Encounters: A student of mine

So I'm walking around the Tidal Basin, making my across the bridge which allows Independence Ave to span the north portion of the body of water, and I pass by a familiar face.

It's one of the high school students I indirectly worked with on a production of Annie, where I teach. I mean I technically teach dance at NCS, but because they have a joint performing arts program with St. Albans (where I went to high school myself, class of '99), I end up working with the boys at STA on musicals and the annual dance concert. Now when I run into students of mine, I'll simply refer to them as such until they graduate; this is partially because most of them are minors, and also to respect their families and the schools, with regards to privacy.

I asked him how school had been treating him and what he was working on. He let me know he'd be doing tech for the Spring play, The Laramie Project.

Events: Cherry Blossom Festival

Now I'm fortunate with my commute to school and work in that most often the quickest way from Southwest to the Cathedral area of DC involves driving around the Tidal Basin.

By foot, I'm only a 15 minute walk away...and that's what I decided to do today. I grabbed my phone (just in case, and it's not a smart phone...although I have issues with the implication of that term, but we'll talk about that next time), my camera, and my keys and headed out the door to check out the Cherry Blossom Festival.

I tweeted for

the first time from my phone, but I don't think it's going to become a habit, not yet anyway.

The cherry blossoms are supposed to hit peak bloom Friday and Saturday, but if today is any indication, I'm kinda glad I made time to go today because I'm sure it'll be much more crowded.

I kind of felt sorry for NPS, though, because despite clear signs and concrete barriers, not to mention a perfectly good gravel path that might've added no more

than a couple of minutes to one's walk, scores of people chose to walk across the green in places, probably not realizing that their very efforts to appreciate the trees was contributing to more compact soil which, over time, would actually harm the trees.

But I digress...personal path choices aside, it was really inspiring and comforting to see the array of people brought together by this gift from a Mayor in Tokyo, a gift that will see its first centennial in a couple of years. After taking this course at AU called Art, Community, and Diversity, I can't help but think of events like those and how they cultivate and redefine visitors sense of community, awareness of diversity, and all that jazz (thanks, Ali ;-) ). Kudos to our professor for that class, Suzan Jenkins, the Chief Executive Officer of the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, for really providing a space to explore what those meant and how they intersected for us. It's not exactly a class where you can give right answers, but rather a way to ask the right questions.

Politics, religion, class, culture, all the things

that I believe actually makes us stronger as a nation and as people in general, but unfortunately are often used to divide us, were momentarily put on hold as people went on a simple walk around, enjoying the cherry blossom trees.

Gotta love it :-)

Establishments: Arena Stage 2.0

I actually got enough sleep to go for a walk this morning. I woke up a little after 7:30am, heated up a little breakfast, and then walked around my neighborhood in Southwest.

Now I've been blessed to have parents which have let me stay with them as I've try to figure out what I'm doing with my life, from finishing at UMD, to taking on grad school. We're actually in the house I grew up in, and my dad let me move into the basement unit, with a separate entrance and kitchen.

The house is also a couple of blocks away from Arena Stage, which has been living vicariously in Crystal City and on U St while they've had their main space renovated and prepped for their 60th season.

Now, just in case you don't know, Arena Stage received a Tony in 1976, which was awarded to regional theatres for theatrical excellence. It was only the second outside of New York to receive it, and the first in the Washington, DC area. The only other theatre in the area to do so has been Signature Theatre in Arlington, and that was only last year, in 2009.

So this fall, Arena Stage's Mead Center for American Theater will open.

Should be interesting.

Encounters: Melinda E., Jeri M., & Aaron R.

I'm trying to leave this Artists' Bloc event we have at Woolly Mammoth (I'm Membership Director, for the former organization, not the latter) as the audience for Woolly's main stage production, Clybourne Park, is leaving; and I run into three theatre professionals/friends whom I've worked with over the years in various capacities, Malinda Ellerman, Jeri Marshall, & Aaron Reeder.

I say I'm trying to leave because I had been saying goodbye's for the previous 10 minutes and finally. But I shouldn't be surprised running into them, I suppose...I mean, that's how much of a community there is in DC, when you've worked in the area for any number of years.

Malinda...I think we might've actually met doing Summer Dinner Theatre at Montgomery College about 7 or 8 years ago. Our paths crossed again in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, when I transferred to UMD as a Dance major; she was a Theatre major.

UMD is also where I happened to meet Jeri, who I worked with a couple of years ago at the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater, which produces and presents "live performances for young audiences" in the DC area. I was Assistant Director for a show she was cast in, Going the Distance, a piece about Jesse Owens and Wilma Glodean Rudolph.

Aaron...I'm not actually sure how we met initially, but we got to work together on what was my last professional theatre gig before I started grad school, Jerry Springer: The Opera, at Studio Theatre, summer of '08.

Aaron has been performing with the Washington National Opera, for a number of season and is currently in their production of Porgy & Bess, which closes this weekend. Jeri is working on something with the Maryland Shakespeare Festival (I believe); and Malinda is performing with the St. Mark's Players in a production of Oliver! coming up in May, where she is playing Nancy.

That's the awesome but sometimes frustrating thing about all the awesome work that's being done in and around this area. There's a lot of it, but only so much time and money one has to go out and support it, particularly the friends and professional acquaintances you make over the years. Can't hurt to try and catch 'em all, though, right?!

(And yes, if you picked up on a Pokemon reference, that was intentional...I'm so ashamed...)

Experiences: Art & Community Advocacy in Dupont

So I'm walking through Dupont Circle w/ Sam and this guy has a digital camera on a tripod set up opposite from this easel, and has a cardboard sign underneath the canvas simply saying "Please Paint".

We had just grabbed some food from Firehook and decided to sit outside and eat in the circle when we came across this...work in progress.

Let me add a little context...I'm currently working on my M.A. in Arts Management, from American University. And even though my focus is in the performing arts, particularly dance, I can rarely observe art now without looking at it through this additional lens, a metaphor I've come to incorporate into my own vernacular courtesy of various teachers in the program over the past couple of years.

So I'm watching this guy and his easel and his cardboard sign, and observing the people coming up. At first, Sam and I actually where wondering who the artist was, which should have been a sign how neat this art/social experiment was.

It didn't click until I heard some of the people annotate their contributions with comments about how they have little to no artistic skill whatsoever. It reminded me of comments friends and acquaintances of mine make when they're out on the dance floor with me and almost seem to disregard their own ability to groove in my presence, simply because I do it for "a living".

What was great was while they were disvaluing their own creative abilities, they were simultaneously indulging in and cultivating it.

While eating our Firehook fare, we hadn't really been in view of the canvas. As we got up to leave the circle and continue on with our day, we got a good view, and Sam got some pictures, of it.

Now I realize I'm probably over-analyzing it, but not only had this work been cultivating the creativity of pedestrians who happened to pass through the circle, but the piece in and of itself was a bit of a historical document at the same time, capturing the contributions of people who might not have ever met, and possibly never will, except by way of their amateur contributions, painting on this canvas an artist set up, a painting he might not have ever touched himself.

What a great way to cultivate creativity in people who constantly see art exported to "professionals" on and exploited by reality shows. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the way So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew advocate for dance to audiences that might not ever experience it, but at the same time they contribute to the artist-audience divide which negates the artistic potential everyone has to express themselves.

And in a world where the years between generations is getting shorter, and people are defining themselves more and more by communities of choice rather than of fate, what a neat anomaly that just makes you think about it all, how we relate to each other and the intersection of the individual and the group, for a moment.

Encounters: Dionne A.

So just when I think I couldn't be farther away from running into someone, I'm in the lobby of the Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf (in San Francisco, and it has a Fan Page if you're on FB), and run into Dionne!!

She's an actor from DC and I just ran into her in a hotel lobby on the West Coast!! Just when you think the world can't get any smaller, right?!

I met her at some theatre event or another in the past several years...the Helen Hayes Awards, I believe. I haven't had the pleasure of working with her, yet, but all in good time. Apparently she was in SF for the day, doing some kind of training workshop. Between the ADHD and the 7 kids I'd been charged with not losing during the course of the trip, I unfortunately heard but didn't listen enough to commit the information to memory.

Although DC's got the 2nd largest theatre scene in the country, right after New York City and only recently before Chicago, it's definitely a small community if you're the type of independent performer who diversifies their income streams by working at various organizations. :-)

Encounters: Michael H.

Ran into Michael H. in the wee hours of the morning, at Reagan National Airport.

I was helping to round up about 80 high school students from National Cathedral School & St. Albans (where I teach Dance) at about 5:30am, for a chorale trip to San Francisco. I know, what was I thinking!! I kid, of course; I love being their teacher.

Anyway, we're getting ready to herd the first wave of kids through security, and I see Michael walking by me, apparently on his way to Florida. We met when I sang with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington for several concerts a couple of years ago or so.

Michael's pretty involved in the arts community and sector in the area. Now in addition to singing with GMCW as well, I'm not sure if he was at the time, but he is a member of the organization's Board of Directors.

He is also the Director of External Relations for the Washington Ballet and an adjunct professor for George Mason University's Arts Management program. If you've ever gone to a Washington Ballet performance, chances are you've said hi to Michael. And if you haven't, you should. He's a nice guy.

There is no J Street

Okay, so my experience with J Street actually started with my brief tenure at GWU as a Dramatic Lit major. Even though I'd been born and raised in DC, I'd never thought about the fact that there is no J Street, as far as a street. There is a nonprofit advocacy group by that name and just to be sure, there is no affiliation between this blog/myself and that.

That being said, I was actually inspired by an up & coming personality in the DC area who chose another street to identify with. Albeit it's a more infamous street, it is by far not representative or related to my own experiences as a DC native.

So why a street that doesn't exist? Well, having gone by JR since middle school, J Street JR just had a nice ring to it, especially with the alliteration.

But what better metaphor for the side of DC that might not be as well known nationally or internationally than a street that is technically nonexistent? Much like the blank rune (which itself doesn't exist traditionally), J Street as a concept literally exists nowhere and therefore can philosophically exist everywhere at the same time.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :-)

- J Street JR

P.S. Yes, the title of this blog entry is a Matrix reference :-)