Recent events (as of Feb 2007)

Just a brief recap:

October Walnut Creek, CA "Night Visions"
Four performances
The world premiere of our 60 minute foray into the
delightfully dark world of Halloween... a perform that
is set in the environment of a "wax museum" -where
the wax figures come to life!

Nov 12 Palm Desert "Under the Stars Choreographers Festival"

We were eligible for two awards and
took first place in both:
Solo Choreography,
Choreography on a dancer under 12.
CONGRATULATIONS
Sophia Bouzos and Anandha Ray!

Dec. San Francisco, CA "The MAD Hatter Performance and Tea Party"

An original story, depicting the adventures of Alice in Wonderland's grandaughter (Malice) in a current day, Gothic, Wonderland
• on the waterfront at the Cowell Theater
with performances by Tony and Elaine LaRussa
whose daughter Devon is a member of the co.
in addition to cameo performances by students of
SOLAD Dance Center, Delta Ballet
and the Rhythm Room

Dec Antioch, CA "The MAD Hatter Performance and Tea Party"

on the waterfront at the art-deco El Campanil Theatre

2007

Jan 14 St. Louis, MO "ARF Stars to the Rescue"
We received a standing ovation from 5,000 people!
In "Amethyst Dreams" with Devon LaRussa, Terrin McGee Kelly, Paris Wages and violinist Carlos Reyes
also performing: Winona Judd, The Doobie Brothers and more

Jan. 21 NY, NY Booking Conference

one strong lead for tours in China

Feb. 9 & 10 San Jose, CA "sjDanceCo Annual Choreographers Festival"

The festival gave two choreography awards,
Audience Choice and
Producer's Choice...
we won BOTH!
CONGRATULATIONS
Anandha, Maria and CJ!

Feb 10 Oakland, CA "Tapestry Dance Festival"

CONGRATULATIONS DANCERS
Momentum members debut performance
as Mountain Elves
Lauren Atkinson
Candace Cabrera
Sarah Jauregui
Audry Lamb
Rachel Nesheim

in Temporal Landscapes with MA II members
Michelle Dawkins
Miranda Munro
Amber Payne
Brittany Richards

and Moving Arts Dance members
Devon LaRussa at the Snow Fairy and
Terrin McGee Kelly as the Water Nymph

Paige Gruner made her debut performance as a
guest member of MA II in "No Place To Rest"
choreographed for her by Anandha Ray

AND... Terrin, Devon, Coreen Danaher
and Damon Mahoney premiered a revised version of
"Island of Tears" with dancers from Momentum, MA II, and guest performers

In the Beginning There Was Dance

Moving Arts Dance has toured, as of today, over 67,ooo miles since 2003:
6 countries,
9 USA states,
27 cities,
62 performances,
17 standing ovations,
23 tours with residencies,
5 competitive festivals, and
7 awards from 4 of the 5 festivals.
But who's counting?

At first it was a really tough to break into the touring circuit, but self-producing concerts was killing us financially, not to mention that it was a lot of work to create a whole concert that only got performed ONCE!

Also, the tours didn't break even -but they cost less than self producing. I believe very much that if you follow your intuition, you will find your path. In the face of having no money and no concerts lined up, my intuition told me to have a concert ready. So I rehearsed -for no apparent reason. Thinking me crazy, we lost a few dancers. Then came the first call... a concert in Louiville, KY... in two months! We were ready. That concert opened the door to our next tours and from each tour more doors were opened. And now we have a strong history to stand on as we look to build more touring, especially at home in California. Plus, we have been accepted by a great organization for booking representation, Pentacle (http://www.pentacle.org/).

So spread the word... We're great at what we do. We're ready to do it!

For a visual of our performance history visit: .

Getting Started

Anandha Ray here. I am the Artistic Director of Moving Arts Dance (www.movingartsdance.org). This company tours internationally, and provides educational outreach... as well as daily classes at home in the Bay Area of California for the general public as well as at-risk families.

It has long been suggested that we "blog" our adventures... so here goes.

I have agreed to make this effort because it is my contention that the daily goings-on of this dance company life provide a rich look into the "culture" of humanness... capturing the greatness of humanity through artistic expression -at home and on the road.

Living in the artistic sub-culture called Moving Arts Dance, the dancers, directors and I strive to create dances that are
• on the "edge" of creative force... and that are what I call
• "dances of significance"... art as entertainment -rather than for the SAKE of entertaining.

The "family-life" that evloves from such a deeply connected artistic vision is compelling...
We strive for
• honesty
(artistic and personal),
• courage
(to take artistic risk, and to be honest),
• the absolutely new
(as we tour the world we take it all in, and embrace the artistic diversity in order to nourish the freshness that has become our own artistic style)...

and we intend to change the world... making dance a healthy environment that encourages professional artists who have developed their trade without developing anxieties and disorders!

I have learned that less is better... so short blogs will be attempted (though there's always so much to say, and short is relatively subjective -especially with my propensity to strive for "absolute").