Dance and politics mix; a spring fling in Framingham
When Erin Dunn says she started dancing early in life, she means it. At age 2, the soon-to-be-budding ballerina once snuck away from naptime at a day-care center and into a dance class. She was escorted out, but later that night, she and her mother saw the dance teacher at a store, and Dunn did what determined toddlers do best.
''I got down on my hands and knees and begged her to teach me," says Dunn, who now lives in Franklin. ''But she looked at my mother and said, 'I'm sorry I can't take her. She has to be out of diapers.' So two weeks later, I was potty trained, out of diapers, and ready to dance."
Dunn joined the class, made her debut at 3 with a performance she says was ''cute but lacked technique," and continued on her precocious path. By 9, she made junior principal dancer with the Denton Civic Ballet in her home state of Texas. At 12, she joined the Spitzer Dance Company, now based in Atlanta. At 15, the home-schooler completed high school. And, now, the 17-year-old calls herself the Madd Tapper and has a new one-woman show.
''Short, Loud, Will Work for Food," which Dunn performs tomorrow in Franklin, is a fiercely political, high-energy, tap-dance performance piece. It's her way of ''fighting injustice one rhythm at a time."
Dunn rates the show PG-13. ''I'm very in-your-face. I really hit strong notes and use strong words, not curse words but powerful words that make you think about political issues," she says. Topics she taps through include gay marriage, sex education, racism, oppression, war, and guns. She also makes the case for equal voting rights for teens.
That Dunn would pair prose with her dancing makes sense. The daughter of screenplay and magazine writers Si and Connie Dunn, she grew up channeling her thoughts into print, be it poems, an online magazine, or her own unpublished screenplay. It was tap master Buster Cooper's granddaughter Keira Leverton, however, who inspired the fusion of her artistic and political passions.
''She taught me rhythm tap and helped me channel my anger into my tapping," she says. ''But I didn't get my start in political activism until about a year and a half ago, when I did a piece for ''The Vagina Monologues" in Fort Worth, Texas. I was having trouble with it, but then I put on my tap shoes. That was when I first realized I could put political speech with my dancing."
Some audience members recalled the wood stage smelled distinctly burned by the time Dunn finished furiously tapping. A few months later, during another tap act, someone shouted out, ''Hey, dude, you're one mad tapper," and the name lives on.
Since then, Dunn has developed numerous tap monologues, including a piece on high school shootings. For now, she has no plans to attend college. ''Dancing is my passion, and I'm really determined to make a living at it" by performing and giving private lessons, she says.
This fall, she performs with Spitzer, where she remains the youngest member of the company. As for the Madd Tapper, Dunn is trying to raise money for a national tour next year.
Dunn performs at 8 p.m. April 15 at the First Universalist Society Meetinghouse, 262 Chestnut St., Franklin. Tickets are $8. Call 508-498-1344 or visit themaddtapper.tripod.com.
A SPRING START FOR THE ARTS -- Five weeks of arts events kick off this Monday in Framingham as part of Spring into Arts activities. More than 20 arts organizations and artists are putting on 50 events ranging from blues, Latin, folk, and opera concerts to art exhibits, dance, theater, workshops, and cultural festivals.
The effort is the first major activity of the START Framingham Partnership, which was formed three years to promote and link together local artists.
''Some of the Spring into Arts events already were happening every year, but by pulling them all together under this one banner, we've inspired new events as well, like the all-day Brazilian Festival," says Spring into Arts chairwoman Judy Riegelhaupt of Framingham. ''It has created a spirit. People really want to do more to make Framingham a center of arts and cultural activities."
To get the word out, the partnership distributed 10,000 Spring into Arts schedules. Some 5,000 fliers were sent home with students, and T-shirts, buttons, banners, and lawn signs are being handed out as well.
''The hope is that when people see our logo, they will immediately know something good is going on that they should attend," says Riegelhaupt. ''Framingham has every form of art you can think of, but nobody saw it as a whole before."
The fun starts Monday, Marathon Day, with the annual free Multi-Cultural Fair, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Nevins Hall, 150 Concord St. Also on Monday are free Gaucho dancing and Brazilian music from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, 140 Pearl St., and free family arts activities, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Danforth Museum, 123 Union Ave.
Highlights in the coming weeks include a new all-day Brazilian Festival at Dennison Hall on April 23, concerts by Tom Rush, classical pianist Alpin Hong, and ''A Tribute to Mambo Latin Jazz" with Eguie Castillo. For a schedule, visit http://www.framingham.com/start/spring_art_2005/.
ORCHESTRATING A FESTIVAL -- In the early, heady days of Brandeis University, Leonard Bernstein made his mark on the school. As a faculty member from 1951 to 1955, the composer and conductor encouraged inquiry in the arts, and his crowning effort was the arts festival he founded in 1952 to accompany the school's first commencement.
The roster of participants was impressive. Modern dance master Merce Cunningham performed, and poet great William Carlos Williams read. Bernstein premiered his opera ''Trouble in Tahiti," and German stage and film star Lotte Lenya sang in the English premiere of Kurt Weill's ''Threepenny Opera."
''It was a way to announce this new university to the world," says Scott Edmiston, director of the Office of the Arts at the Waltham university. ''One of the reasons why so many of those great artists came for that first festival was that Brandeis, in its founding, decided it wanted the arts fully integrated into the university experience. At that time, many universities saw the arts as clubs or extracurricular frills, like the drama club or glee club, and Brandeis had a philosophy that art should be treated as seriously and meaningfully as the sciences, social sciences, and humanities."
To no one's surprise, the event was a success, and it continues to this day, albeit with a greater emphasis on local talent. A highlight of this year's five-day festival, which started yesterday, is Sunday's new First Night-style festival, which features 150 performers.
Area artists taking part include the Actor's Shakespeare Project, vocal ensemble Boston Secession, the Boston Opera Project, cabaret group Queer Soup, and street artist Sidewalk Sam. Bounce around campus and you'll find an abundance of events ranging from classical music and swing dance to avant-garde theater and Boris the comic chef.
Sunday events run from noon to 5 at Brandeis, 415 South St., Waltham, and are free. For details, call 781-736-5008 or visit www.brandeis.edu/arts/festival/.
ELEMENTS OF NYC -- Four artists living in humming, hectic, ever-alive New York City have joined to present work inspired by their home turf. ''Icograms," which runs through May 21 at the New Art Center in Newton, takes on the metropolis as a metaphor for modern civilization.
The exhibit, curated by Clay Hensley and Anthony Smith Jr., who both take part in the show, features artists whose work takes on elements of their surroundings.
Smith, who works as a research clerk for The New York Times, captures the hubbub of Times Square in his Crayola-bright, frenetic paintings.
Carlos Ancalmo contributes sculptures that juxtapose a sole tiny figure with abstract environments, sometimes as simple as a suspended, inverted milk crate. ''His work has a heightened sense of delicacy," says Smith.
Queens-based artist Rie Oishi's projected video piece unites the show in sound with a soundtrack that captures the sea of noise in the city.
''Icograms" runs through May 21 at the New Art Center, 61 Washington Park, Newton. Call 617-964-3424 or visit www.newartcenter.org. News of arts-related events may be sent to westarts@globe.com.
