Day 6: Artist Lecture and Demonstrations

Huntington Witherill and Melina Biefelt presented part two of their demonstrations this evening.

Day 5: Artist Lecture and Demo

For this evening's demonstration, Flavio, with the help of his students, walked the campers through a typical ballet class.

Flavio Salazar, a native of Colombia, began his dance studies at the Colombian Institute of Classical Ballet (Incolballet). He joined Ballet de Cali in 1985, before joining the faculty of Incolballet upon his certification by the National Ballet of Cuba to teach methodology and pedagogy of ballet technique. In 1990, he studied at the Houston Ballet Academy as a full scholarship student, and later joined Ballet Arizona in 1992. In 1993, Salazar was invited to join the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). During his thirteen-year career with ABT, Salazar danced nearly every ballet in ABT's repertoire, before retiring from the company in July of 2006. Salazar's teaching experience extends from his early years of professional dancing in Colombia. He has taught classes at ABT II, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, the ABT Summer Intensive, the Alvin Ailey School, and Ballet Tech, among others.

Day 5: Conversation with the Artist

Tonight's conversation was with Modern Dance Faculty members, Muriel Cohen and Patrick Suzeau.

The COHAN/SUZEAU Dance Company has performed nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. Formerly New York-based and currently at the University of Kansas, COHAN/SUZEAU tours the region with the support of the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Programs. Their recent international appearances include India, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Cohan and Suzeau recently returned from a residency at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. COHAN/SUZEAU's New York City teaching credits include the Alvin Ailey School, Dennis Wayne's Dancerschool, Barry-Klein studio, Mary Anthony studio, Brooklyn Theatre Company, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the COHAN/SUZEAU studio. They are recipients of several grants and fellowships from state and private arts funds. Both have been guest artists at countless universities across the United States. Suzeau spent the spring '07 season in Lithuania on a Fulbright Fellowship where "Dia de los Muertos," choreographed by the pair, was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The work featured principals and soloists from the National Opera Ballet Company. Before forming COHAN/SUZEAU, Cohan performed with the Philadelphia Dance Theatre. Juilliard-trained Suzeau's early performing career includes Les Ballets Modernes du Canada and the Theatre de Danse Contemporaine in Montreal, as well as various groups and television work in Mexico.

Day 4: Film Screening

OAI Film Faculty, Sterlin Harjo screened his film, Four Sheets to the Wind.

Sterlin Harjo belongs to the Seminole and Creek Nations and is a native of Holdenville, Oklahoma. In 2004, Sundance Institute selected Harjo to receive an Annenberg Fellowship, which provided support to create his feature project Four Sheets to the Wind. Through the Sundance Institute's Filmmaker Labs, Harjo worked under the guidance of industry veterans such as Robert Redford, Stanley Tucci, Joan Tewkesbury, and many more. Four Sheets to the Wind premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2007, where it received a Special Jury Prize for outstanding performance by lead actress Tamara Podemski. The film went on to garner awards at other film festivals, including "Best Director" for Harjo at the AIFI Film Festival in San Francisco and "Best Film" at the Imaginative Film Festival in Toronto. Harjos short film Goodnight Irene premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and has played at festivals around the world. The work has garnered awards including Special Jury Recognition at the Aspen Shorts Festival and "Best Oklahoma Film" at the deadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma City. Harjo is currently editing his new film, Barking Water.

Day 4: Conversation with the Artist

Tonight's conversation was with poet George Bilgere.

George Bilgere's recent books are The Good Kiss (University of Akron Press, 2002), and Haywire (Utah State University Press), which won the May Swenson Poetry Award in 2006. He is the author of two other books of poetry, The Going (University of Missouri, 1995) and Big Bang (Copper Beech Press, 1999). The Going received both the Devins Award and the Society of Midland Authors Award. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, the Witter Bynner Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. His poems appear regularly in such journals as Poetry, Shenandoah, Ploughshares, Sewanee Review, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Field, and New England Review. He has been featured in Best American Poetry in 1999 and 2002. Radio host Garrison Keillor has read Bilgere's poems on a number of occasions on NPR's "The Writer's Almanac." Bilgere has given readings at the Library of Congress, the 92nd Street Y in New York, and at colleges and public institutions around the country. He directs the creative writing program at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Thought for the day

If you buy a camera, you are a photographer.
If you buy a violin, you own a violin.

Day 3: Artist Lecture

Huntington Witherill presented this evening's artist lecture, Photography in the 21st Century - A Digital Primer.

Huntington Witherill was born in Syracuse, New York in 1949. Initially trained as a classical pianist, he began a career in fine art photography in 1970. During the mid-1970s he studied photography under such notables as Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Steve Crouch and Al Weber. Over the past thirty-seven years, Witherill has participated in more than ninety solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the world, and his photographs are maintained in numerous public art collections. Since 1975, he has taught photography for a variety of institutions and workshop programs around the country. His work has been the subject of two hardcover monographs, Orchestrating Icons (2000) and Botanical Dances (2001), both published by LensWork Publishing. Witherill was the 1999 recipient of the "Artist of the Year" award presented by the Center for Photographic Art.

Day 3: Conversation with the Artist

Tonight's conversation was with Drawing and Painting Faculty, Isak Applin.

Isak Applin received his B.F.A. in1998 from the Maine College of Art and his M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005. He has had solo exhibitions at Giftshop Project Space and Contemporary Art Workshop, both in Chicago. Applin has participated in group exhibitions at Roots and Culture in Chicago, University of Saint Francis in Joliet, Illinois, The Helm in Tacoma, Washington, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. His work is part of the public collections of the New York Public Library Special Collections and the Boston Public Library Print Collection. Applin has received the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Visual Arts Award, the Lawrence Sisson Traveling Fellowship and the Roger Brown House Residency. Applin is currently an instructor in the painting and drawing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Iowa Floods

As an Iowa native, I have been watching news of the Iowa floods with great interest. To see the images on the evening news of places I have been has been a sometimes troubling experience. Thankfully my family in Iowa is on dry land. There are pictures of the flooding in Eastern Iowa on this site. This blog created by the University of Iowa has also posted detailed daily updates. Hopefully the sun will come out and help to dry out the land so the recovery work can begin.

Day 2: Conversations

Tonight's Conversation with the Artist featured the Chorus and Orchestra Conductors for week 1 of the Institute.

Our Chorus Conductor this week is David Brunner. He is director of choral activities at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and is known for his compelling works with singers of all ages, conducting All-State and regional choirs throughout the United States. He is also a popular clinician at choral festivals and workshops throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. As a composer, he has received numerous ASCAP awards and in 2000 was named Raymond W. Brock Commissioned Composer by the American Choral Directors Association. The New York Times has called him a "prolific choral writer whose name figures prominently on national repertory lists."

Our Orchestra Conductor this week is Liza Grossman. Liza is the founding music director of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. CYO is the only youth orchestra in the country dedicated exclusively to the study and performance of new orchestral literature. She is on the conducting faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and is the co-founder of the Interlochen arts Camp Junior Advanced String Institute. She has conducted 14 world premiere concertos with teh Cleveland Orchestra members, as well as 40 orchestral world premieres, all with the composers present. She has conducted world premiere orchestral rock performances with rock artists Ray Manzarek (The Doors), Jon Anderson (Yes), Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young), Pat Benetar, and STYX.

Day 2: Artist Lecture

Tonight the acting faculty presented a lecture on The Stanislavsky System. The acting faculty are Marilyn McIntyre & Melina Bielefelt.



Marilyn has been a professional actress for over thirty years. She has played leading roles on an off-Broadway and with several major regional theater companies, as well as on television and film. McIntyre teaches at the Howard Fine Acting Studio in Hollywood and with the Screen Actors Guild Conservatory at the American Film Institute. Her other teaching credits include the University of Southern California, The Old Globe/University of San Diego M.F.A. Actor Training Program, The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Melina has trained for twelve years with Anne Bogar and the SITI Company in New York. She has studied Commedia dell'arte, de Creux mime, Butoh dance, and mask work, in addition to more traditional dance forms. As an actress, she has toured nationally and internationally.

Day 1

The kids have arrived. we have installed the dance floor (both of them), we have hauled mattress and completed the other tasks to make the mountain ready for the students of OAI. The mountain will be home for there create expression for the next two weeks.

Tonight the students were lucky enough to listen to attend a conversation with the artist featuring Famke Janssen. You may recognize her from Nip Tuck, Celebrity, Love and Sex, or the X-Men. The students were thrilled to meet her. My interaction with Famke was limited, although I did sit in the front row for the event (I had buttons to push) and I set her up with a wireless mic.

Awww, now those are some cute boys!

War Room

My humble room here at the mountain has been deemed the War Room, errr, hospitality suite. Yeah, that's it, the hospitality suite. Darryl thought it would be a great idea to decorate the entrance to my room - so others could find it. I returned from work call to find this banner hanging above my door. That's the spirit of the mountain.

Back at the mountain

Today I made the trip to Quartz Mountain in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. This mountain will be home for the next three weeks. The odd part of driving to Quartz is that one does not expect mountains in Southwest Oklahoma. Out of the plains these bumps emerge from the ground. Ok, honestly the grandeur of these mountains cannot be compared to the larger mountains, like the Rockies. However, by definition, that's what they are - the Wichita Mountains. This is the view driving to Lone Wolf.

Recommended Reading

On Sunday I depart for weeks of work and relaxation at Quartz Mountain in southwest Oklahoma. I'd like to have a supply of a few good summer reads to take with me. What do you recommend for those lazy summer afternoon reading sessions?