Update Series: Rachel Rugh

Happy Start of December, friends!
Since Fall is turning into Winter, for the next few days, each of us will be writing to give you an update on what we have been up to since our summer adventures! Next up is Rachel Rugh!

What has Rachel been up to? Take it away, Rachel:

After an eventful summer and fall, things have finally been settling into a groove down here in the New River Valley.  July was especially action-packed: Barbara and I co-taught several successful dance workshops for kids here in Blacksburg; I got to enjoy upwards of three weeks reunited with Mountain Empire buddies in DC for the Capital Fringe Festival; my husband and I BOUGHT A HOUSE; my husband then promptly broke his leg, which made moving into said house a bit more challenging.  Oh, and I got a new job!  Since August, I've been working as a part-time programming and event coordinator at Virginia Tech's Cranwell International Center.  It's a fun position that allows me to blend my people skills and event production experience, and so far I've been able to sneakily incorporate dance into several events: I called my first square dance at our fall festival, am planning a swing dance for our spring social, and performed a version of Barbara's current MEPC project (Are You Not Your Own) in an international dance concert last month.

Plans for 2015 include: Teaming up with Barbara to teach introductory contact improvisation workshops; co-producing a music/dance collaborative improvisation concert series; kicking my children's creative dance teaching practice into high gear; and starting up a regular open mic in Blacksburg so I can have an excuse to play my banjo more.  

Photo credit: JH Kertis

Update Series: Barbara Tait

Hi again friends!
Since Fall is turning into Winter, for the next few days, each of us will be writing to give you an update on what we have been up to since our summer adventures! Next up is Barbara Tait!

What has Barbara been up to? Take it away, Barbara:

A very sad library lay-off gifted me with some major free-time to focus on dance this summer. I attended Bates Dance Festival in Maine with Eliza, and to be a full-time student again was both humbling and invigorating. I made two new duets, performed several times in Philly (in my own work and for others), and took an incredible week-long workshop with Luciana Achugar. Teaching a summer dance workshop with Rachel in Virginia spun me into a whirlwind of life changes. I'll spare the gory details, but let's just say this: Virginia is certainly for lovers. I moved to Blacksburg in October. I am settling in and looking forward to new collaborations (both long distance and in person!), and getting better at mountain biking. 

Next Stops: Virginia and North Carolina!

Hey friends,

It's been an exciting few months, and We've been keeping busy despite the insane winter weather.  The Telephone Dance Project has been all over the place in 2014! Last weekend we performed at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC; this Friday we're heading to Blacksburg, VA; and on Saturday we'll be coming back to my old stomping ground as featured performers at the Black Mountain College {RE}Happening.

The entire event looks like it's going to be awesome, with site-specific performance and visual art pieces installed all over the Camp Rockmont property.  The evening will hearken back to the postmodern "happenings" that used to occur when Rockmont was the site of Black Mountain College, the experimental art school that hosted some of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

The {RE}Happening will take place from 7:30 pm-midnight on Saturday, April 5th at Camp Rockmont.  The Telephone Dance Project will be performing at 8 and 9:30 in the gymnasium, and at 10:15 in the dining hall.  

The Asheville Citizen-Times just ran a great article about the event: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20140323/LIVING/303230031/ReHappening-returns-5th-year-Black-Mountain

Here's the website with ticket information: http://rehappening.com/?page_id=2420

$30 gets you in to the evening's festivities from 7:30 on, includes two drink tickets and all the performance art you can handle.  

Many of you donated to the Telephone Dance Project's indiegogo campaign and we were overwhelmed by the generous response we received!  If you were thinking about donating but didn't get a chance, I'd like to encourage you to check out one of the patron level tickets: by adding $50 to your purchase, you have the opportunity to sponsor an artist of your choice (we hope you'll pick us!)  Bringing four dance artists on tour to five locations has been incredibly rewarding but not cheap, and every bit of your support is gratefully appreciated.  

Also, if this sounds interesting but you find that ticket prices are cost prohibitive, think about volunteering!  For more information and to sign up: rehappeningvolunteers@gmail.com

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions about this weekend's festivities!  Feel free to pass this info along to any friends who might be interested!

Much love to you all-- hope to see you this weekend!

- Rachel

Meet the Dancers: Rachel Rugh

Rachel Rugh is a dancer, teacher, mover and shaker currently residing in the hip little hamlet of Blacksburg, VA.  She received a BA in dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2008, and moved to the Pacific Northwest a year later.  During her four-year tenure in Seattle, she worked with several prominent Seattle dance artists including Pat Graney, Jurg Koch and Amy O’Neal.  In 2012, she was one of four emerging choreographers selected to create new work in the Bridge Project space residency at Seattle's Velocity Dance Center. Her choreographic work has also been presented at the Seattle International Dance Festival, Lo-Fi Arts Festival and Evoke Productions' Full Tilt (Seattle, WA).  Rachel teaches modern dance technique, composition and improvisation at several institutions throughout the New River Valley.  She is currently a guest instructor in contemporary dance at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA and Trillium Performance Collective in Lewisburg, WV.  Rachel began collaborating with Eliza Larson as a member of Larson's Greener Grass Dance Project in 2010.  Since relocating back to the East Coast in 2013, the two friends have rekindled their collaborative partnership as the performance duo, Mountain Empire.

As a dance artist, Rachel strives to make work that is honest, irreverent and intelligent.  She utilizes the bodies of dancers, trained and untrained, to create relatable emotional experiences in a performance setting.  Rachel’s pieces often take on a meditative quality: she has found live performance to be the ultimate mindfulness practice-- a shared experience in which the performers, and hopefully the audience, are focused on absolutely nothing else.  When our minds are clear and our focus is on the present moment, we radiate joy.