed on April 2^nd, and no two dances were alike. The second dance was a couples Spanish-themed one, the third, a solo choreographed by Marcus Schulkind. The fourth piece,  titled “From Dusk Till Dawn,” created a soft, light mood, while the fifth performance mixed sporadic and slow movements, creating a tense mood. “This dance,” Peix said of the fifth, “plays with the theme of cleanliness and peoples’ obsession with sanitation.” One of the dancers commented that the intimate nature of the choreography contrasted with that theme but also added to it. The last dance, choreographed by David Parker, incorporated acting in the dancing. Each of the seven dancers took on a specific character through his or her movements, and gave the audience a rather comedic performance.

The dance style of the performance was mostly contemporary ballet, sprinkled with hints of modern dance and the styles of some of the dancers’ personal backgrounds. Each choreographer was hired for a week at a time to teach each dancer his or her piece. The dancers rehearsed four to five hours a day for the entire week. After the choreographer’s time ended, Peix had to keep rehearsals going to “clean” the dances, but refrained from changing the dance too much to prevent altering the choreographer’s intentions.

At the end of the performance, the seven dancers were brought out on stage to answer questions about the pieces and their experiences working in the company. Each one admitted to certain difficulties in performing dances from separate choreographers, especially since the dancers had mixed dance backgrounds. Some of them had been trained only in classical ballet or modern dance. One dancer was most familiar with hip-hop. Finding the balance between bringing all those styles together and keeping each choreographer’s artistic style and vision are what formed the Contrapose Dance Company and what differentiates it from other companies.

Contrapose dance brings fresh movements and opportunities to ballet, while still maintaining the classic technique expected from any ballet dancer to make for a very entertaining and exciting performance for the audience as well as the dancers.

Contributor’s Note: Kimberly Yennaco has been taking many types of dance classes for fifteen years, including classical ballet. She still tries to attend ballet classes on a weekly basis.

Tags: art, Contrapose Dance Performance, dance, salem, salem state university

A Confluence of Music and Poetry

The Spring 2012 Writer’s Series continues with Salem State professors J. D. Scrimgeour and Philip Swanson and a musical medium for presenting poetry

On Thursday, March 22, an enthusiastic crowd gathered in the Recital Hall of Central Campus to see the poetic performance by Confluence. As its name suggests, this group is a merging of two different forms – music and poetry. This second Writer’s Series event of the semester was sponsored by the Salem State Center for Creative and Performing Arts.

Confluence started at a Center for Creative and Performing Arts meeting, according to J. D. Scrimgeour, an English professor at Salem State University and the poet of the duo. The piano and trombone accompaniment was performed by the other member of the group, Philip Swanson, an associate music professor at Salem State. Scrimgeour explains, “Phil and I got our students to collaborate and we decided to do it, too.” Their collaboration resulted in the CD Ogunquit & Other Works: Spoken Poetry with Piano and Trombone Accompaniment.

The performance started with Scrimgeour reciting the poem “For Langston” without musical accompaniment and then repeated the poem with Swanson playing the piano to show the audience the difference between the presentations. Both were enjoyable, but having the piano added intensity and set the mood throughout all of the pieces that were presented. The poem by Langston Hughes, who brought blues to poetry,  inspired Scrimgeour.

Also performing at the Confluence event were some of Swanson and Scrimgeour’s students, chosen for their skills and performance abilities. The first was a group of three students, with Steve Lacey playing the guitar, Zach Bridges playing the bass, and Briana Paquin reciting poetry to their music. Paquin’s voice matched the melody of Lacey’s and Bridges’s instruments, giving the performance a truly artistic quality.

The other student to perform was J. D. Debski, who performed a piece that was part song and part poem which he referred to as a “hybrid beast.” This was a wonderful approach to the performance. He started by singing and then, without missing a beat on his guitar, recited poetry. The difference was just as effective as that of music versus no music with the pure poetry recitals.

Scrimgeour and Swanson wrapped up the performance with the premier of their narrative poem, “The Baby,” which is about a Greek woman named Ianthe and her family who are from the village of Karea and relocate to the United States. The narrative was broken up in fifteen parts outlined in the program. Some of these parts had musical accompaniment and others did not, using the contrast to make the poem more interesting and putting emphasis on the dramatic accompanied parts.

When they had finished, the duo left the stage to an much applause from the audience.

The last Writer’s Series event of the semester will take place on Friday, April 6 at 7:30 pm in the Veterans Hall at the Ellison Campus Center with performance poet Anis Mojgani.

Contributor’s Note: Sandy Sprague was reminded of performing in Chorus in middle and high school and must say she did enjoy the applause that she and her classmates received from the audience, even if it was mostly parents. Singing isn’t her thing but perhaps there is something to think about in musical poetry presentations.

Top Ten Fools of 2011

Every year there are people we talk about in every day conversation, some with admiration and some with lust, but those are the positive conversations—a mild attempt at nurturing our well being; much more than the characters who dominate our small talk. Of course, with these people the talk must be small. Each exchanged word about them crushes a little hard-earned happiness inside; however, the good thing is that they exist and we can learn from their follies, even if they are forever associated with the word FOOL:

TOP TEN FOOLS

Late 2011- Early 2011

10. Red Sox 2011 Season : The Bubonic Plague resurges; it wasn’t their fault—except for that whole consistent losing streak thing.

9. Kim Kardashian : You know what I’m saying…she is only a fool if her seventy-two-page book doesn’t come out by the end of the year. So far, slacking. We feel bad for Kris Humphries and his simple soul. And it is quite a waste of time discussing the delirious men Kim can lure with her pheromone breath, smelling sultry, like baby oil

8. Donald Trump: OK Obama‘s birth certificate scandal really happened—why the need for attention? Enjoy your life: channel your mid-to-late-life detective energy into snorkeling on the coast of pristine beaches, or satisfy your attention-getting needs by funding schools in Africa! It’s all about time management, prioritizing, dreaming…

7. Mystery Smoker at Salem State: You. Yeah you. I saw you. We all did. Yup, there are eyes on you buddy: administrators’ eyes, students’ eyes, your own third-eye…

6. Lindsay Lohan: If you could stop being such a fool, the world would feel a tiny black hole appear in their hearts. You provide us with endless entertainment, but I fear your new face, obliterated by plastic surgery, has come to us worse than death. When people don’t recognize you, you will know, you left us like a hero

5. Rick Santorum: Please do not become president, as that would anger a lot of people in America, specifically the ones who have sex.

4. Mitt Romney: According to an article by Steve Broder in “The American Prospect” Mitt Romney’s net worth is equal to 2,600 of us, average Americans—a potential Romney cartel

3. George Clooney: I only put him here because it makes me think of his sexy face. But now, take that sexy face and make it president. I laugh hysterically for hours, because I know he would be able to throw the most dapper parties and say the most charming things to China and Israel, really, even South America would jive with him—the world would be a sexier place! And then the obvious: being president would put him in danger of being another JFK—the curse ofpresidential sex appeal. America cannot take tragedy like that. Not right now, our hearts, Clooney, our tender hearts.

2. Whitney Houston: I mean… April Fools! She is/was too great. Rest in Peace.

1. Winter 2011-2012: You let us walk all over you in clean boots—and now its springtime, fool.

 

By Jackie West

Inspired Fiction at the Semester’s First Writer’s Series Event

By Kimberly Yennaco and Sandy Sprague

On Thursday, February 23, the Creative Writing department of Salem State University held the first Writer’s Series Event of the semester. Writers Matthew Salesses and Margot Livesey shared excerpts from their fiction with the crowd in Marsh Hall.

Matthew Salleses reads from "The Last Repatriate" at Salem State's Marsh Hall.

Matthew Salesses began the event by reading from his latest novella, The Last Repatriate, a post-Korean War story about Teddy Dickerson, a POW returned to America, and his personal and political struggles to re-adapt to life after the war. Salesses chose to read a romantic scene between the main character and his wife Kate.

Inspired by a true story, Salesses originally wrote The Last Repatriate as a screenplay with hopes of turning it into a movie. Writing a screenplay, Salesses said, is very “formulaic” and he wanted to avoid that formula when transitioning the story into a novella. “[The story] is so large and has such a movie-like arc, and it’s based on true events,” he explained, “There’s no way I wasn’t going to write about it. I still think it would make a great movie!”

Writing has been Salesses’s means of self-expression since childhood. He often felt like an outcast because he was a minority in a predominantly white environment. He was and still is an avid reader, telling the audience that he always loved The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper and described F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as one of few “perfect” novels.Salesses currently writes and edits fiction for The Good Men Project Magazine, a social movement from the front lines of modern manhood. His advice for editing others’ work is to make changes based on the author’s intent instead of inserting changes he would have made himself. He encourages students involved in writing workshops to respect the writer’s voice. Salesses mentioned his experience being a student of Margot Livesey, the other author of the event. Salesses tells the audience, “she can see into what you are trying to do and guide you there.”

Margot Livesey reads from her novel "The Flight of Gemma Hardy."

Margot Livesey came to the podium next and read from The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre which Livesey had first read when she was only nine.

“There are a number of personal reasons I identified with Jane Eyre,” Livesey explained as her reason for rewriting the classic. The Flight of Gemma Hardy is essentially her “writing back” to Charlotte Brontë.

Livesey said about writing that “many writers have speech impediments and need a way to communicate. Writing is a more successful way.” When asked if she had to be careful about language, Livesey admits that because American English and her native Scottish English are different, she did have to focus on how she wrote. She focused on language so she could “catch the cadences of Americans without offending anyone.”

Matthew Salesses and Margot Livesey with Vanessa Ramos, the coordinator for Salem State's Writer's Series.

Both authors agree that writing is an important way of communicating with others and an effective method of expressing oneself. Livesey told us that writing is like “an intersection between your private occupations and what is publicly interesting.”

 

 

 

 

 

The next Writer’s Series event will take place on Thursday, March 22 at 7:30 pm in the Recital Hall with Philip Swanson and Salem State’s own J. D. Scrimgeour!

Photos courtesy of Professor Rod Kessler

 

CONTRIBUTORS’ NOTES: Kimberly Yennaco is an English major at SSU with a concentration in Professional Writing. With the rate at which she buys novels from Barnes & Noble, they might as well just start taxing her paycheck every week.

Sandy Sprague loves reading so much that, whenever she finds herself at a bookstore with a full wallet, it never seems to be as heavy coming out of the store as it is going in. Perhaps in all this merchandise lies inspiration for the novel that will make her rich and famous one day.

Harmony of East and West

Artist Thomas Matsuda Harmonizes East and West through sculptures and drawings at the Winfisky Gallery

 By Shane Harty

On January 25^th, Salem State University welcomed artist Thomas Matsuda to speak before his reception at the Winfisky Gallery. One of Matsuda’s goals as an artist is to synthesize eastern and western philosophies. Any Salem State history major or Peabody Essex Museum visitor can tell you that Salem has played a part in bringing the east and west together in the past.

Early in our country’s history, the port of Salem was the first American city to start maritime trade with China, India, and later, Japan. Through trade, many New Englanders began to take an interest in the philosophies of the east. Memorable minds like Emerson and Thoreau were studying the Asian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism as early as the 1840’s.Through this gallery, Salem has been able to bring the east and west together again. Salem State art Professor Ken Reker coordinated the exhibit and arranged Matsuda’s lecture and reception.

Thomas Matsuda was born in New England and studied at Pratt University. He spent 12 years in Japan apprenticing under the Japanese sculptor Koukei Eri. Matsuda carves  wood and stone and has produced more than 200 sculptures! His work is inspired by eastern philosophy, but not all of his work represents images of the Buddha, like the burned wood sculptures titled “Purification” on display in the Winfisky gallery, as well as the 2-dimensional works of charcoal lining the gallery walls.

Matsuda resides in Massachusetts, and the art on display was created at the New England Peace Pagoda in Leverett Massachusetts on August 9, 2010 (the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki). The pagoda is dedicated to the realization of universal peace on earth.

Matsuda was very pleased with the student outcome that appeared at his lecture and reception. After his lecture, I talked to Thomas Matsuda about his art and his process of creating. His way of creating art through meditation and letting go of “the ego” is admirable. I asked if he thought that creating art this way was the way of the true artist, and he humbly answered that there are many ways to create art and that this is just his way. We discussed how incredible creating art with fire is, like Matsuda’s own burnt wood sculptures. I informed him that Salem State has its own glassblowing studio, which he found intriguing.

If you haven’t seen Thomas Matsuda’s exhibit at the Winfisky gallery, it is on display until February 16^th at the SSU Ellison Campus Center. Or, you can look on his personal website to view some of his other works.

Contributor’s Note: Shane Harty started his educational career as a Graphic Design student at Salem State before switching to Philosophy of Art & Culture with a minor in Professional Writing. Like Thomas Matsuda, Shane is also inspired by eastern philosophy when creating art.

Tags: art, harty, matsuda, shane, thomas

Occupy Boston

 “We are the 99%, and so are you!” Occupy Boston Exclaims.

Salem State‘s Tashima Gallant Occupies, “Dies,” with Occupy Movements

By: Tashima Gallant

On the cool Halloween morning of October 31^st, I stepped out of Park Street Station in Boston, trudging down the commons, toward a gazebo filled with young zombies. Hundreds of students surrounded the gazebo, toting signs demanding equality in all forms – social, economic and otherwise.

I should have been in class, but I, along with many other Boston area students and faculty, participated in a walk of solidarity with the Occupy Boston movement. We were protesting the current misappropriation of funds and lack of opportunity within higher education with a march from the gazebo in the Commons to Dewey Square, dressed as zombie bankers. As we marched, we asserted one fact: “We are the 99%, and so are you!”

If you happen to be living under a rock, or in a tent for a reason other than protest, then you may not know that hundreds of people locally, thousands nationally, and tens of thousands internationally, have been ‘occupying’ (camping out at) public areas in cities in order to protest the unequal distribution of our nation’s economic and social resources. The movement continues without a clear leader, because majority “leaders” are identified as part of the problem.  The ‘occupiers’ identify themselves and everyone around them as comprising the 99%. This is in regards to the idea that the nation’s wealthiest 1% has a major advantage in regards to the distribution of resources and power, while the remaining 99% seem to end up with whatever is left. This has been the uniting message for many in the movement.

The movement in the United States started with a group who decided that they wanted to ‘Occupy Wall Street’, camping out behind New York City’s Federal Reserve Building in Zucotti Park. The movement spread like wild-fire. Occupations have sprung up in Denver, Austin, Nashville, and locally here in Boston. People started camping out in public parks, on court house steps and other areas considered ‘public’ property, and continue to be well within their rights to do so. The implication of public property is that it’s property owned by the taxpaying public, after all.

Along the march to Dewey Square, supporters of Occupy Boston paused for a moment of silence for Scott Olsen (see sidebar), followed by a moment of rage. A woman at the head of the protest urged us show our outrage on Scott Olsen’s behalf, and we all did. Also along the route, we stopped at Emerson College President Lee Pelton’s 4.5 million dollar mansion, recently purchased for him by the college. We stopped at two more million dollar homes, Senator John Kerry’s in Louisburg Square, followed by Northeastern University’s president’s Joseph Aoun’s residence.

Everyone took a knee or sat each time we stopped. At each college president’s residence, students from that college or university spoke from the front of the march to let their voices be heard. Each and every one of their words was repeated by our whole group. This is the precedent for communication set by the Occupy movement: one person speaks; everyone repeats it so everyone can hear it, and we all listen. I find repeating the words actually ensures you are listening and that you heard and understood them on a deeper level. We asserted “Education is a right, not just for the rich and white!”

As we marched, we flooded the streets. “Whose streets?” we asked. “Our streets!” we affirmed. While dodging police motorcycles and bicycles that attempted to run into us and run us off of the road, we marched on, strangers screaming in unison, and I have never felt as safe or as empowered with the fact that I was actually doing something to benefit society. Protestors shouted in unison, passing store fronts and urging them to join us, “Out of the stores, and into the streets!”

At the end of the march was a stop at the Federal Reserve near Dewey Square; ground zero for the Occupation in Boston. Here, we all symbolically died, illustrating how corporations and capitalism are killing the 99% without any power or wealth in our society. We screamed at the doors of the reserve, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” This referred to former President George W. Bush’s  bailout for big banks such as Bank of America (aptly renamed Bank of Debt by occupiers).  There were no specific guidelines given for the allocation of the funds given by the government to the bank, so much of it went to cushion executive’s pockets rather than providing low-interest loans for average Americans.

After a long day of marching and “dying” multiple times, we headed back to the Dewey Street camp.  The camp, though it resembles a commune, actually has a First Aid tent, information tent, thrift store, donations tent, and more. It is much like a small society where people work together for the benefit of one another. Here is a society governed for the people by the people. There would be a general assembly that night, as there was every night, at 7pm. Most Occupations have this assembly, where everyone’s voice is heard, and any issue, large or small, is broached. A vote on the issue is taken and a consensus is reached. Many Occupiers have said, “This is what democracy looks like!”

As for the future of this movement, there is a Summit for Occupy Boston supporters on November 19 from 2-6pm at the Quincy School located at 885 Washington Street in Chinatown.

Contributor’s Note:  Tashima Gallant is an avid supporter of civil disobedience. Ms. Gallant affiliates herself with no group, corporation, religious sect, nor political party. She is known to enact social change while social networking. She also pays her taxes.

Tags: bostont, Occupy, protest

Characters and Inspiration Run Free at Writer’s Series Event

Characters and Inspiration
Run Free at Writer’s Series Event

Kate Racculia & Joe Salvatore (’92)
bring fiction to life through universal inspiration

By: Sandy Sprague

On Thursday, November 10^th, the Salem State English Department held their fourth Writers Series event of the year. Hosted by Vanessa Ramos and the Creative Writing Program, the Series introduced authors Kate Racculia and Joe Salvatore this time around.

Kate Racculia started with a brief visual presentation of the things that have inspired her most: postcards. She shared scribbles on the back of a postcard about picking up a wedding dress; a picture of Sylvan Beach, New York where Racculia spent significant time reading, writing, and collecting postcards; a photo of Ocean City, New Jersey, which was dubbed the main inspiration behind Racculia’s recently published novel, This Must Be the Place.

This novel was one of the pieces Racculia chose to read from at the Writer’s Series event, explaining, “It’s the story of my life, but it is in no way autobiographical.” Racculia also read from her current work-in-progress, which she describes as “a murder mystery, a ghost story, and a musical.”

As for her writing, Racculia admitted, “I plan plot and let the characters surprise me.” She found her passion for writing during her senior thesis requirement at the University of Buffalo. Despite the fact she was studying illustration and design, she decided to write stories for the project. During this process, she ended up discovering her love of writing. “Writing is my life,” she told the audience.

Following Racculia was Salem State alum Joe Salvatore, ‘92, reading from his newly published book To Assume a Pleasing Shape, a collection of short stories.  As one may have guessed by the title, the characters in Salvatore’s book are highly concerned with their physical appearance. The first selection that Salvatore shared was called “Reduction” in which the unnamed woman was contemplating having breast surgery. He claimed to have left both protagonists unnamed intentionally because their “interior life” was what was important. “I invaded enough into their lives. It’s the least I could do for them.”

When asked if the local area gave him inspiration, Salvatore responded affirmatively, mentioning how he enjoyed the historical aspects of Salem and how Marblehead is the setting of many of the scenes he wrote.

Following Salvatore’s descriptive sex scene, the room was filled with the kind of laughter that an uncomfortable situation often brings from even mature listeners. The floor was then opened up for questions from the curious audience, interested to know Racculia’s and Salvatore’s writing strategies.

One audience member asked if the authors followed the stereotypical image of a writer in a coffee shop. Racculia eagerly explained how she went to Diesel Café for coffee and turkey sandwiches. “I wouldn’t even connect my Wi Fi,” she explained concerning possible distractions. Salvatore, on the other hand, stays home and has his coffee with walnuts, writing in the morning and revising in the evening.

Both writers also affirmed their belief in the importance of writing as a means of discovering oneself. The excitement was clear in Racculia as she talked about how writing has influenced her life. “Inspiration comes from everywhere!” she exclaimed.

The Fall Writers Series wraps up on Monday, December 5th at 11AM in Vet’s Hall for the Undergraduate Reading. Hope to see you there!

Contributor’s Note: Sandy Sprague is from the little historic town of Marblehead where there are plenty of coffee shops to write in. She owns postcards from half the country and will not turn away any donations for road trips.

Tags: Joe Salvatore, Kate Racculia