Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
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Philadanco Tickets for HAT Co Dancers
Thanks to Tickets for Kids for the free tickets to the performance!
More Horton – For HAT Co Dancers
Staycee Pearl’s HAT Co dancers should read this description of Lester Horton and his technique; and watch these two videos. The first shows a Horton warmup. The second is from a piece called “Beloved,” choreographed by Horton and filmed in 1962. It features Carmen de Lavallade and James Truitte. The dance is based on “a macabre tale of a religious fanatic who falsely suspects his wife of infidelity and murders her.” The influence for the dance came from a newspaper article Horton read about a man who bludgeoned his wife to death with a bible because he thought she had been unfaithful.
Pastoral Message, September 2009
Who taught you how to drive a car? My father first put me behind the wheel of a pickup truck and had me drive around a field while he put bales of hay in the back. My brother taught me how to drive a manual transmission on an inclined driveway and revealed the tricky nuances of a clutch. But my main instructor was Mr. Gilman, the high school Drivers Ed teacher.
Mr. Gilman was an imposing figure who took a bit too much pleasure in showing us those warning films about what can happen to distracted drivers. While I was seated behind the wheel with Mr. Gilman in the passenger seat, he would insist that I keep my eyes moving and bark out: “Be aware of what’s ahead of you and beside you. Check your mirrors. Check your gauges. Check your blind spots.” It seemed like there was too much information to take in, process, and remember. In time, it becomes second nature to keep our eyes moving and stay aware of what’s happening around us. I’m grateful for the lessons hammered into my head by my demanding teacher.
This month, our church activities start up again in earnest. On Rally Day, we return to three services each Sunday morning, with Christian Education for all ages, and an array of programs and committee tasks for the whole church family. It can feel a bit like driving a car while merging onto a busy highway, balancing our commitment to church worship with obligations at work and home. So in the spirit of Mr. Gilman, I encourage you to “keep your eyes moving” and be aware of what’s happening around you as you continue your own journey of Christian faith.
For example, faith involves “checking the rearview mirror.” Pause occasionally to reflect on the path you’ve traveled so far in your life. Remember the people who’ve been important to you, what they’ve taught you, and what advice they would’ve given you today. Faith also involves “checking your side mirrors.” See the people beside you on the road of life and seek to travel peacefully with others, knowing that many are in pain or anxious or lonely in their own private lives.
“Check your blind spots.” Hopefully there are honest friends and family members who remind us of those things about ourselves we cannot see on our own. Know that no one is perfect and the thing we find most objectionable in others is often present in our own behavior. “Say a prayer when you get behind the wheel,” literally and figuratively. Quiet yourself before you drive, trusting that God is with you and is more important than any errand you’re so anxious to complete.
Lastly, “enjoy the view through the windshield.” May your life offer you wide vistas and attractive horizons, so that your days are infused with hope. Remember the opening verse of Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the hills–from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” We do not travel alone; neither need we travel aimlessly. May the presence of God’s abiding love and the gifts of grace, patience, and good humor mark your “road trips” this day and always.
More Cie. Willi Dorner Dance
Video of more work from Cie. Willi Dorner. Thanks to the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater for tickets to last night’s performance.
EL CEO Music PDF Links
Mahler Adagietto
Fantasia on Harry Potter
- Full Score
- Strings – Violins, Viola, Cello, Double Bass
- Woodwinds – Flutes, Clarinets, Sax
- Brass – Trumpets, Horn, Trombone, Euphonium
- Percussion – Drums, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone
- Piano
- Guitar
Hope Academy Theater Company (HAT Co) Auditions
Teen Singers, Dancers and Actors Wanted for NEW
Hope Academy Theater Company (HAT Co)
September 12, 2009 at 10 am
at East Liberty Presbyterian Church
116 S. Highland Ave (corner of Penn & Highland)
Hope Academy of Music and the Arts is looking for teens in grades 6-12 who are interested in studying and performing theater, music and dance. Company members will participate in Musical Theater and Shakespeare classes together; and will select an area of concentration for more intensive training (private voice lessons, Pearl Dance Workshop or individual acting coaching). All classes and rehearsals will take place on Saturdays throughout the year. Generous need-based scholarships are available for teens selected as company members. Please print this HAT Co Audition Form, fill it out to bring with you to the audition and call to let us know you are coming: 412-441-3800 x11.
HAT Co is made possible by a grant from The Heinz Endowments
Hope Academy’s NEW Community Youth Orchestra (EL CEO)
East Liberty Community Engagement Orchestra (EL CEO)
A Youth Orchestra for Kids with a Passion for Music!
Young musicians, and their musically-inclined parents, are invited to join Hope Academy’s East Liberty Community Engagement Orchestra (EL CEO) to experience the joy of making music together in an orchestra.
Conductor Federico Garcia (Artistic Director of Alia Musica Pittsburgh) will create arrangements to suit each student’s ability. The music will be selected from the symphonic and popular repertories, ranging from pieces by Tchaikovsky to the theme from the Harry Potter movies — and everything in between. Musicians of all levels are welcome to join and participate! (Singers are encouraged to join one of our “Voices of Hope” community choirs, which meet on Wednesdays after school.)
Weekly rehearsals will take place on Saturdays from 3:00 to 4:30 pm throughout the year and will begin on September 19.
Everyone is welcome and no one is required to audition! But please register by September 12 so that we can have music ready for you. There is a $10 registration fee for each musician.
EL CEO is funded by the proceeds from the annual Pittsburgh Symphony Community Engagement Concert, being held this year on Saturday, November 14 at 7:00 pm at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.
Pastoral Message, August 2009
Hopefully during this month, you’ll be able to connect with family and friends. This might be part of your vacation plans or simply mailing a postcard. For the electronically-inclined, these acts of “connectivity” also may include e-mail, Skype (video calls), Facebook, Twitter,
and other outlets.
The question of connectedness is a growing spiritual issue. I ask you to consider the following pluses and minuses.
Plus: Technology can link us with family and friends over vast distances, allowing us to exchange thoughts, photos, and updates more
frequently than an annual letter.
Minus: Technology creates distance between people, through the gap between those who use it and those who choose not to (or don’t have the resources), and in the loss of personal contact (substituting text for face-to-face conversations).
Plus: Our experience of the world is much richer through e-mails, videosharing, and Google connecting us with people and places across the globe.
Minus: Our understanding of the world is diminished because we encounter other cultures in less depth (sound-bite news stories) and through more haphazard (at times, unreliable) information sources.
Plus: Our spiritual lives are strengthened by the Internet when it allows us to keep in touch with a range of people, facilitate our prayer concerns being heard quickly by friends, and making available a variety of online devotional and church material right at our fingertips.
Minus: Our spiritual lives are diminished by the Internet with its demand of staying electronically connected 24/7, its blurring of “office hours” and “offhours,” and the “busyness” that undermines true Sabbath rest for the soul.
Hear Paul’s words of encouragement: “In Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away. Everything has become new! All this is from God, who is reconciled with us through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Remember this: Connectivity with Christ should precede all other connections. Newness of life is first spiritual, and then technological. To walk in nature, to breathe deeply, to hug a friend is a form of prayer. So this month, be people of prayer in a world of both natural and
technological wonders.
New Study Finds Positive Benefits of Singing in Choruses
Recent research shows that singing in one of the 270,000 choruses in the U.S., such as a community, school or church choir (or Hope Academy’s “Voices of Hope”) is strongly correlated with qualities that are associated with success throughout life. Choral singers exhibit increased social skills, civic involvement, volunteerism, philanthropy, and support of other art forms, when compared with non-singers. So what are you waiting for? Kids and teens from 5 to 18 can sing in one of Hope Academy’s “Voices of Hope” choirs on Wednesdays after school. Come sing with us!
If you need more encouragement, watch this clip from CBS Sunday Morning about the impact that singing in a chorus has not only on singers, but on everyone in their community. (Best part beginning around 2:50)