We had a great weekend at the Global Center for Health Innovation with our friends the Fungineers, Darin (FreQ Nasty) McFadyen and Claire Thompson of Yoga of Bass, Daniel Gray Kontar and Brittany (Red-I) Benton of Sanctuary Cleveland, the Rust Belt Monster Collective, and many more. But my favorite new party pals are . . . . INNER TUBES. Never doing another party without 'em. Stay tuned, more shots to come.
This November, LAND studio, Cleveland Public Library, and the Global Center for Health Innovation will welcome Clevelanders of all backgrounds to join up and get down together -- exploring dance as a social art, cultural expression, and great way to have some good fun!
STEP OUT, Cleveland: Shake off the Rust!
A whirlwind trip to California and back, and though it was lovely to go, I have to say that Cleveland's starting to feel a bit more like home.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that I'm working hard on bringing a bit of the West Coast out for a visit: a few of my favorite DJs -- FreQ Nasty and that whacky, wild, totally purple-icious crew the Fungineers -- will be wingin' their way from out west to join us for STEP OUT, Cleveland: Shake off the Rust, a program I'm putting together with LAND studio on behalf of the Cleveland Public Library.
In addition, we'll be welcoming dance professionals from across the county to speak about storytelling and shaping community through dance -- a topic that gets at the very core about what makes places like the Bay Area so exciting and nourishing for energetic and creative young people, and why it's so awesome -- and significant for a Cleveland that's intent on attracting young folks back home -- that we're starting to welcome more events like this!
I remember when I first experienced Bay Area Dance Week -- an entire ten days during which studios opened their doors and accepted people from all backgrounds to come practice. I was astounded because -- growing up in Cleveland and beginning my "career" as a dancer quite late -- I felt there was really no option, or even point, really, to someone my age starting to learn. Adult-beginner classes were few and far between, and even when one was found, it was still disheartening to find that "adult" often included twelve year olds who could throw their leg up over their heads. If you weren't destined to be a professional dancer, at some point you just stopped dancing.
The Bay Area, by contrast, offered worlds more in terms of all-level classes -- and all disciplines, as well: aerial silks, trapeze, hooping, strange new forms like Contact Improv and Ecstatic Dance. Even more miraculously, dancers blurred the line between "audience" and "performer," "professional" and not. Hobbyists would get good enough to start teaching classes on their own, or even open small studios as side businesses. Going into a club, it wasn't unusual to see people hooping, spinning poi, performing acro yoga or just dancing so skillfully that, even if they weren't hired to perform, they certainly good have been. I wrote a cover article for the San Francisco Bay Guardian about an unhappy, overweight anthropology grad student who turned her life around by re-branding herself Hoop Girl. She now helps women all over make the same transformation. In the Bay, dance is practiced joyously in communities, and taken seriously as a way of life that transcends boundaries.
When I was first asked if I could help put a dance program together for LAND, these are all the things I thought about. I wanted to nourish that same feeling of permission to inhabit the body, permission to practice dance.
I'm happy to say that, in reaching out to the dance community to put this program together, I have found that it is already happening here in Cleveland. All those same art forms -- poi, cirque, burlesque and more -- are alive and well (and will be represented at STEP OUT)! The independent studios exists. The community is ready to move together! I'm so honored and lucky to have found them, and excited to see everyone together, November 8th and 9th at the Global Center for Health Innovation!
Cleveland's Brain Gain
A surprise today from Richey Piiparinen, a Cleveland blogger and geographer at CSU's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs . . . We're getting smarter!
Well, not exactly. But we are, for the first time in a long time and most unexpectedly, actually gaining more college-educated young people than we're losing. For Cleveland, this is HUGE. It ties into urban planning and development from so many angles: housing and jobs, economy and entertainment, and above all, arts and culture.
Over and over again, we turn to the discourse on arts and culture to mediate our relationship with the young, talented workers we hope to attract. This ties so directly into the work that I hope - and plan - to do here in Cleveland that when I heard the study announced this morning on Sound of Ideas, I was so amazed I had to chime in. I commented:
I grew up in Cleveland and got my degree in architecture at Yale. After college, like so many of my peers, I Went West, Young Woman. In California, I studied permaculture and sustainability, biked to work, practiced yoga at a donation-based studio where everyone paid what they could afford, built giant sculptures out of recycled metal and became an ardent advocate for the power of art and creativity to transform public space. Not even a month ago, I moved back to Cleveland, and have begun working with a fabulous organization, @LAND studio, that supports many of the same principles I found informing my work in the Bay Area. Though I was always involved in the arts as a kid growing up in Cleveland, the atmosphere of creativity, openness and collaboration has absolutely taken off in recent years -- I know; I've been watching and plotting my return!
What drew me back (and I suspect this holds true for many others) is the feeling that not only is this a time of growth and excitement in Cleveland, but of great opportunity, as well. We are making many of the same changes, and exploring many of the same values and strategies traditionally associated with places like San Francisco -- a deep commitment to fostering unique and (if you'll excuse a word that's often over-used in this context) vibrant local culture, coupled with a renewed commitment to sustainability, local business, great programming and . . . fun. Frivolous though this last one may sound, it’s been a central topic in the debate over the best strategies in urban planning for a number of years now, and I think Cleveland’s new influx of young, educated people (often those without children and with the most disposable income) proves that it will continue to be an important factor moving forward.
Our 20-30-somethings are looking for jobs, affordable living, good-possibly-local food, and a home that won’t be swept into the ocean in 10 years . . . all things that Cleveland has. But they are also looking for the space and opportunity to participate in and build community in new creative ways that keep pace with the cutting edge of what’s happening in San Francisco, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Cleveland affords that opportunity in abundance, with a critical mass of young folks in arts-focused districts like Tremont, University Circle, and Ohio City, and space to expand in places like Collinwood, Detroit Shoreway and our untapped industrial quarters, plus an economy that’s diverse and flexible beyond just Eds and Meds -- I think we’re poised for a blossoming of ideas and innovation for many years to come.