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Seasons Greetings!

Our dear friends, it is with gratitude and joyous spirits that we wrap up 2016, driving into a new year. But before we share our exciting plans for 2017, let’s fall back to share what’s transpired in the past few months.

Across the pond in London–

Artistic Director, Sheron Wray directed and choreographed the production
Muhammad Ali and Me

The production was originally produced in 2008, and was restaged to tour this year, which coincides with Muhammad Ali’s death in June 2016.
Here is a fun trailer of the production.

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The tour premiered at The Albany, London, 6 – 15 October  | Press performance, 6 October, 7:30pm.

Following the Albany run, Muhammad Ali and Me goes on a nationwide tour of boxing gyms. The tour culminates in North West England in a special tour within-the-tour produced in association with idle women, the Lancashire-based organisation who create contemporary art with women. The tour will go to St Helens, Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley playing in boxing gyms, two of which are located in vast abandoned mills. idle women recently hosted a residency for Adebayo onboard the Selina Cooper, their floating arts centre on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal during which she attended a nearby boxing gym, learning Ali’s ‘moves’ from the UK’s only professional female boxing trainer.

Sheron Wray choreographed for a new musical, Something Inside Me So Strong  that opened The Arcola Theatre, September 6-8th.

Uplifting, surprising and witty, Something Inside So Strong is a bold new musical based on the songs of singer, songwriter and poet Labi Siffre.
Check out some of the young cast in rehearsal.

Sheron completed her PhD, confirmed December 8, 2016, from the University of Surrey. Dr Wray’s degree was awarded by the University of Surrey, U.K, with her research  supported by the U.K Arts and Humanities Research Council. The subject of her research was improvisation, manifest as Embodiology – her improvisation-as-performance method. She has already begun disseminating this praxis through the work of JazzXchange, The Martha Graham School and also through interdisciplinary research with UCI medical doctors and business school. Improvisation is a key to making one’s creative tangible in such ways that life can incrementally change and new possibilities can abound. Look out for more Embodiology workshops soon.

Check out this TEDx talk by Sheron Wray.

Back in Orange County–

JazzXchange presented a new work, Sacred Matters, choreographed by Shining Stars co-founder, Irishia Hubbard. The piece was selected to perform in the BlakTina Festival at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles on September 15-17th. Check out our first review
Shining Stars
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We are also very excited to announce that JazzXchange has officially adopted Shining Stars as part of our core programming for youth engagement. JazzXchange is cultivating a relationship with the non-profit, OCCTAC with plans to start regular Shining Stars classes at their location in Santa Ana in 2017.

A word from the Shining Stars’ co-founders…

2 years ago myself and partner Nicole Rivor had a vision to create an opportunity for low-income children to enhance their dance training experience. We wanted to ensure that these children had equal opportunities to achieve their dreams in dance and also promote the importance of higher education. With the guidance of Sheron Wray & JazzXchange we have been able to hold two successful summer programs and now we are able to continue sharing our love of dance with this amazing organization. Thank you JazzXchange for adopting us into your organization. We are honored and humbled.”
– Irishia Hubbard, Co-Founder & Artistic Director

 

“I am incredibly excited and honored for Shining Stars to be a part of JazzXchange’s youth outreach program. With JazzXchange’s strong foundation in the community, Shining Stars will have access to more tools and resources that will enable us to continue to empower the underserved youth of Orange County through our dance education programs. Be on the lookout for our upcoming satellite program at OCCTAC in Santa Ana and our annual summer dance program at UC Irvine!”
– Nicole Rivor, Co-Founder & Administrator

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As Shining Stars we engage children to think more deeply and even critically about issues in dance through discussions of body image, improvisation, and the various cultures of dance the world has to offer. We build long-lasting friendships across the community by giving participants a common connection: a love for dance. Our goal is to provide a unique dance experience that challenges children, and positively impacts them physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Coming to You in 2017…

JazzXchange dancer David Lee is choreographing a new piece to be premiered in Spring  2017.

Monthly Music and Dance Workshops with Joey Sellers starting in January. He has several performance events coming up this holiday season and into the new year!

Look forward to our contribution to the nations Jazz Appreciation Month celebration in April. We look forward to working with Darina Littleton, Jannet Galdamez, Ron Kobayashi, Joey Sellers and Dylan Romaine. Look out for events at The Packing House, UCI and  Cooks Chapel.

Sheron Wray also attended the Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute in July of this year. The purpose of the institute is to give training to the arts related professionals to equip them with tools to enable conversation to develop with the communities where we live, the underserved in particular. The observation was made that there are indeed white communities that are in need and for the larger part they are not being adequately served and this is important because it is in these places where disempowerment occurs that can easily trigger reactionary outcries of inequality.
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Three of JazzXchange’s core leaders will be attending the Urban Bush Women summer program in New York summer of 2017. We invite you to become an honorary Xchange Agent by helping us reach the goal of $10,000 to send Irishia, Nicole and Noelle to New York for this empowering experience.

11885057_10200817939006830_1169640341827181191_nNicole Rivor - Edited13509012_1453311871361351_4343911165122711799_n                              Irishia Hubbard                                 Nicole Rivor                                      Noelle White

501(c)(3)
Tax deductible donations accepted.
Please make checks payable to:
JazzXchange
1007 Gabrielino Dr
Irvine, CA 92617

Check out a sneak peak of Irishia Hubbard’s “Sacred Matters” performing at the BlakTina Festival next weekend!

Performing next Friday & Saturday at 7:30pm in LA!
Get your tickets at www.bootlegtheater.org
$15 tickets, keyword: “dancer”

sneak peak of @irish_hubb piece "scared matters" performing @blaktinadance next week!

A video posted by JazzXchange (@jazzxchange) on

Joey Sellers Joins JazzXchange!

New enterprises for exploration are afoot at JazzXchange. Bringing his insight from an long and impressive career of freelance trombone and piano playing, arranging and composing for big Jazz names such as Doc Severinsen and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Conrad Herwig, Dave Liebman, we welcome Joey Sellers to the JazzXchange family for exciting new projects that will be announced officially in the coming months.

Sellers was assistant professor of music at Northern Illinois University from 1999 to 2002 and he is currently Director of Jazz Studies at Saddleback College.

JazzXchange Director and Founder Sheron Wray and Sellers will synergize their expertise in a collaborative investigation fueled by their mutual curiosity about the relationship between jazz dance and jazz music. Through embodied research and interdisciplinary interplay, Wray and Sellers will search for a transformative paradigm that returns Jazz to its dance music roots.

For more on Joey, check out his website.

Welcome Joey!

We are offering a student discount for our upcoming show Jazz: The House that America Built on June 23rd! You won’t want to miss this opportunity! It’s showing one night only!

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This upcoming Wednesday from 5-6pm on the radio station KUCI, Artistic Director, Sheron Wray will be interviewed about our upcoming event “Jazz: the House that America Built”. Please tune in to hear more about the programmed show and the non-profit JazzXchange!

Jazz: The House That America Built

Join us at the Camino Real Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano, CA!

Envision a nation without division; this is – Jazz: The House that America Built. While many people perceive jazz as a 20th century musical phenomena, JazzXchange exists to show audiences how the art of jazz continues to be a space for 21st century innovation; a space where diverse communities come together through art, in the moment, to create anew.

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Get Ticket$ Now!

Learn more about the Camino Real Playhouse

Receive Discounts on Local Dining

One Night Only…

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Jazz is a process of creation which embraces difference melded together through a commitment to swing into time. It has always represented a multitude of nationalities that make up the United States and this JazzXchange performance embodies exactly this. Visibly, artists from different ethnicities create together.

Jazz music and jazz dancing are American inventions; each exists because of the other, embracing uncertainty with dynamism in surprising new ways. JazzXchange brings together six dancers, three musicians and three spoken word artists who combine their talents to create an inspired evening of musical performance. Join us, as we navigate through “Jazz: the House that America Built,” and witness the intimate connections between cross artform dialogue, insightful improvisation, and soulful expression. Led by Artistic Director Sheron Wray, the artists include, Mark W, The Dylan Romaine Trio, Makeda Kumasi and Jamielle Rankin.

 

The program also includes a new work-in-progress from the OC choreographer Leann Alduenda. Leann is delighted to be the newly appointed Assistant Professor of Dance at Santa Ana College and is an adjunct faculty at Chapman University. Leann was the Artistic Director of the Jimmie DeFore Dance Center for 15 years, where she taught technique and performance classes, headed the teen performance company, and co-directed the scholarship program. She is currently still an instructor there and co-directs the faculty choreography showcase “PULSE” each January.

Watch the JazzXchange Trailer! 

Mark your calendars for June 23rd! We would love to share our latest works with you.

 

Here are some photos from JamXchange that took place on April 30th.

 

 

Jamielle Rankine is a Jamaican born Fashion Designer, Motivational Speaker and Poet. Born in the

ghetto of Kingston, Jamielle learned from an early age that life was not always a bed of roses. Her family

shortly moved to a middle class neighborhood which allowed her the privilege to attend prestigious

elementary and secondary schools, where her love for writing began, and living in a household of mostly

women, she learned of heartache, beauty and the power and strength of a woman.

Jamielle and her family moved to the United States in 2008 and settled in New York. A city filled with

so many creative individuals, and lovers of fashion. This move sparked her always existing passion for

fashion and beauty and she, after failing an attempt as a Marketing Major at Broome Community

College, began working as a stylist. This grew to wanting a career in Fashion Design, and after starting

her family Jamielle, then moved to California and later earned an Associate of Arts Degree in fashion

design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).

After figuring out what she loved to do, Jamielle ventured into volunteering and now teaches at the

Precious Life Shelter a class called “Finding Fashion and Yourself”, for women who are homeless and

pregnant along with mentoring some of the women there. She began to seek God after her calling, and

that lead her to writing her experiences in the form of poetry. Each gift gifted was being used. Using her

pain, misfortune, happiness, and overcoming sprit, to inspire the people around her. Jamielle now does

freelance designing and is working on her own collection of clothing called “MUMA”. She continues to

motivate others and hopes to become an author of a book of poetry, and an auto biography, in hopes of

allowing God to use her to inspire others with her story.

Meet Jamielle Saturday April 30th at JamXchange!