welcome! we believe that willingly experiencing randomness enriches the fertile ground from which life itself develops. help us celebrate this idea!
official mission
HERE/NOW exists to increase and diffuse knowledge
involving the intersection of Dance and Music.
next installment
INSTALLMENT 13
DATE: TBD LOCATION: Open Flight Studio (OFS) 4205 University Way NE / 98105 SEATING: 730-8pm SHOW: 8-945pm ENTRY: $8 suggested donation BEVERAGES: inspired selection of healthy cans and bottles MERCHANDISE: packaged DVDs of past installments
(Please read Legal Notice at bottom of right column prior to attending. Thanks!)
You've attended HERE/NOW and you know how fascinating the duets between one Dancer and one Musician are, how engaging and fun it is to be a member of the audience knowing at any moment you could be asked to blindly pick the next Dancer or the next Musician out of the hat and how beautiful it is to be present as a very real sense of community is literally being built all around you. Give that experience and more to a friend or family member with a HERE/NOW Gift Certificate!
Gift Certificates may be used in any combination toward event entry fees ($8 suggested donation per individual), DVDs ($16 each) and any future HERE/NOW branded merchandise. They have no expiration date and are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Fees and prices subject to change without prior notice.
See you at the next installment!
PRESENTERS and contact info
CO-CREATIVE DIRECTOR MUSIC CURATOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER PHOTOGRAPHER DVD COMPOSER Christopher Hydinger christopherhydinger@yahoo.com
CO-CREATIVE DIRECTOR DANCE CURATOR VIDEO EDITOR Paige Barnes barnes.paige@gmail.com
A quarterly Dance and Music improvisation-based performance series produced by Christopher Hydinger and Paige Barnes and hosted by Open Flight Studio (OFS) located in the University District.
HERE/NOW consists of 8 Dancers and 8 Musicians randomly paired together and given 8 minutes to improvise a duet. The pairings are generated by writing the 16 participants' names on small pieces of paper, placing the 8 Dancers' names in one hat and the 8 Musicians' names in another hat and the two producers walking through the audience requesting the assistance of random individuals to blindly choose one name from each hat and read it aloud. The Dancer and Musician whose names are drawn are then given a few brief moments to settle, the stage lights are faded out to black and each duet begins as the stage lights are slowly faded back in.
With its high level of curation via a deep respect for the art and craft of Dance and Music, its dynamic audience-engaging format and its community-building ethos, HERE/NOW is a distinct and vital cultural event while also serving as a much needed platform for experimentation, connection and feedback between professional Dancers and Musicians.
The following five goals were felt to be vital to the invention of this program:
1) produce a quarterly program featuring an artistically relevant and community-engaging experience
2) facilitate a collaboration between Dancers and Musicians in a real-time setting so that personal and professional connections may be forged
3) set the stage for inter-community strengthening by which the Dance and Music communities' built-in audiences have the opportunity to be introduced to one another in a comfortable yet charged setting
4) produce a means by which OFS can grow into an increasingly conducive venue for the rehearsal and public presentation of all variety of performance-based work
5) facilitate a program through which focused attention may be given to the idea that willingly experiencing randomness enriches the fertile ground from which life itself develops
RESULTS TO DATE
Since May, 2009:
- produced 12 evening-length installments
- featured the talents of 192 Dancers and Musicians
- attracted audiences totaling over 665 Pacific Northwest citizens
- raised $1,200 toward bettering Open Flight Studio (OFS)
- awarded a full Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs smART ventures Program Grant in June, 2011
- produced an informative and community-engaging blogsite featuring thoughtful and issue-provoking reviews of each installment
- produced a series of respectably authored and packaged DVDs fully documenting each installment
- produced the video journal series, Post-performance Interviews, asking Dancers, Musicians and audience members to "say a few words about your experience at HERE/NOW"
- produced HERE/NOWtv as a high quality online channel for watching all ongoing video journal series
- connected countless Dancers and Musicians to one another, many of which have gone on to collaborate on new projects together or have invented new solo projects sparked exclusively from their involvement in HERE/NOW
- become a staple in the Seattle community as a consistently high-level art-based event featuring some of the Pacific Northwest's most talented and active Dancers and Musicians
support here/now
If you would like to make a financial contribution to HERE/NOW, please select the Donate button below. You will automatically be forwarded to the HERE/NOW PayPal page in order to complete a safe and secure online transaction.
Please email us at herenowonline@yahoo.com for complete information including payment options, donor benefits, individual giving, business community partnerships and participant sponsorships. If you are someone who has already made a financial contribution, thank you for helping to enrich our community with the art and craft of Dance and Music.