Artist // Speaker
I am so happy to that Cats Paying Dues and Syncopated City team up for an amazing night of immersive dance. Get up close and personal with two critically acclaimed companies presenting tap dance and lindy hop at their finest. Presented at Dance Manhattan this is sure to be an evening to be remembered.
Tickets are available online NOW.
After my two days at Wheaton College – talking at one point about the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship – I returned to the big city. Within two days I received two last minute cancelations. Not gigs that wouldn’t be happening (which would be bad), but rather folks who had confirmed their involvement in upcoming events were canceling. Both cancelations were for personal reasons and I totally understood – but they were also key roles. There’s nothing that could have changed the situation – I had to find subs. But wow, how do you fill in two key slots only a day or two before a big show? Would anyone be available? Who could I call? (Ghostbusters would not have been the right answer).
Well, I hopped on the phone and started calling. For everyone that I could reach, but couldn’t make the gig, I asked for referrals and recommendations. Going through my contacts list was even taking time I didn’t think I had. I now realize I need to build a short list with names and numbers and roles for moments like this. Well, I am indebted to a few people who made amazing referrals. Through their graciousness I was able to fill the roles needed, just in time, literally. Roller coaster ride done. Potential fire put out. Amazing.
Life happens. This isn’t stress. This is just what the job entails. Being a leader, building projects and bringing large scale productions to the stage, means handling many moving parts. Many of those moving parts are people, and people are important – dare I say more important than the actual work. Although through this particular situation there was a feeling of “I don’t know what’s going to happen” – it was more important for me to keep in the forefront of my mind that although work is a large part of life, it isn’t all of it. Personal things happen. It’s important to be there for the people, not just the work.
In the end everything went well. I even got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones.
Living to dance another day 🙂
Everything is in place, everyone is on the same page, and so today is a clear day. Well, as clear as it can be when you’re about to put on a show. Presented by the Center for Modern Dance Education, Echoes In Time arrives at Fair Lawn Community Center this Saturday!! A series of original pieces, tribute dances, and reconstructions of the signature works of legendary tap dance soloists, come see the works of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Gregory Hines, Henry LeTang, Chuck Green, Steve Condos, and many more come to life for an evening of live music, tap dance, and storytelling.
No, the rest of the song doesn’t apply just yet. This time I’m going simply to talk (and dance), for the folks at Wheaton College. I’ll be speaking not only at the chapel, but with some of the business entrepreneurs and music and dance students. I’m in the final preparations for my chapel talk and thought I’d share some thoughts about what I’ll be sharing.
An Achievement Oriented Society and LOVE
I’m most excited about talking about how Love can ease the perceived burden of an achievement oriented society. So many students suffer from pressures that are imposed by themselves, their families, and society at large, to do more, bigger, and better things. The ideal achievement becomes so prominent in ones life that it begins to intrude on the students’ identity, eventually fighting for attention with the very fuel of self-worth, love. Even instilling doubts and distortions leading to ideas like “I can’t say I love myself, unless I achieve this or that…”
I’m hoping to dive right into the fray and turn the model upside down. Love must come first.
LOVE as a fuel for Entrepreneurship
With the business students we will be talking about the ideas of service, sacrifice, and failure in the context of building businesses. How can Love shape their choices in terms of what businesses to build, but also how they go about building those businesses?
LOVE in the ensemble and in the body
For musicians and dancers proficiency is an undeniable necessity, but virtuosity can limit one’s ability to relate. For the musicians we’ll be talking about roles in the ensemble and how Love for the music AND the other players can provide a fundamental context of relatability. For the dancers we’ll be talking about how the dancer path is a reflection of sacrifice and embodiment and how those two concepts are fueled by and reflected in the greater idea of Love.
Center for Modern Dance Education Presents
Andrew J. Nemr and Cats Paying Dues
in
Echoes In Time
March 29th at 7:30pm
Fair Lawn Community Center
10-10 20th Street, Fair Lawn, New Jersey 07410
Tickets: $15 Advance, $20 at the door
Don’t miss an evening described as the “Complete journey of Tap” by the Daily Gazette, featuring signature works by recognized tap dance legends from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson to Gregory Hines.
Check out a video of the company in action here.
This performance was made possible by a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Arts.
ANNOUNCMENT: After an amazing launch to the Tap Into Freedom Webinar series we’ve decided to settle into a schedule of one webinar per month. Giving two live webinars back-to-back on brand new material is quite daunting, and a little taxing on the schedule for those wanting to attend. So, on the last Monday of ever month we’ll be coming together online to go down the rabbit hole – always with a guide and with an eye towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
A QUICK THANK YOU: I have to say a quick thank you to everyone who’s joined in on the calls thus far. Hailing from as far as Singapore, and some listening in even while at work (don’t worry, your secret is safe with me 🙂 ) – your attentiveness, thoughtful questions, and positive feedback has all been a great encouragement as I continue to collect these thoughts and formulate content for this series. So, Thank You!!! And I look forward to hearing you on the next call!!
Speaking of the next call, that would be March 31: Disequilibration – A Teaching Method – as always, it’s FREE.
As the winter fights to stay around here in the Northeastern United States, and I’m missing the rest of my hair, I’m reminded of the time I spent in the heat of the Dominican Republic. My trip included 11 days of traveling the country, sharing my story of life and love in tap dancing to so many different people. From charter schools in Santo Domingo and late night television shows, jazz clubs and the bateyes, cultural theaters and beach resorts, to a painted riverside village and a mountain village that hadn’t had power until 1998. Over the course of the trip I was often the first tap dancer my audience had ever seen and we struggled through our language barriers. However, by the end of each session, a bond of simple humanness was evident. We exchanged stories, dances, and language, and I came away a different person.
Special thanks to the Civil Innovation Lab for the their Civil Dialogues, of which this trip was a part.
We’re so happy to announce some great partnerships for the inaugural year of the NYC Tap Into Freedom Intensive. First and foremost is our venue partner. When you plan on spending over 50hrs somewhere it should be a cool place with good people, and that is exactly what Joria Productions is. A venue that evokes the vibe of Fazil’s (a well known rehearsal hall in midtown Manhattan that hosted the likes of the Copasetics, Gregory Hines, and Baby Laurence), with amazing old wood floors, Joria will indeed provide an awesome home for the Intensive. I like Joria so much that we had my own TED-ED lesson filmed there.
We’re also super excited to have Rubén Sánchez Dance Wear as a partner with Tap Into Freedom. Keep your eyes peeled for special offers from RSD regarding the Tap Into Freedom Intensive (think: scholarships). We’ll have more announcements, too (think: free shoes), but for right now, we’re happy to have Rubén Sánchez Dance Wear on our team!