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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

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.

 

Featured Choreographer and Dance Photographer:

Irven Lewis

A United Kingdom dancer, choreographer, and dance photographer, Irven Lewis has an unique ability to bridge gaps and fuse urban dance styles with classical forms in an enjoyable way. Irven’s first experience of dance was through the local community center in Leeds. There was no formal dance training but he observed and experimented with the improvisational street jazz styles being developed.

After Dancing and performing in local shows in Leeds, Irven auditioned for the Urdang Academy in Covent Garden winning a three-year scholarship. Upon leaving his training at the Academy, Irven Lewis created the company, Brothers in Jazz. The company uniquely combined British Street Jazz with classical techniques, giving the company’s style an edge.  It was the foundation of Be-bopdance, a mixture of Nicholas Brother style Jazz combined with Ballet, Contemporary and the dancers’ own quick and precise footwork with expansive mambo movement.

After touring extensively with Brothers in Jazz, Irven broke away from the company to found his new company, Irven Lewis Dance Theatre. Irven then started exploring the traditions of Jamaican culture passed on to the new generations in the UK from a different perspective. Instead of representing tradition through existing dance forms, he is now exploring a dance language that emerges from the communications of young Britons with Jamaican heritage. The rhythms of conversation along with dynamics and spatials form of body expressions inform the dancer, which merges into physical theater and text. Irven Dance Theatre has performed and toured nationally and internationally.

His work’s include a residency with Bucks dance Step Afrika UK, a 6 week community project as part of the Sadler’s Wells Community Dance Showcase, and Rhythm Blast residency for Free Summer on the South Bank. Irven is also engaged in a 3-year relationship with Derby Dance in collaboration with Punch Records.  Irven also received an Arts Council England Continuing Professional Development Award under Pro-Motion and a Trailblazer Fellowship from Dance UK and ADAD.

 

 

https://youtu.be/9QIG181SIxc