[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] ballet, kids and Art, Forehead Retina System, film

[Lisa Yayla]

links
unsure if sent before,
Blind Kids Art - Helping Blind and Visually Impaired Children, but 
sending link to article 
http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=591251
link to Blind Kids Art website
http://www.blindkidsart.org/

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060812/LIVING/608120327/1004/LIVING&theme=

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/04/26/1611610.htm

excerpt
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/film/reviews/boys-briefs-4-six-short-films-about-guys-who-hustle-2006
In Gold, the aging, nearly blind artist Cal (Aron Tager) employs hustler 
Jay (P.J. Lazic) not for his body, but to assist him in painting new 
canvases; in teaching Jay about passion and beauty, he leads the young 
man to a kind of salvation.



excerpt

"Hearing the voice of nature is how one gets clear. I walk/pedal out 
with my palette table, and I am met by dreams I have had returning to me 
in the flesh. At such points, I feel lucky beyond measure," he said in 
his artist statement. "The knowledge of how to paint them is not in my 
head but in my hand. I have to paint by feel and sound, as if I was 
blind. It is amazing how much the gift of sight controls, edits and 
ultimately obscures our experience."



excerpt
Forehead Retina System

Contact: Hiroyuki Kajimoto, The University of Tokyo

A small camera and 512 forehead-mounted electrodes capture the frontal 
view, extract outlines, and convert the data to tactile electrical 
stimulation. The system is primarily designed for the visually impaired, 
but it can be a third eye for users with normal sight. The device will 
be perfected in the near future so that it can be used by a blind 
marathon runner in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

Potential Future Use: Provide the visually impaired an inexpensive, 
lightweight, and fully functional system that provides rich, dynamic 2D 
information.

article

Making moves on the dance
Neophytes of all ages and sizes discover the thrill of classical 
movement Connecting body with spirit is a new allure of dance, writes 
Susan Walker


In a church hall near St. Clair Ave. W. and Bathurst St., nearly 30 
women of varying ages, shapes and sizes (and one lone man) are following 
Martha Randall's choreographed routines.

They are barefoot and happy, kicking out, breathing rhythmically and 
moving like real dancers under the tutelage of Randall, who teaches six 
such sessions each week.

Professional dancers attend a dance class every day to keep themselves 
in shape. They go because they have to. But a growing group of 
professional dance teachers like Randall are training ordinary stiffs in 
the rigours of modern dance, ballet and jazz for the pure satisfaction 
and self-improvement afforded by the art form.

Randall teaches a technique called Nia. Offered in classes throughout 
the GTA, it's designed to enhance both mental and physical fitness. Nia 
reveals the way that dance helps mend broken connections between mind 
and body.

"I was absolutely hooked after the first class. I always come out 
feeling better, happier, feeling more optimistic about the day and 
myself," says Nia enthusiast Jan Marriott, 65.

"Nia is to exercise what holistic medicine is to health care. Nia is 
movement as medicine," says the official website for this increasingly 
popular activity.

Proponents of this dance/martial arts/healing practice swear by it. 
Developed nearly 25 years ago by Debbie and Carlos Rosas, fitness 
instructors in Portland, Ore., Nia is an acronym for Neuromuscular 
Integrative Action. It's also a Swahili word meaning "with purpose." The 
technique is a fusion of Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, T'ai Chi, jazz and modern 
dance, Isadora Duncan dance technique, yoga, the Feldenkrais Method and 
Alexander Technique.

"Nia is teaching that kind of mindful movement," says Randall, an 
independent dancer who trained at York University. "There's a balance 
between form and freedom. Always the invitation is to do it your way, 
the way your body wants to adapt to the movements. I call it cross-training.

"There are yin and yang elements in each class, moments of stillness, 
and then it gets wild and crazy. The martial arts give you a chance to 
be fierce. The non-linear movement develops your body awareness and 
emotional awareness. But it's not too warm and fuzzy. Nia classes really 
focus the mind, so people can develop some skills."

Marriott discovered Nia after an ankle injury. "I was looking for an 
exercise class I enjoyed because I love to dance, but Nia has given me a 
lot more than that."

A dealer in vintage textiles, Marriott says Nia keeps her creative side 
alive. "You become a lot less self-conscious. Martha's classes have a 
lot of people from the theatre and the arts."

Randall has even had professional dancers in her classes. "They are 
older dancers who can't bear to go to a technique class, but need to 
keep moving." Others new to dance come, she says, "out of a deep longing 
to feel more grace and connection with their bodies. They discover 
something of what drives dancers to stay in a poorly paid, punishing art 
form. Once we've opened our hearts to music, it's hard to stop."

Most of the participants in Rebecca Hope Terry's dance classes have 
never seen anyone dance, let alone experienced dance themselves. In the 
second year of her Explorers Project — classes for the blind and 
visually impaired — Terry, an independent dancer, choreographer and 
writer, has learned a few new things about dance.

She was first motivated by the role all of our senses play in the 
creation and performance of dance. "I would notice when I danced and 
didn't wear my contact lenses that there's a completely different 
sensation, because you have to go completely into your body."

With support for the project from the Ontario Arts Council, Terry sought 
students through the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and a 
community organization for the blind and visually impaired. Last fall 
she had 10 participants. This session, in the Spadina Ave. studio that 
houses Terry's The Moving Company, the class is larger.

A former member of the contemporary company Dancemakers, Terry teaches 
the participants modern dance, even a few ballet positions, but has been 
adapting her teaching techniques for the non-sighted. "I actually took a 
lot of principles from Butoh(the Japanese modern dance form), because 
Butoh is very internal."

The class has the help of two assistants, dancers who guide the students 
through the movements. What they can't see is sometimes demonstrated by 
having students place their hands on a sighted dancer's hips to follow 
their steps.

Martin Courcelles is a repeat participant. "I've been improving my 
flexibility," he says. "It seems to energize you at the same time as 
relaxing you. I get out of there and seem to have more energy than when 
I came in."

Courcelles asks a lot of questions and has developed a strong interest 
in the art form. He mentions a ballet program in Britain: a 
"touchy-feely" night when the blind are invited to come in and have 
hands-on contact with performers as they demonstrate moves.

Wanda Fitzgerald, a member of the Glenvale Players, a troupe of blind 
actors, finds dance classes "bring out another layer of creativity and 
awareness of your body. Learning to dance builds your strength, in your 
feet especially." Currently directing a film, Fitzgerald has found ways 
to use what she has learned: "It has helped me incorporate movement 
sequences into things I've written."

The advantage of sticking to a dance syllabus, says teacher Terry, is 
"They need form ... otherwise they're just lost in space." She has 
introduced some basic yoga and elements of contact improvisational 
dance. Her current session will conclude with a performance in the 
studio. Participation is optional.

Terry's blind students, she says, "have taught me that they're not any 
different from other adults learning to dance. But there are always a 
number of moments in each class when I'm completely blown away and moved."

Dorothy Gordon took up ballet when she was 71. She has progressed to the 
intermediate level at Dance Teq, which operates six days a week in the 
studios of the National Ballet of Canada's centre on Queens Quay W. 
Gordon, now 80, travels from Brampton three times a week to stand at the 
barre, perfecting her technique and then getting in a few jumps and 
airborne strides at the end of class.

"I just love dance, and I've always done it," says Gordon, who is 
retired from her family's hydraulics business, "but ballet is the most 
mentally difficult form of dance I've ever done.

"It's difficult but it's possible and you can improve." The payoff shows 
in her toned physique: she feels younger and she looks it, too.

Dance Teq owner and director Kevin Pugh, who danced with the National 
Ballet from 1978-91, still teaches class to professional ballet dancers. 
But he's found an unexpected joy in watching the amateurs apply 
themselves to the discipline. Now in its ninth year and offering 30 
classes a week in ballet, jazz, modern and, this summer, Uygur folkloric 
dance from the traditions of China's largest province, Dance Teq serves 
a wide constituency. Its drop-in classes are taught by performers both 
active and retired, including Martine Lamy, Robert Glumbek, Johanna 
Bergfeldt and Pugh himself.

"People thank me for making their lives happy," says Pugh. "They love 
the teachers, they love the pianists. It's a family atmosphere.

"I almost gave up on life when I stopped dancing. But this is reaching 
out to people and touching them in another way."

Athletes, especially skaters, are among Dance Teq's clientele. Champion 
figure skater Jeff Buttle is a regular, as are a number of Asian skaters 
on the international circuit. "It keeps their brain fresh," says teacher 
Cindy Macedo, a National Ballet dancer from 1982-94. "It helps them 
learn new things and they have to use both sides of their bodies. 
Skaters only jump and spin in one direction. They can become quite 
lopsided."

In Macedo's experience, "ballet takes a unique personality. It's for 
people who like to pay attention to detail, and it takes a lot of brain 
work and concentration. But it also encompasses the whole body, and it's 
like yoga in its meditativeness."

Dance Teq participants leave for home feeling younger, looser, more 
limber and more relaxed. And, probably, just a bit thrilled that they've 
been up on their toes at the same barre as ballet stars like Sonia 
Rodriguez or Aleksandar Antonijevic.

For more information on Dance Teq, call 416-361-9498 or see 
http://www.danceteq.com.

See http://www.niadancer.com for information on Martha Randall's Nia 
classes, or http://www.niac.ca for other Nia classes in Ontario.


excerpt

ARTWORKS GETS CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

Visionaries and Voices artists will feature artwork in restrooms in 
their around-the-town exhibition "Room with a View." Visionaries and 
Voices is a nonprofit art studio for artists with disabilities.

The exhibition will be on display at restrooms in Wild Oats Natural 
Marketplace in Mason and Norwood, Shake it Records in Hamilton, 
Sidewinder Coffee and Tea in Hamilton and the Visionaries and Voices 
studio restroom in Essex Studios, Walnut Hills.