September, 2009

...now browsing by month

FOLK FEET: Marie Basse-Wiles

Written by Sady on September 9th, 2009

This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet, a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn, in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the second in a series of five audio slideshows from that project, stay tuned!

Marie Basse-Wiles came to Brooklyn from Dakar, Senegal. She joined the Ballet National of Senegal at the age of 12 and went on to tour the world with the company. She founded the Maimouna Keita School of African Dance in 1983.

In this excerpt, Marie explains why she chose to name her company after her grandmother and tells us about her first time in the United States when she performed at the Apollo Theater!

Music: “Bara” by Drisa Kone

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Oral History | No Responses »
Tags: Brooklyn Arts Council, Folk Feet, Oral History Highlights

Back to School / Web Tools for Teachers

Written by Todd Florio on September 7th, 2009

(image from mashable)

I’m always happily surprised by how web savvy many of the teachers I work with are. As computers make there way into more and more classrooms, a huge pool of resources is at our fingertips. Here’s a great list from mashable of some of the applications that are available for tech-minded educators: http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/web-apps-teachers/

My favorite is called “Footnote” and it features links to millions of primary source documents. The navigation bar which puts things in chronological order and labels them by themes, such as Civil War (1860-1880) and Emerging America (1880-1920) is very useful.

One interesting thing I found was a link to Abe Lincoln’s data in the 8th census of the United States (1860). One of the neat things about Footnote is that users can upload relevant images, such as the one I found of Lincoln’s son Robert which was linked to his line in the census.

Some of the documents cost money to view, but the free samples should provide ample materials for teachers and history buffs alike. Enjoy!

P.S. Here’s another similar resource list, also from mashable, but for students: http://mashable.com/2009/09/03/web-apps-students/

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present | No Responses »

FOLK FEET: Shock-a-lock

Written by Sady on September 2nd, 2009

This past year, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. This is the first in a series of five audio slideshows from that project, stay tuned.

Shock-a-lock is an original locker and CEO of Circulock Inc., the world’s first street-dance circus. He grew up in East New York and developed his unique style of locking at block parties and dance competitions.

Shock-a-lock took us on a tour of East New York showing us where memorable freestyle dance moments took place at house parties, block parties, and community centers. In this excerpt, Shock-a-lock describes some of his inspirations and where the term breakin’ originated.

Music: “Live Wire” by The Meters