MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2018 Activities by Category - Theater and Dance

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Dance And Design Making Lab

Karole Armitage, Director's Fellow Member

Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Limited to 10 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Director's Fellows, Karole Armitage, inspired by the ferocious ability of the MIT participants from the 2017 workshop to create athletic and expressive movement, has decided to form the MIT Dancing Engineers Company. The plan is for the company to create at least one production to premiere in 2019. The theme for the performance will come from this workshop. Mornings will be devoted to dance and sound/music; afternoons will be devoted to design.  

DANCE AND MUSIC

No dance experience is necessary. Over the course of five sessions, Karole is interested in continuing to investigate calligraphic choreography derived from mapping Chinese ideograms. The session will begin with a short warm-up followed by analyzing an ideogram for its musicality and geometry.

DESIGN

Karole would like to meet with designers interested in creating moving/transforming components for the stage including costumes, morphing wigs, make-up, perfumes, body enhancing design, jewelry, objects, inflatables, lighting, bioluminescence, synthetic biology, etc. as a design or environmental element to be used as a part of the MIT Dancing Engineers Company performance. The workshop will be capped at 10 participants. All ideas are welcome!

Dates: January 22-26 , 2018 (detailed schedule tbd)

Location: Media Lab, E14-244

The workshop will culminate in a demonstration of selected material from the workshop at 12:00pm on Friday Jan.26 in the ACT Cube.

Please fill out this form if you're interested! 

 

Sponsor(s): Media Lab
Contact: Shanice Thompson, E-14 245, SHANICET@MIT.EDU


Add to Calendar Jan/22 Mon 02:00PM-02:00PM E-14 244, Bring your own laptop
Add to Calendar Jan/25 Thu 05:00PM-05:00PM E-14 244, Bring your own laptop

Karole will meet one on one with designers at a Media Lab (location of their choice) for a 60-90-minute individual brainstorming session between 2pm-5pm on Monday Jan. 22 and Tuesday, Jan 23 (first come first serve basis).  On Jan 24- 25 will be devoted to following up with further questions and ideas related to design and practical issues (first come first serve basis) from 2pm-5pm.

 

Karole Armitage - Director's Fellow Member


Folk Dancing, in time signatures you've never heard of!

Prashant Vasudevan, Valarie Rosen

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Learn to dance in time signatures you've never heard of! 

By the end of the first hour, you'll be dancing in rhythms such as 7/8, 5/4, 15/8, and more!  Our repertoire includes circle dances, and a few couple dances, from Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Hungary) and around the world (Quebec, Sweden, China, South Africa, Scotland, and the U.S.)

No partner needed and absolutely no experience necessary. Come by yourself or bring friends. Beginners are encouraged to arrive on time for introductory teaching in each session.

These dances continue as a regular series on Sunday nights, so you can keep coming once you get hooked!

Sponsor(s): Folk Dance Club
Contact: MIT Folk Dance Club, fdc@mit.edu


Folk dance beginner's class

Add to Calendar Jan/14 Sun 08:00PM-09:00PM W20 Sala or Lobdell
Add to Calendar Jan/21 Sun 08:00PM-09:00PM W20 Sala or Lobdell
Add to Calendar Jan/28 Sun 08:00PM-09:00PM W20 Sala or Lobdell
Add to Calendar Feb/04 Sun 08:00PM-09:00PM W20 Sala or Lobdell

Beginner teaching from 8 to 9 pm. Open dancing will follow until 10:30 pm.


Intro to Contra Dancing, with Live Folk Music

Prashant Vasudevan, Ann B. Cowan

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: none

Banjos + group theory + twirling your partner = FUN!

Contra dancing is a high-energy American folk dance, using easy walking steps, set to exciting, LIVE folk music from New England, Ireland, and Quebec. Dance with a partner and other couples, then change partners. A caller teaches the sequence of moves and prompts you during the dance, making it accessible to all. No experience necessary!

Free snacks will be provided. Come alone or bring friends! Website lists Tuesdays later in semester.

Sponsor(s): Folk Dance Club
Contact: MIT Folk Dance Club, fdc@mit.edu


Live folk music: Alex Cumming & Friends

Add to Calendar Jan/09 Tue 08:00PM-10:30PM W20 SalaDePuertoRico

Live folk music: Ishmael the Fiddler &c

Add to Calendar Jan/23 Tue 08:00PM-10:30PM Student Ctr 491

Israeli Folk Dancing

Prashant Vasudevan, Valarie Rosen

Add to Calendar Jan/10 Wed 07:30PM-08:30PM W20 SalaDePuertoRico
Add to Calendar Jan/17 Wed 07:30PM-08:30PM W20 Lobdell
Add to Calendar Jan/24 Wed 07:30PM-08:30PM W20 Lobdell
Add to Calendar Jan/31 Wed 07:30PM-08:30PM W20-491

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Dance to music ranging from last week's Israeli pop hit to folk songs from the days of the pioneers. Come learn the newest, hottest dances in Israeli folk dancing.

Lots of teaching! Lots of fun! Beginners are most welcome! No partner needed and absolutely no experience necessary. Come by yourself or bring friends.

Beginner teaching until 8:30 pm, followed by mixed-level dancing until 11 pm. These dances continue as a regular series on Wednesday nights, so you can keep coming once you get hooked!

Sponsor(s): Folk Dance Club, Hillel
Contact: MIT Folk Dance Club, fdc@mit.edu


Learn to Square Dance

Veronica Boyce

Add to Calendar Jan/23 Tue 08:00PM-10:30PM Lobdell (W20)

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Come to the Tech Squares Beginners' Night and get a taste of modern Square Dancing. At Tech Squares, the square and round dance club of MIT, we dance fast, we dance smart, and we have lots of fun! No previous dance experience or knowledge necessary.

Sponsor(s): Tech Squares
Contact: Veronica Boyce, 650 933 0841, squares@mit.edu


Lindy Hop Swing Dancing Lessons

Lindy Hop Society

Add to Calendar Jan/10 Wed 07:30PM-09:00PM W20-208 Lobdell
Add to Calendar Jan/17 Wed 07:30PM-09:00PM W20-202 Sala
Add to Calendar Jan/24 Wed 07:30PM-09:00PM Walker Memorial
Add to Calendar Jan/31 Wed 07:30PM-09:00PM W20-208 Lobdell

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session

Learn to Lindy Hop!  Lindy Hop is very popular form of swing dance done to jazz music, with emphasis on musicality and improvisation.  This class is open to beginners, no previous dance experience required, and you do not need to come with a partner.  After the lesson will be an open dance for practice.

Contact: Lindy Hop Society, swing@mit.edu


Trial by Jury, a one-act comic opera

Isaac Metcalf

Add to Calendar Jan/26 Fri 08:00PM-08:45PM Mezz Lounge W20 3 fl
Add to Calendar Jan/27 Sat 08:00PM-08:45PM Mezz Lounge W20 3 fl
Add to Calendar Jan/28 Sun 02:00PM-02:45PM Mezz Lounge W20 3 fl

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session

A performance of Gilbert and Sullivan Players' IAP comic opera Trial by Jury.

Trial By Jury is a one-act satire on love and the law. The lovely Angelina is suing her former flame, Edwin, for breach of promise of marriage. The trial quickly gets out of hand, and it's left to The Learned Judge to find a solution that will satisfy both parties. Gilbert and Sullivan's second collaboration, it features all the wit, social commentary, and musical artistry for which the two would later become famous.

Free admission!

Sponsor(s): Gilbert and Sullivan Players
Contact: Gilbert and Sullivan Players, gsp-ec@mit.edu


WMBR Presents: Live on the Air

Natalia Guerrero

Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Attendance: Participants should attend the first week and at least one additional week

A firehose of everything that goes into making creative radio: drama, music, storytelling, listener interactions, found sound, and digital and analog technical magic. Whether you're an old-time pro or a total beginner, this four-week workshop turns MIT's own FM radio station, WMBR, into a radio "makerspace." In the first week, try out the tools and techniques of making segments for radio: writing, performance, sound engineering, sound editing. Whatever we make each week, we broadcast on the radio on Friday night during the Voice Box timeslot in a 1-hour live radio performance based on the format of past WMBR radio project, Charles River Variety. Come one, come all, and explore the magic of making radio! More details at www.wmbr.org/iap

Sponsor(s): WMBR Radio
Contact: Natalia Guerrero, 50-030, 617-253-8810, nmg@mit.edu


Tute 1: How to People

Add to Calendar Jan/08 Mon 07:00PM-09:00PM 50-030, Bring yourself!

Highly recommended to attend: get a tour of MIT's own FM radio station, WMBR, and meet other people in the MIT community interested in making radio. Find others with shared interests, sign up to learn a new skill, and find collaborators for your radio projects!

Natalia Guerrero


Tute 2: How to Writing

Add to Calendar Jan/09 Tue 07:00PM-08:00PM 50-030

Brainstorm and write clear and compelling stories for radio, everything from found-text oulipian poetry to multi-episode space opera, based on the technique developed for past WMBR radio experiment, Charles River Variety.

Natalia Guerrero


Tute 3: How to Performance

Add to Calendar Jan/09 Tue 08:00PM-09:00PM 50-030

Learn from (lightly) seasoned radio performers and musicians the challenges and adventures in performing for an audience of ears!

Natalia Guerrero


Tute 4: How to Editing

Add to Calendar Jan/10 Wed 07:00PM-09:00PM 4-163, Laptop recommended

LOCATION CHANGE: NOW IN 4-163 Musical melanges and aural hodgepodges tickle your fancy? Experiment with sound samples, text, and effects to create sound art for a radio audience! 

Optional: Download the Ableton Live demo in advance from https://www.ableton.com/en/trial/

Natalia Guerrero


Production Work Party

Add to Calendar Jan/11 Thu 03:00PM-07:00PM 50-030
Add to Calendar Jan/18 Thu 03:00PM-07:00PM 50-030
Add to Calendar Jan/25 Thu 03:00PM-07:00PM 50-030
Add to Calendar Feb/01 Thu 03:00PM-07:00PM 50-030

The eve of preparation! Time, space, and opportunity for workshop participants and instructors to write, rehearse, record and otherwise prepare radio segments for the 1-hour performance Friday night!

Craig Thorburn, Natalia Guerrero


Tute 5: How to Sound Equipment

Add to Calendar Jan/11 Thu 07:00PM-09:00PM 50-030

Make sounds sound good! Learn how to use a soundboard and mics to set up for a live soundcheck or recording session in WMBR's A Studio for a band or group of performers.

Craig Thorburn


Radio Drama 180!

Add to Calendar Jan/12 Fri 07:00PM-11:55PM 50-030

Let's write, rehearse, and produce an 18-minute radio drama in 180 minutes! With live updates being broadcast over WMBR's airwaves as the progress progresses, we embark on the ultimate test of creative radio mettle! Setup is at 7pm with the clock starting at 8pm and the big finale at 11:00 sharp!

Craig Thorburn, Natalia Guerrero


Creative Radio Office Hours

Add to Calendar Jan/16 Tue 07:00PM-09:00PM 66-154
Add to Calendar Jan/23 Tue 07:00PM-09:00PM 66-154
Add to Calendar Jan/30 Tue 07:00PM-09:00PM 66-154

Although part of the fun of live creative radio is throwing things together at the last minute, it's kind of of nice to have things planned in advance. Find collaborators for your next project, get help from an instructor, or get a head start on this week's experiment at our Tuesday office hours! 

Natalia Guerrero, Craig Thorburn


LET'S PUT SOMETHING ON THE RADIO

Add to Calendar Jan/19 Fri 06:00PM-11:00PM 50-030
Add to Calendar Jan/26 Fri 06:00PM-11:00PM 50-030
Add to Calendar Feb/02 Fri 06:00PM-11:00PM 50-030

Once more into the breach! Enter the frenzy of preparation from 6p-8p, then sound check from 8p-9p, for a brand-new live radio performance 9p-10p on 88.1 WMBR (the usual Voice Box time slot). 10-11p, bask in the post-show euphoria and clean up, then immediately start brainstorming for next week!

Natalia Guerrero, Craig Thorburn