[accessibleimage] ballet, kids and Art, Forehead Retina System, film

links
unsure if sent before,
Blind Kids Art - Helping Blind and Visually Impaired Children, but sending link to article http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=591251
link to Blind Kids Art website
http://www.blindkidsart.org/

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060812/LIVING/608120327/1004/LIVING&theme=

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/04/26/1611610.htm

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http://www.popmatters.com/pm/film/reviews/boys-briefs-4-six-short-films-about-guys-who-hustle-2006
In Gold, the aging, nearly blind artist Cal (Aron Tager) employs hustler Jay (P.J. Lazic) not for his body, but to assist him in painting new canvases; in teaching Jay about passion and beauty, he leads the young man to a kind of salvation.



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"Hearing the voice of nature is how one gets clear. I walk/pedal out with my palette table, and I am met by dreams I have had returning to me in the flesh. At such points, I feel lucky beyond measure," he said in his artist statement. "The knowledge of how to paint them is not in my head but in my hand. I have to paint by feel and sound, as if I was blind. It is amazing how much the gift of sight controls, edits and ultimately obscures our experience."



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Forehead Retina System

Contact: Hiroyuki Kajimoto, The University of Tokyo

A small camera and 512 forehead-mounted electrodes capture the frontal view, extract outlines, and convert the data to tactile electrical stimulation. The system is primarily designed for the visually impaired, but it can be a third eye for users with normal sight. The device will be perfected in the near future so that it can be used by a blind marathon runner in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

Potential Future Use: Provide the visually impaired an inexpensive, lightweight, and fully functional system that provides rich, dynamic 2D information.

article

Making moves on the dance
Neophytes of all ages and sizes discover the thrill of classical movement Connecting body with spirit is a new allure of dance, writes Susan Walker


In a church hall near St. Clair Ave. W. and Bathurst St., nearly 30 women of varying ages, shapes and sizes (and one lone man) are following Martha Randall's choreographed routines.

They are barefoot and happy, kicking out, breathing rhythmically and moving like real dancers under the tutelage of Randall, who teaches six such sessions each week.

Professional dancers attend a dance class every day to keep themselves in shape. They go because they have to. But a growing group of professional dance teachers like Randall are training ordinary stiffs in the rigours of modern dance, ballet and jazz for the pure satisfaction and self-improvement afforded by the art form.

Randall teaches a technique called Nia. Offered in classes throughout the GTA, it's designed to enhance both mental and physical fitness. Nia reveals the way that dance helps mend broken connections between mind and body.

"I was absolutely hooked after the first class. I always come out feeling better, happier, feeling more optimistic about the day and myself," says Nia enthusiast Jan Marriott, 65.

"Nia is to exercise what holistic medicine is to health care. Nia is movement as medicine," says the official website for this increasingly popular activity.

Proponents of this dance/martial arts/healing practice swear by it. Developed nearly 25 years ago by Debbie and Carlos Rosas, fitness instructors in Portland, Ore., Nia is an acronym for Neuromuscular Integrative Action. It's also a Swahili word meaning "with purpose." The technique is a fusion of Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, T'ai Chi, jazz and modern dance, Isadora Duncan dance technique, yoga, the Feldenkrais Method and Alexander Technique.

"Nia is teaching that kind of mindful movement," says Randall, an independent dancer who trained at York University. "There's a balance between form and freedom. Always the invitation is to do it your way, the way your body wants to adapt to the movements. I call it cross-training.

"There are yin and yang elements in each class, moments of stillness, and then it gets wild and crazy. The martial arts give you a chance to be fierce. The non-linear movement develops your body awareness and emotional awareness. But it's not too warm and fuzzy. Nia classes really focus the mind, so people can develop some skills."

Marriott discovered Nia after an ankle injury. "I was looking for an exercise class I enjoyed because I love to dance, but Nia has given me a lot more than that."

A dealer in vintage textiles, Marriott says Nia keeps her creative side alive. "You become a lot less self-conscious. Martha's classes have a lot of people from the theatre and the arts."

Randall has even had professional dancers in her classes. "They are older dancers who can't bear to go to a technique class, but need to keep moving." Others new to dance come, she says, "out of a deep longing to feel more grace and connection with their bodies. They discover something of what drives dancers to stay in a poorly paid, punishing art form. Once we've opened our hearts to music, it's hard to stop."

Most of the participants in Rebecca Hope Terry's dance classes have never seen anyone dance, let alone experienced dance themselves. In the second year of her Explorers Project — classes for the blind and visually impaired — Terry, an independent dancer, choreographer and writer, has learned a few new things about dance.

She was first motivated by the role all of our senses play in the creation and performance of dance. "I would notice when I danced and didn't wear my contact lenses that there's a completely different sensation, because you have to go completely into your body."

With support for the project from the Ontario Arts Council, Terry sought students through the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and a community organization for the blind and visually impaired. Last fall she had 10 participants. This session, in the Spadina Ave. studio that houses Terry's The Moving Company, the class is larger.

A former member of the contemporary company Dancemakers, Terry teaches the participants modern dance, even a few ballet positions, but has been adapting her teaching techniques for the non-sighted. "I actually took a lot of principles from Butoh(the Japanese modern dance form), because Butoh is very internal."

The class has the help of two assistants, dancers who guide the students through the movements. What they can't see is sometimes demonstrated by having students place their hands on a sighted dancer's hips to follow their steps.

Martin Courcelles is a repeat participant. "I've been improving my flexibility," he says. "It seems to energize you at the same time as relaxing you. I get out of there and seem to have more energy than when I came in."

Courcelles asks a lot of questions and has developed a strong interest in the art form. He mentions a ballet program in Britain: a "touchy-feely" night when the blind are invited to come in and have hands-on contact with performers as they demonstrate moves.

Wanda Fitzgerald, a member of the Glenvale Players, a troupe of blind actors, finds dance classes "bring out another layer of creativity and awareness of your body. Learning to dance builds your strength, in your feet especially." Currently directing a film, Fitzgerald has found ways to use what she has learned: "It has helped me incorporate movement sequences into things I've written."

The advantage of sticking to a dance syllabus, says teacher Terry, is "They need form ... otherwise they're just lost in space." She has introduced some basic yoga and elements of contact improvisational dance. Her current session will conclude with a performance in the studio. Participation is optional.

Terry's blind students, she says, "have taught me that they're not any different from other adults learning to dance. But there are always a number of moments in each class when I'm completely blown away and moved."

Dorothy Gordon took up ballet when she was 71. She has progressed to the intermediate level at Dance Teq, which operates six days a week in the studios of the National Ballet of Canada's centre on Queens Quay W. Gordon, now 80, travels from Brampton three times a week to stand at the barre, perfecting her technique and then getting in a few jumps and airborne strides at the end of class.

"I just love dance, and I've always done it," says Gordon, who is retired from her family's hydraulics business, "but ballet is the most mentally difficult form of dance I've ever done.

"It's difficult but it's possible and you can improve." The payoff shows in her toned physique: she feels younger and she looks it, too.

Dance Teq owner and director Kevin Pugh, who danced with the National Ballet from 1978-91, still teaches class to professional ballet dancers. But he's found an unexpected joy in watching the amateurs apply themselves to the discipline. Now in its ninth year and offering 30 classes a week in ballet, jazz, modern and, this summer, Uygur folkloric dance from the traditions of China's largest province, Dance Teq serves a wide constituency. Its drop-in classes are taught by performers both active and retired, including Martine Lamy, Robert Glumbek, Johanna Bergfeldt and Pugh himself.

"People thank me for making their lives happy," says Pugh. "They love the teachers, they love the pianists. It's a family atmosphere.

"I almost gave up on life when I stopped dancing. But this is reaching out to people and touching them in another way."

Athletes, especially skaters, are among Dance Teq's clientele. Champion figure skater Jeff Buttle is a regular, as are a number of Asian skaters on the international circuit. "It keeps their brain fresh," says teacher Cindy Macedo, a National Ballet dancer from 1982-94. "It helps them learn new things and they have to use both sides of their bodies. Skaters only jump and spin in one direction. They can become quite lopsided."

In Macedo's experience, "ballet takes a unique personality. It's for people who like to pay attention to detail, and it takes a lot of brain work and concentration. But it also encompasses the whole body, and it's like yoga in its meditativeness."

Dance Teq participants leave for home feeling younger, looser, more limber and more relaxed. And, probably, just a bit thrilled that they've been up on their toes at the same barre as ballet stars like Sonia Rodriguez or Aleksandar Antonijevic.

For more information on Dance Teq, call 416-361-9498 or see http://www.danceteq.com.

See http://www.niadancer.com for information on Martha Randall's Nia classes, or http://www.niac.ca for other Nia classes in Ontario.


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ARTWORKS GETS CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

Visionaries and Voices artists will feature artwork in restrooms in their around-the-town exhibition "Room with a View." Visionaries and Voices is a nonprofit art studio for artists with disabilities.

The exhibition will be on display at restrooms in Wild Oats Natural Marketplace in Mason and Norwood, Shake it Records in Hamilton, Sidewinder Coffee and Tea in Hamilton and the Visionaries and Voices studio restroom in Essex Studios, Walnut Hills.


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