Jasper Watches
Filmmaker Wade Sellers is no spring chicken as the saying goes, but he’s still pretty youthful in appearance and manner, and he has a mischievous look about him that communicates the kind of curiosity that can either mean trouble or brilliance. Or both. It’s not hard to imagine him 30 years younger, rummaging around West Columbia with his father’s Super 8 camera, making movies and enlisting his friends to star in them and create the sets.... Read More
Terrance Henderson and the Power to Evolve
By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley You may know him as the artistic director of Vibrations Dance Company, the founder of Dimensions Dance Festival, director of Trustus Theatre’s recent production of “Smokey Joe’s Café,” or as teacher at Columbia Ballet School, Southeastern School of Ballet, or Logan Elementary. You may admire him for his stunningly honest choreography, intense joy of life, gravity-defying movement, or his big ideas for the arts in Columbia.... Read More
Susan Lenz Aims to Leave the Art World in Stitches. Really.
by Susan Levi Wallach At 5 o’clock on an evening in December, Susan Lenz is in Mouse House going through framing options with a customer. Their conversation moves quickly through a range of topics, then segues into a discussion of a work on display, which the woman admires. Like many of the pieces for sale in the Park Street frame store and gallery, the piece – an elaborate multicolored textile that manages to resemble stained glass, a disintegrating... Read More
Stacey Calvert – Columbia’s Dance Connection?
By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley When Stacey Calvert was 15-years-old, she was one of a very few young dancers selected from literally thousands to attend the prestigious year-round program at the School of American Ballet in New York City. When her mother, Naomi Calvert, one half of the famed Calvert Brodie School of Dance in Columbia, South Carolina, told her she could not go, she quit. For nine months, the stubborn young Calvert was a cheerleader instead... Read More
Special: Artist Bruce Nellsmith Writes About Six Women Who Make a Difference in Columbia Arts
This article focuses on six women who have made significant contributions to the Greater Columbia Arts Community. I chose these women, from a long list of equally qualified candidates, because of their tireless commitment to the arts and their community. Next year, it will be another artist’s opportunity to select six accomplished and illustrious women. But for this year, it was my honor. “While surrounded by America’s perfect storm of unaccountability... Read More
Service is the New Muse
Service is the New Muse By Michaela Pilar Brown There is a singular kind of magic that occurs when you witness someone being transformed by an experience with your art. It is a singular moment when you understand that you as an artist have the power to invoke meaningful change in the life of another. For most artists, choosing art as a career is a different kind of singularity. It is often a choice to live inside one’s own head, to spend... Read More
Ron Rash – The Great Joy of Reading Southern Writing
By Cynthia Boiter Ron Rash speaks the way he writes, with a voice that is rich with history, low and close to the earth, reflecting the humble wisdom that comes from learning from the past and listening to the lessons of nature and the stories of one’s ancestors. A father, teacher, husband, poet, Rash is, above all, a gifted wordsmith who wraps his words around his readers with tender precision. Born in Chester, South Carolina, Rash’s people,... Read More
South Carolina Hip-Hop on the National Stage
by Preach Jacobs The producer known as WillPower has only been in town for a couple of hours, but it’s already apparent that it’s going to be a long night. William Washington (also known as WillPower or Supahot Beats) has been working feverishly for this day: A hometown showcase of his most frequent collaborator, singer Nikkiya (full name Nikkiya Brooks), at the New Brookland Tavern. The show is of the upmost importance to Washington, who hopes... Read More
Off Pointe and Into the World – Costume Designer Alexis Doktor
by Susan Levi Wallach Twelve weeks after dancing the role of Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty, the Columbia City Ballet’s season finale – which also is twelve weeks into her retirement as a ballet dancer – Alexis Doktor is thinking that the only thing better than being a dancer is not being a dancer. “I never liked ballet class,” she says over midmorning coffee. “I never liked the rehearsal process or anything in the studio. I’m not going... Read More
Natalie Brown – Keeping the Circus Going
By Cynthia Boiter Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don’t take anything too seriously, it’ll all work out in the end. — David Niven Many years ago, and certainly before Columbia performing artist Natalie Brown was born, there was a game show which ran on the CBS network from 1950 until 1967 called What’s My Line? The point of the program was for four regularly appearing celebrity panelists to try to guess... Read More
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