At the Upstream Arts Annual Meeting and Fundraiser on May 17, several of our teaching artists and students from Transition Plus performed a dance that they created during their spring Upstream Arts residency.
The movement was inspired by poetry that the group had written and was accompanied by the premiere of Upstream Animated, a unique quartet of short movies by interdisciplinary artist David Luke (keep reading to find out where you can find Upstream Animated over the next few days).
Following the performance, Upstream Arts Program Director Matt Guidry and the Transition Plus students taught the dance to the entire crowd! We performed it all together over three different styles of music, exploring how each piece of music informed and influenced the movement. We captured the whole thing on video, above – turn up the volume and take a dance break with us! Then click here to learn more about how the dance was developed.
Also that evening, we announced our new disability is not a four-letter word campaign, which we will be pursuing over the next year to generate artistic reflection and public conversation about stigma associated with disability. Click here to learn all about it, and be sure to follow our blog, Facebook, and Twitter (@UpstreamArts #movingupstream) to join the conversation.